On October 9, 2012, the NLRB’s Acting General Counsel, Lafe Solomon, announced a further restructuring of the NLRB’s field offices.  Earlier, he announced changes affecting the St. Louis and Winston-Salem offices which were consolidated into the Kansas City Region and Atlanta Regions respectively, along with some other realignments.

The most recent proposal pertains to Regional 26 in Memphis, Tennessee and adjacent Region 26 offices in Nashville and Little Rock.  Solomon is proposing that the Regional Office in Memphis and Resident Office in Little Rock would move to the jurisdiction of Region 15 in New Orleans.  He is also proposing that the Region 26 Resident Office in Nashville would be moved to the jurisdiction of Region 10 in Atlanta.  The Memphis office would become a Subregional Office and the Nashville and Little Rock offices would continue to be Resident Offices. No offices would be closed under Solomon’s proposed plan, which would have the staffs in Memphis and Little Rock reporting to the Regional Director based in New Orleans, and staff in the Nashville office would report to the Regional Director in Atlanta office.

Solomon in the October 9 NLRB press release sought input from NLRB staff and “from external stakeholders, including practitioners, members of the management-labor relations community, and Members of Congress, before making a final decision about whether to proceed with the proposed consolidation.”  After this comment period which ends October 31, 2012, Solomon may present a formal plan to the Board.  He also noted that any permanent structural change would involve the federal rulemaking process.