Trump’s NLRB Hands ACLU a License to Fire Outspoken Workers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington DC – On Friday, President Trump’s handpicked majority on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reversed a 2024 decision by a widely respected Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) with more than 20 years of experience at the NLRB. This partisan decision overturned the Judge’s established findings, which had determined that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) unlawfully fired Katherine Oh for engaging in protected concerted activity.
A renowned independent arbitrator also found in October 2024, in a separate proceeding, that the ACLU fired Oh without just cause. Instead of abiding by the independent rulings of both the ALJ and the arbitrator, the ACLU turned to President Trump’s corporate-allied labor board.
“This should have been a straightforward case about an employee who engaged in a pattern of protected concerted activity and was punished for it,” said Amy Chin-Lai, President of NPEU. “Instead, anti-union Trump appointees weaponized this case to tell every worker in America that the only safe place to complain about your boss is privately in your own diary. That is not the law that Congress wrote and contradicts the ACLU’s own supposed mission. It should outrage anyone who cares about workers’ rights and anyone who donates to the ACLU expecting their dollars to protect civil liberties.”
Since being hired by the ACLU in 2017, Katherine Oh voiced complaints about working conditions and rallied colleagues to join her, exactly the kind of speech that Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act was designed to protect. However, the latest decision issued by Chairman Murphy and Board Member Mayer artificially isolated four incidents in early 2022, disregarded basic facts of her termination, cherry-picked precedent, and imposed an arbitrary timeline — all in an effort to silo Oh’s pattern of protected concerted activity and undermine her right to speak out. Despite the clear flaws in the majority’s analysis, they admit that “the [ACLU] did rely in part on…protected concerted activity when it fired Oh,” but Trump’s appointees are not interested in protecting workers, even when evidence of unlawful retaliation is right in front of them.
“After years of litigation, the ACLU has successfully attached its name to a distinctly anti-worker and anti-free-speech ruling,” said Alejandro Ortiz, President of ACLU Staff United and Oh’s shop steward. “In its zeal to punish a former employee fired for advocating for better working conditions, it has stained its legacy as a champion for workers’ rights. Though the C-suite at the ACLU is likely patting itself on the back, they should be ashamed. Instead of doing right by its stated values and storied history, the ACLU cozied up to the same administration attacking civil rights and civil liberties. Labor unions that have served as plaintiffs in ACLU lawsuits might think twice before lending their name to an organization that pays lip service to workers’ rights while actively undermining those same rights."
“We wholeheartedly agree with Board Member David M. Prouty’s dissent,” said Chin-Lai: “‘By looking at the pieces instead of the puzzle, they miss what is, in my view, the unmistakable reality: Oh engaged in a years-long pattern of concerted activity for mutual aid and protection, and the [ACLU] fired her for it.’”
The Board Decision in American Civil Liberties Union, Inc. and Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 70 A/W International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, AFL–CIO, CLC. Cases 05–CA–300367 and 05–CA–302762 was issued on Friday, October 30, 2026.
The decision, along with the full public record on this case is available on the NLRB website: https://www.nlrb.gov/case/05-CA-300367
About NPEU
The Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), a local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, represents professionals employed at more than 50 nonprofit organizations. With thousands of members, NPEU gives nonprofit workers a voice to strengthen their workplaces and continue to do work that makes a difference in people’s lives.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Heather Cushman
Campaigns Director
hcushman@npeu.org