Trump nominates acting Labor secretary to permanent role

President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday that he would nominate Keith Sonderling, who is acting labor secretary, to take on the role permanently, which would require Senate approval. 

“Throughout his career, Keith has proven his dedication to delivering strong results for the Hardworking People of our Country, and I know he will do an incredible job in his new role,” Trump said in the social media post.

Sonderling has been acting labor leader since April, after then-Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid allegations of misconduct at the department. 

Sonderling has held several roles in the federal government, including in Trump’s first term. Last year, Trump tapped Sonderling from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to be the Labor Department’s chief operating officer. 

Sonderling was confirmed for his deputy position by the Republican-controlled Senate in a 53-46 vote. 

Judge blocks labor board’s move to take control over union elections

A federal judge on Monday blocked the U.S. agency that oversees union elections for federal employees from shifting authority over all labor representation decisions to its top body, which is dominated by Republicans appointed by Trump.

Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston sided with eight unions who had sued to prevent the Federal Labor Relations Authority from stripping its regional directors of their decades-old power to decide cases themselves by having its three-member body of presidential appointees handle all of them.

Casper, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said FLRA’s action is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act as the agency failed to provide an adequate explanation for why it was revoking a system that since 1983 it had deemed necessary to increase efficiency.

She said shifting to a system in which the FLRA’s three-member body must reach a collective decision on all matters “will increase not just the Authority’s caseload, but the processing and adjudication times for representation matters as well.”

The FLRA did not respond to a request for comment. 

Unions, including the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of Government Employees, sued in April after the agency announced a new policy that would alter a system that has been in place under a rule adopted during Republican President Ronald Reagan’s tenure in 1983.

Under that rule, the three-member body has delegated to career, nonpartisan directors of five regional offices the ability to determine when proposed bargaining units are appropriate, order and supervise elections, and certify the results.

A small fraction of election results - just six out of 277 cases in 2025 - are challenged in appeals decided by the three-member panel.

The FLRA today has a 2-1 majority of Republicans appointed by Trump. It said the old system resulted in duplicative filings and was time consuming and that, going forward, most election petitions would go directly to the panel, which will “work collaboratively” with regional directors.

The unions argued the FLRA violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to explain how shifting the 98% of mundane cases, which the three-member body normally does not hear, to those presidential appointees would streamline anything.

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 29, 2026 at 7:55 PM.