Donald L. Dotson

Donald L. Dotson (born October 8, 1938) is an American attorney and politician who served as the chairman of the National Labor Relations Board from 1983 to 1987. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and approved by the United States Senate. In addition, he also worked as counsel for several corporations and served as an assistant secretary in the Department of Labor.

Dotson was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, and graduated from both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University. In the 1960s, he served in the United States Navy. Following his post-secondary education, he worked as an attorney at law for the NLRB before becoming counsel for several companies from 1973 to 1981. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him as an assistant secretary at the Department of Labor and, the following year, nominated him for the chairmanship of the NLRB.

During his tenure, Dotson was noted for taking a more pro-management and anti-union stance than previous chairmen and reversed several earlier board rulings. He also was involved in several controversies, including the accumulation of a large backlog of cases and changes to the quasi-independent position of the board's general counsel. According to news sources, both board member Patricia Diaz Dennis and Teamsters President Jackie Presser sought to have the Reagan administration oust him, though unsuccessfully. At the end of his term, he was offered a position at the law firm of Keck, Mahin & Cate.

Early life and career Donald L. Dotson was born in Rutherford County, North Carolina, on October 8, 1938. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts. Among other things, the board, which consists of fie members, oversees labor union representation elections and, per The New York Times, serves as a "referee" in disputes between management, workers, and unions. He worked in this position until 1973, From 1973 to 1975, he worked as counsel for the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and its subsidiaries on matters regarding labor. The Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources did not hold any formal hearings pertaining to his nomination, with journalist Pete Earley attributing this to his view as a "noncontroversial nominee". Specifically, Dotson would be replacing John Flanning as the board's chairman. Speaking later of his nomination, Dotson said that he had reluctantly accepted it after it became clear that Van de Water would not be approved by the Senate. However, in January 1983, the Senate received the same nomination. and he was confirmed by the Senate at large via unanimous consent that same day. His term, which began on March 7, was to run until December 16, 1987. the NLRB announced that it would be instituting some changes designed to strip the board's general counsel—a quasi-independent position within the agency—of most of the powers that the position had assumed since 1955. Several members of Congress and officials from labor unions criticized this move, with Earley calling Reilly a "target of controversy" due in part to his work as a lawyer for the conservative National Right to Work Committee. was a member of the Democratic Party. He said that the reorganization had occurred because the agency's attorneys had misrepresented the board's opinions to appellate courts and had engaged in "high-handed" and "sleazy" conduct, In testimony, Dotson said that the board had a backlog of 290 union election cases and 1,291 unfair labor practice cases, representing the largest backlog in the agency's history. as between December 1979 and September 1983, the board had a full five members only fifty percent of the time and had operated with only three members for seven months. and President Reagan had yet to nominate a replacement. Over the course of 1981, the board had made decisions in 880 cases, compared to an annual average of about 1,700 during the administration of President Carter. In January, the board had ruled that companies were legally allowed to move from union to non-union plants during the negotiation process for a collective bargaining agreement, unless specifically barred from doing so by the contract. This ruling reversed a previous board ruling and was widely applauded by pro-business interests and derided by unions. That same month, they ruled that an employer could relocate their operations as part of a business restructuring plan without prior negotiations with the union. In June, the board reversed a policy upholding a 30-day waiting period on union members resigning from a union, ruling that unions had no rights to hinder a members' withdrawal. In all of these cases, the decisions had been 3-1 votes, with Dennis, Dotson, and Hunter—all appointees of President Reagan A fifth seat, which traditionally was reserved for an African American board member, had been vacant for the past ten months awaiting an appointment.

According to The Post, Dennis hoped that her comments, which she had been making for several months at that point, would result in the president forcing Dotson's resignation from the NLRB. According to The Washington Post, Reagan's administration had formulated a plan to remove Dotson in exchange for the support of Presser and the Teamsters union, but opted against pursuing the plan after Presser went to the press. On August 22, Larry Speakes, a spokesperson for Reagan, said that no deal had been made on the matter at that time. In response, Representative Clay said that the House Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations would be investigating the planned removal. The following day, the Teamsters voted to support Reagan's reelection. According to The Washington Post, Presser said that he was regretful that his actions may have ultimately prevented Dotson's ouster. In later reporting, the newspaper quoted him as saying, "I've done the opposite of what I wanted."

1985–1987 In May 1985, the Los Angeles Times reported that Dotson and his chief legal counsel at that time, Charles M. Williamson, had, over the preceding several months, sent numerous letters to newspapers nationwide saying that they had misrepresented or inaccurately reported on the NLRB. The following month, the AFL-CIO issued a report on the NLRB under Dotson, saying that the board had ruled against unions in 86 percent of applicable cases brought to them and that employers had won 57 percent of the cases brought to the board, compared to 16 percent from 1974 to 1976. By that time, the board had significantly reduced its backlog of cases, though delays in hearings were still common.

In June 1986, the Los Angeles Times reported that the composition of the NLRB had shifted to a more moderate conservative position than earlier in Dotson's chairmanship. Per journalist Harry Bernstein, the change in political position of the NLRB coincided with Dotson becoming more politically isolated from both the board and the Reagan administration as a whole. Several news sources stated that Reagan was considering elevating either Johansen or Stephens to the role of chairman and nominating either Assistant Labor Secretary Salvatore R. Martoche or NLRB attorney John E. Higgins Jr. to fill Dotson's vacancy. However, Dotson denied this, saying that he had intended to serve only one term when he accepted the nomination to the board. On January 7, 1988, Reagan named Stephens to head the NLRB, an appointment which did not require Senate confirmation. The following month, Reagan nominated Higgins to fill Dotson's vacancy. Legacy Around the time of his departure from the NLRB, several news sources called Dotson one of the most controversial chairs in the NLRB's history. Harry Bernstein of the Los Angeles Times said that Dotson's tenure consisted of "years of feuding with other, less conservative board members". Several sources highlighted his anti-union stances and the reversal of several pro-labor rulings that occurred during his chairmanship.