Senate adds two to labor board

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed two candidates to be members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), breaking a stalement that has disrupted the labor board's ability to resolve labor-management disputes.

Mark Pearce, a union lawyer who already serves on the NLRB in a temporary capacity, and Brian Hayes, the Republican labor policy director on the Senate committee that oversees labor issues, were confirmed. But Craig Becker, a third NLRB nominee that Republicans have united in opposing because of his close ties to organized labor groups, was not up for a vote. The fight over Becker has been a major factor in stalling votes on others waiting to serve in the government.

The NLRB, an independent federal agency charged with refereeing labor-management differences, is supposed to have five members, but until April this year it had only two because Democrats balked at President George W. Bush's choices and Republicans have blocked President Obama's nominations. The Supreme Court last week ruled that more than 500 NLRB decisions will have to be reopened because they were decided by only two members.

Obama in April made Pearce and Becker recess appointments, a practice used by presidents when the Senate doesn't act on nominations. Becker, a top lawyer for the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, has faced strenuous objections from Republicans, who claim he would push an aggressively pro-union agenda.

The recent appointees can only serve through the end of 2011. Regular members of the NLRB have five-year terms.

More than 60 other people waiting Senate action to fill federal-agency slots were also approved. The nominees, largely noncontroversial, will take up work in such agencies as the Peace Corps, Amtrak, the Marine Mammal Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Obama said in his weekly radio address last Saturday that there were 136 qualified people waiting for a Senate vote, "but most of them are seeing their nominations intentionally delayed by Republican leaders, or even blocked altogether."