WASHINGTON – Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) issued the following statement in response to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Inspector General David Berry’s audit which exposed the agency’s pattern of misconduct through its improper administration of mail ballot elections:
“The National Labor Relations Board Inspector General audit of mail ballot elections confirms what the Committee already knows: the Board, led by Chairman McFerran, is grossly mismanaged. The Inspector General found that the Board failed to comply with existing mail ballot procedures and, worse, has failed to acknowledge publicly its misconduct in administering mail ballot elections or to release a plan to the public on how it plans to remedy these problems. By refusing to own up to its failures, the NLRB has created immense uncertainty for parties involved in union representation elections and undermined the Board’s integrity.”
Background:
March 22, 2023: Chairwoman Foxx issued a subpoena to an NLRB whistleblower, the Assistant to the Regional Director for Region 15 of the NLRB, after she sounded the alarm about NLRB officials engaging is misconduct and failing to conduct fair and impartial elections.
July 31, 2023: Inspector General David Berry presented the findings of an OIG report on one mail ballot election to congressional staff during a closed-door meeting.
August 14, 2023: Chairwoman Foxx sent a letter to NLRB Chairwoman Lauren McFerran and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo demanding information on the agency’s use of mail ballots and outlining dozens of instances of election administration misconduct found in documents provided by a whistleblower.
September 7, 2023: Chairwoman Foxx sent a letter to NLRB Inspector General David Berry requesting a publicly releasable version of the July 2023 OIG report.
October 4, 2023: The Committee released NLRB Inspector General David Berry’s July 2023 report detailing findings of “gross mismanagement” in the NLRB’s administration of a mail ballot election.
May 9, 2024: Chairwoman Foxx released a Committee staff report detailing the NLRB’s misconduct and procedural irregularities in its administration of mail ballot elections for different kinds of employers across the country.
