In today’s news and commentaries, NLRB sues Wells Fargo for preventing fair union election, Trump fires Federal Labor Relations Authority Chairwoman Susan Tsui Grundmann despite independent agency’s for-cause removal protection, and IBEW utility workers for National Grid are set to strike.

The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Wells Fargo & Co. accusing the bank of preventing a fair union election at a branch in Atwater, California by threatening and retaliating against employees. Although a majority of the branch employees signed union cards in December 2023 in support of unionizing with Communications Workers of America, the unionization vote failed in an election held in 2024. The NLRB alleges that Wells Fargo management, leading up to the election, told staff that they knew an employee was talking to coworkers about unionizing, that the company will be watching them via camera surveillance, and if the staff were involved with union efforts, the bank would stop being lenient and require they work longer shifts. Citing the Biden-Era Cemex decision, the NLRB is seeking to require Wells Fargo to recognize and negotiate with the union despite the election outcome given the alleged unionization support among the workers and the company’s unlawful coercion.

President Trump fired Biden-appointed and Senate-confirmed Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) Chairwoman Susan Tsui Grundmann. FLRA members are tasked with overseeing labor relations between the federal agencies and its employees. The independent agency’s members can only be removed by the president “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office” and must receive a hearing first.” Chair Grundmann’s term was not set to expire until July 2025, and her discharge without cause marks the first time a president has fired an FLRA board member since the agency’s founding in 1974.

With their contracts expiring at the end of day Thursday, IBEW utility workers for National Grid have voted 409-to-6 to authorize a strike at gas power plants in the New York area if the multinational company does not negotiate a new contract by midnight on Friday, February 14. 99 percent of IBEW 1049 members in attendance at the union meeting voted in favor of strike authorization. The union represents roughly 1,200 National Grid natural gas workers.