Accused of violating worker rights, SpaceX and Amazon go after labor board

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a satellite payload on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organization lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a satellite payload on behalf of the Indian Space Research Organization lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

In the nearly four years that Joe Biden has been president, the National Labor Relations Board has taken an assertive — some say overly aggressive — approach to protecting workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain.

Now, SpaceX and Amazon are at the forefront of a corporate-led effort to monumentally change the labor agency. On Monday, attorneys for the two companies will try to convince a panel of judges at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that the labor agency, created by Congress in 1935, is unconstitutional.

Their lawsuits are among more than two dozen challenges brought by companies who say the NLRB’s structure gives it unchecked power to shape and enforce labor law.