Oppose the Confirmation of Marvin Kaplan for the National Labor Relations Board

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Recipients: United States Senate

Dear Senator,

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States, we write to urge you to oppose the confirmation of Marvin Kaplan for a critical position with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  The NLRB plays a unique role in the enforcement of workers’ rights. Its members should not only possess exceptional qualifications, but also demonstrated impartiality and professional work experience that would advance its mission. Marvin Kaplan does not possess these necessary qualifications and, therefore, we oppose his confirmation to the NLRB.

Mr. Kaplan has never practiced labor law. His only experience is with drafting legislation seeking to weaken worker protections under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and holding hearings to criticize the NLRB.  At his recent confirmation hearings, Mr. Kaplan’s responses did not give working people any confidence that he would vigorously enforce the NLRA consistent with the law’s purpose of protecting the right of workers to organize and promoting collective bargaining.  Nor did Mr. Kaplan make an adequate commitment to recuse himself from cases and issues where there is real concern based on his prior work and writings that he has pre-judged the issue and might not approach it with an open, unbiased mind.

We urge you to oppose the confirmation of Marvin Kaplan to the National Labor Relations Board.  For more information, please contact June Zeitlin, Director of Human Rights Policy at [email protected] or 202-263-2852.

Sincerely,

Vanita Gupta
President & CEO