On January 25, 2008, President Bush submitted three nominations for open seats on the National Labor Relations Board, including Republicans Robert J. Battista and Gerard Morales, and Democrat Dennis P. Walsh.

Battista, a former NLRB chairman, completed his five-year term on December 16, 2007. Prior to being appointed to the Board, Battista was a labor and employment management-side lawyer at a law firm in Detroit. If confirmed, Battista will serve for the remainder of a five-year term expiring on December 16, 2009. The president has also designated Battista to serve as chairman upon confirmation.

Morales is currently a management-side lawyer at the law firm of Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. in Arizona. Morales previously served as a field attorney with the Board and has written several articles concerning labor law in the United States and Mexico. The president has nominated Morales to serve a five-year term expiring on December 16, 2012.

Walsh is a former Board member who served as a recess appointee under President Bush from January 17, 2006 through December 31, 2007. Prior to being temporarily appointed by President Bush, Walsh served as a recess appointee from December 30, 2000 to December 20, 2001 under former President Clinton. Walsh has an extensive history of government service. Prior to being a Board Member, Walsh served as special assistant to Board Member Wilma Liebman, and chief counsel to Board Member Margaret Browning. If confirmed, Walsh will serve for the remainder of a five-year term expiring on August 27, 2008, and an additional five-year term expiring on August 27, 2013.

Bush’s recent appointments have already garnered some negative criticism. Senator Edward M. Kennedy posted the following statement on his Web site: “It’s unbelievable that President Bush would renominate Mr. Battista to the Board, after he led the most anti-worker, anti-labor, anti-union Board in its history.” Kennedy also stated that the President’s nominations demonstrate the Administration’s “hostility to fairness and justice in the workplace.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stated that President Bush’s nominations to the Board were a “blatant attempt to keep a labor board with unbalanced, anti-worker bias, and they would be poisonous to America’s working families.”

The three nominations have been sent to the Senate for confirmation. It is unclear at this point how quickly the Senate will act, especially considering that President Bush’s previous nominees, Dennis P. Walsh and Peter J. Kirsanow, were awaiting confirmation for over two years. In the same announcement, President Bush also withdrew his prior nomination of Kirsanow to the Board.