Huntington Ingalls, Inc. v. NLRB

Case Updates

The Fourth Circuit held that the President's recess appointments to the NLRB were unconstitutional.

The U.S. Chamber urged the Fourth Circuit to grant the defendant company's petition for review and deny the NLRB's cross-application for enforcement of its decision that a small subset of technical employees working at the defendant's shipyard was entitled to bargaining unit classification under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In this case, the NLRB found that 220 radiological control department employees constituted a bargaining unit because they had a community of interest that was distinct from other technical employees who worked in the defendants' shipyard. The Chamber argued in its amicus brief that this classification eliminates consideration of important, historically recognized factors in the unit determination process that are necessary to assure a unit is appropriate given workplace realities and that this decision violates of at least two provisions of the NLRA. The Chamber warned that the Board’s ill-advised policy decision will likely have a negative effect on the ability of American employers to invest, grow and create badly needed jobs in today's economy.