The University of Southern California Follows Amazon and Musk's SpaceX in Calling Labor Board Unconstitutional

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-04-10-usc-follows-amazon-spacex-calling-labor-board-unconstitutional-nlrb/



The University of Southern California is attempting to block faculty from forming a union with an argument pushed by SpaceX and Amazon: that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional.

In December, non-tenure-track faculty members at USC filed a petition for a union election in hopes of certifying the United Faculty-United Auto Workers union as their representative. The petition was submitted after a majority of the roughly 2,500 non-tenure-track faculty signaled their support for a union.

Ten days later, as first reported by USC Annenberg Media, USC asked the NLRB to dismiss the petition in part by arguing the structure of the board itself—an independent federal agency that works to protect worker rights by enforcing the National Labor Relations Act—“is unconstitutional.”

Corporations including Amazon, Trader Joe’s and SpaceX have all challenged the constitutionality of the NLRB in recent years. In February, the administration of President Donald Trump also declared that provisions limiting the administration’s ability to fire members of regulatory commissions, including the NLRB, were unconstitutional.

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