A federal judge permanently struck down New York's attempt at a state-level replacement for the National Labor Relations Board while the latter was without a quorum.
The ruling: U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee of the Eastern District of New York granted Amazon's motion for summary judgment on Monday, making permanent a preliminary injunction he issued last November against New York's so-called "NLRB trigger" law.
"No matter how defendants frame their argument, they are ultimately asking the Court to overrule or, invent a new exception to the preemption doctrine laid out by the Supreme Court," Komitee ruled. The court held that the law was squarely preempted by the National Labor Relations Act under the Supreme Court's 1959 Garmon decision.
Stepping in for the NLRB: The law, NY S 8034-A, empowered New York's Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to oversee union elections and adjudicate unfair labor practice charges whenever the NLRB was "unable" to do so—a workaround designed to fill the void left by the federal board's then lack of a quorum.
Why it matters: Komitee's ruling reaffirms that private-sector labor relations remain the exclusive province of federal law, even when the federal agency charged with enforcing that law is effectively out of commission.
The bigger picture: California and Washington have passed similar laws, and Massachusetts is weighing its own. This decision points to the same outcome in those states, likely closing off a patchwork of different state approaches to labor relations – for now.
Looking ahead: Federal partisanship and the President's newly minted authority to terminate NLRB members at will mean the Board quorum issues are likely to continue. Add in lawsuits challenging the Board's existence and states will keep stepping into labor law issues wherever they can.
