WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on July 16 announced his intent to nominate Kent Hirozawa and Nancy Schiffer to serve on the National Labor Relations Board.
The two would replace Richard Griffin and Sharon Block, whom Obama installed as recess appointments.
Obama said, “The National Labor Relations Board is responsible for enforcing protections that are fundamental to growing the economy and creating jobs from the middle class. It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join the board and I look forward to the agency continuing its work to promote better wages and conditions for all American workers.”
Hirozawa is currently chief counsel to NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce. Before joining the NLRB staff in 2010, Hirozawa was a partner in the New York law firm Gladstein, Reif and Meginniss LLP, where he advised clients on a variety of legal and strategic issues, including federal and state labor and employment law matters.
He previously served as a field attorney for the NLRB from 1984 to 1986 and a pro se law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1982 to 1984. He received a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Schiffer was associate general counsel to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations from 2000 to 2012. Prior to working for the AFL-CIO, she was deputy general counsel to the United Auto Workers (UAW) from 1998 to 2000. She had previously worked as associate general counsel for the UAW from 1982 to 1998.
Earlier in her career, Schiffer was a staff attorney in the Detroit Regional Office of the NLRB and worked as an attorney in private practice. She received her B.A. from Michigan State University and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.