The NLRB lost its quorum for 345 days in 2025, freezing every contested labor case in the country in legal limbo

On January 27, 2025, President Trump fired NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo and Board Chair Gwynne Wilcox, leaving the five-member Board with only two members — below the three-member quorum required to issue decisions. For 345 days, from late January through December 18, 2025, the Board could not rule on any contested unfair labor practice case, representation dispute, or policy question. The total number of NLRB-overseen union elections fell 30% to 1,498, and 59,000 fewer workers participated in elections compared to 2024. For individual workers, this was not an abstract governance problem — it was a denial of justice. A worker fired for organizing had no final forum to hear their case. A union that won an election but faced an employer's legal challenge could not get the challenge resolved. An employer accused of bargaining in bad faith could stall indefinitely, knowing no Board would review the case. The backlog of unresolved disputes accumulated for nearly a year, and even after the Senate confirmed new members in December 2025, the new Board faced months of accumulated cases — now reviewed by members with different legal philosophies who would likely reverse many pending decisions. This vulnerability exists because the NLRB's structure has no failsafe against political sabotage. Board members serve staggered five-year terms and must be confirmed by the Senate, but the President can fire the General Counsel at will. There is no statutory requirement to maintain a quorum, no automatic holdover provision that prevents a quorum collapse, and no mechanism for cases to be decided by the remaining members when the Board falls below three. The agency that is supposed to protect 150 million workers' labor rights can be effectively shut down by a single personnel decision. States began passing their own labor laws to fill the void, creating a patchwork of conflicting state-level labor regulations that adds complexity for both workers and employers.