FIU Law Review Volume 5 Number 2 Article 13 Spring 2010 The Vanishing Employee: Putting the Autonomous Dignified Union Worker Back to Work Anne Marie Lofaso West Virginia University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://ecollections.law.fiu.edu/lawreview Part of the Other Law Commons Online ISSN: 2643-7759 Recommended Citation Anne M. Lofaso, The Vanishing Employee: Putting the Autonomous Dignified Union orkW er Back to Work, 5 FIU L. Rev. 495 (2010). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.25148/lawrev.5.2.13 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by eCollections. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Law Review by an authorized editor of eCollections. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Vanishing Employee: Putting the Autonomous Dignified Union Worker Back to Work Anne Marie Lofaso* I. INTRODUCTION At age seventy-five, some are wondering, Whither the Board? What does the future hold for the National Labor Relations Board, that New Deal, inside-the-belt, administrative agency tasked by Congress with administer- ing the National Labor Relations Act?1 Florida International University Law Review asks this question at a significant juncture in the NLRB’s histo- ry. At the time this symposium took place,2 the normally five-member Board had been operating since December 31, 2007, that is, for 817 days, with only two members – Democratic Chairman Wilma Liebman and Republican Member Peter Schaumber – who during that time decided almost 600 cases.3 After operating for over two years under questionable authority,4 the NLRB became whole again when President Obama appoint- ed Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, democrats with union backgrounds, to the Board only hours after the March 27, 2010, close of this symposium.5 * Anne Marie Lofaso is an Associate Professor at West Virginia University College of Law.