Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema Sink Biden’s Labor Nominee In Major Setback For Unions

President Joe Biden and his pro-union agenda suffered a major setback Wednesday when the Senate narrowly voted against advancing his nominee to the National Labor Relations Board.

Lauren McFerran, the labor board’s current chair, was nominated to serve another term at the agency that would stretch until mid-2026. Her confirmation could have ensured the board had a Democratic majority well into President-elect Donald Trump’s term, preventing it from moving quickly in an anti-union direction.

But the Democratic-led Senate voted 49-50 against moving her nomination forward after independent Sens. Joe Manchin (W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) joined Republicans in opposing her.

The failed nomination will leave Trump with a chance to install a Republican majority at the labor board after the GOP takes control of the Senate and he assumes the White House in January.

Republicans and business groups celebrated the turn of events.

“This NLRB seat should be filled by President Trump and the new incoming Senate,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking Republican on the Senate’s labor committee, said in a statement. “Not a historically unpopular president and a Senate Democrat Majority that has lost its mandate to govern.”

The NLRB investigates union-busting allegations and enforces collective bargaining law in the private sector. Its five-member board hears cases on appeal and issues precedent-setting decisions that can shape how strong or weak unions are in the U.S. economy.

McFerran’s nomination gave unions hope that the board’s labor-friendly bent might persist for a couple of years into the next Trump era, before the incoming president could reverse its trajectory. Trump’s picks for the NLRB during his first term tended to side with businesses against workers and unions.

The AFL-CIO labor federation had been urging union members and supporters to call their senators and pressure them to vote in McFerran’s favor. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had said confirming McFerran was a priority heading into the holidays.

Manchin told reporters after the vote that he opposed McFerran’s nomination because of her position on the “joint employer” issue — that is, determining when more than one company might be responsible for employees’ working conditions.

McFerran’s board issued a new rule last year taking a more expansive view of joint employment than the Trump board, making it more likely that big companies like McDonald’s could be held responsible for unfair labor practices involving their franchisees or subcontractors. Powerful business groups had opposed the rule.

Manchin had voiced concerns about the joint employer rule in the past.

“This is not a surprise to anyone,” the senator told HuffPost of his vote.

The board under McFerran has issued a number of rulings aimed at expanding workers’ rights and making it easier to form unions. But if Trump were to nominate anti-union board members, many of those rulings could eventually be overturned.

Schumer said in a statement that McFerran had deserved another term.

“It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee — with a proven track record of protecting worker rights — did not have the votes,” the majority leader said in a statement.