Beware growing influence of pro-worker NLRB.

Adecade ago, the National Labor Relations Board--the independent agency that enforces the National Labor Relations Act--was considered a relatively minor player on the employment-law scene compared to the Department of Labor and the EEOC. No more.

Back then, employers often assumed the NLRB's mission was limited to monitoring union elections. But during the Obama years, NLRB leaders began flexing their muscles, reminding all private-sector employers that the NLRA applies to them, too, whether or not their workplaces are unionized.

Employers began learning the hard way that their handbook rules might spark unfair labor practices charges and that many long-standing practices assumed to be legal really weren't.

Now, it's routine to see news media outlets cover the NLRB. Examples:

* Recently, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo sent a memo to NLRB staff informing them that she believed most noncompete agreements violate the NLRA. That conclusion became front-page news.

* When a group of Starbucks employees asked the NLRB to slap the coffee chain with an unfair labor practices charge for allegedly removing Pride Month decorations from some cafes, CNN and other cable news outlets reported it.

But backlash against the NLRB has been growing. In...