Avoiding the nuclear option might have been a success for Senate rules; however, the president’s new nominees are rubber stamps for labor and don’t change much for the rights of employees. President Obama replaced his previous “recess” nominees to the National Labor Relations Board as Republicans and Democrats debated over Senator Reid’s nuclear option to end debate on the tentatively unconstitutional nominees. After hours of back room meetings, both parties reached a compromise.

Unfortunately for any hopes of a fair and balanced National Labor Relations Board, the two new nominees are not exactly impartial. The president ran straight to the AFL-CIO’sRichard Trumka and asked the president of the country’s largest labor organization for advice on who should be appointed. Naturally for an administration so well-subsidized by big unions, the final choices — long-time labor attorneys Nancy Schiffer and Kent Hirozawa – were reportedly Trumka-recommended.

Nancy Schiffer worked for the NLRB after law school and was most recently associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO. According to her congressional testimony, Schiffer is an opponent of secret ballot elections in union organizing and falls squarely on the side of unions in business-labor disputes.

Kent Hirozawa was the counsel to former NLRB Chairman Mark Pearce and a union attorney in New York City for over 20 years. During that time, Hirozawa argued numerous cases on behalf of labor unions before the National Labor Relations Board.