Elon Musk, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s have launched attacks on the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board as it is set up today. Notwithstanding the 80-plus years that have passed since the statute was enacted and the board created, these employers believe that the agency in 2024 operates outside the bounds of constitutional propriety.

In contrast to those efforts to trim back the board, the NLRB’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo has taken the opposite approach. Abruzzo maintains that enhanced powers are needed for the board to carry out its purpose: to protect workers’ rights to engage in concerted protected activity. As part of its efforts to enhance its enforcement authority, the board has entered into memoranda of understanding with other federal workplace agencies to coordinate efforts in monitoring and regulating what happens on the factory floor.