In today’s news and commentary, Trump’s NLRB nominee is set for a Senate vote, a federal district court grants a partial win on WARN Act claims, and Brigham and Women’s nurses return to work. 

Yesterday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions voted along party lines to advance President Trump’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominee, James Macy, to a Senate floor confirmation vote. The committee also voted to advance the renomination of current Democratic Board member David Prouty. As Elias reported last week, Macy moved through his committee hearing without much resistance. If confirmed, Macy would become the third and final Republican member needed to secure the Board’s Republican majority and likely revisit Biden-era Board precedent, as I discussed last month. The Senate must confirm at least one of the NLRB nominees before Prouty’s current term ends on August 27, or the Board will lose its quorum to hear cases again. The Senate is also set to enter recess on August 7, making the window for maintaining quorum even tighter. 

On Monday, a federal district court allowed former Scribe Media LLC employees to proceed with their claims that the company violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by laying them off without the required 60 days’ notice. Judge David Alan Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas concluded that a genuine dispute of material fact remained as to whether Scribe was an employer covered by the WARN Act’s employee-threshold requirements, precluding summary judgment on that issue. However, the court also dismissed the workers’ claims against Bond Financial Technologies Holdings LLC and other entities that later acquired Scribe, finding they could not be held liable as they purchased Scribe months after the layoffs and did not operate as its successor. As a result, only Scribe may be liable for any damages if the employees ultimately prevail. 

Also on Monday, thousands of nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston returned to work, ending the largest nursing strike in Massachusetts history. The nurses walked off the picket line after a one-day strike on Wednesday, July 8 followed by a four-day lockout, which Elias reported on last Friday. The hospital brought in 1,300 replacement nurses to cover shifts during the lockout. The strike ended without a contract, but nurses indicated they are willing to strike again “if [they’re] forced to” by management. The nurses’ stated primary concern remains safe patient care.