Press Releases

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, today called on National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Richard Griffin to abandon his partisan agenda or step down immediately. 

Earlier this week, Griffin issued a memo concluding that Division I scholarship football players at private colleges and universities are employees under the National Labor Relations Act. This decision would have devastating consequences for students and academic institutions, and it is just the latest in Griffin’s long-history of pushing a pro-union agenda.

In response, Chairwoman Foxx and Chairman Walberg issued the following joint statement:

Last November, the American people demanded real change from Washington. They rejected the failed status quo that puts powerful special interests before the best interests of working families and small businesses. Richard Griffin is refusing to accept the lessons of the last election. 

This partisan memorandum puts the interests of union leaders over America’s students, and it has the potential to create significant confusion at college campuses across the nation. It’s an affront to hardworking Americans for Griffin to double down on his extreme, Big Labor agenda, especially at a time when a new president is entitled to move the NLRB in a new direction. 

Griffin should respect the will of the American people and rescind this memorandum immediately. If he is unwilling to set aside his extreme and partisan agenda, then he should step aside as general counsel.