Trump moves to fire members of EEOC, NLRB boards, breaking with precedent
President Donald Trump has moved to fire Democratic members of two independent federal commissions, an extraordinary break from decades of legal precedent that promises to hand Republicans control over boards that oversee swaths of U.S. workers, employers and labor unions.
Trump moved Monday night to dismiss two of three Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, formerly the chair, the White House confirmed Tuesday. Trump also fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, an NLRB spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
In addition, Trump acted to dismiss the EEOC’s general counsel, who oversees the agency’s existing civil actions against employers on a range of issues including discrimination claims from LGBTQ+ employees and pregnant workers. And he terminated Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB’s general counsel. Both dismissals throw into question the status of numerous actions underway at both agencies, including against billionaire Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla.
“These were far-left appointees with radical records of upending long-standing labor law, and they have no place as senior appointees in the Trump administration,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.
In a statement, Samuels said that removing her “before the expiration of my Congressionally directed term is unprecedented, violates the law, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency — one that is not controlled by a single Cabinet secretary but operates as a multimember body whose varying views are baked into the Commission’s design.”
Burrows did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The firing of general counsels at agencies does not break from custom: President Joe Biden fired Trump-appointed general counsels at the EEOC and NLRB upon entering office in 2021. Yet moving to dismiss members of independent commissions represents a dramatic break from Supreme Court precedent decided in 1935, which holds that the president cannot remove members of independent agencies such as the EEOC except in cases of neglect of duty, malfeasance or inefficiency.
Legal experts were troubled by Trump’s move.
“Many in the legal community have concerns that this is the first step toward erosion of workplace protections against discrimination in the workplace,” said Kevin Owen, an employment attorney in Maryland focusing on federal employees. “This may herald the end of the EEOC as we know it ”
Trump has generally held an expansive view of executive power and campaigned on seizing more control over agencies that traditionally operated largely independently of the White House, including the EEOC and NLRB. The dismissal of the two Democratic commissioners — Samuels and Burrows — allows Trump to replace them with two Republican members and give the five-member commission a conservative majority. One seat was vacant before the dismissals.
Last week, Trump appointed Andrea Lucas, the board’s only Republican, as acting chair. With a Republican majority, Lucas would be able to more freely pursue her priorities, which include “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” and “defending the biological and binary reality of sex.” The EEOC has the power to open investigations and pursue civil charges against employers it alleges have violated federal laws barring workplace discrimination.
Trump’s firing of NLRB board member Wilcox imperils union rights in the United States and could lead the Supreme Court to weigh in to limit the agency’s power or hamper its ability to function, legal expert said.
The NLRB oversees unionization votes by workers and adjudicates allegations of illegal union busting.
“Today’s firing of board member Wilcox means that the Trump administration along with the architects of Project 2025 are aiming to do away with the National Labor Relations Act,” said Seth Goldstein, a labor lawyer who has represented Amazon and Trader Joe’s workers. He referred to the 1935 law that established the NLRB and modern union rights. “They want to end worker rights and return us to the Gilded Age,” he said.
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• Beth Reinhard and Cat Zakrzewski contributed.