More Information on NLRB Injunctions

The following two cases illustrate missed opportunities for the NLRB to authorize injunctions that could have mitigated the damage employers assessed on workers' organizing efforts. 

Dynasteel Corp.

In July 2001, employees of the Dynasteel steel fabrication plant in Iuka, MS, began to openly discuss forming a union, and the company immediately responded with threats to close the plant.  Undeterred, the employees pursued representation by contacting the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers.  In October, the company fired the two primary organizers of the union effort, and spied on its employees' union meeting.  In response, the Boilermakers filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB, resulting in a complaint issued by the agency.
 
At this point, the NLRB could have pursued an injunction to reinstate the primary union organizers and order the company to cease and desist with threats and surveillance.  This move could have prevented the company from successfully dampening the workers' organizing effort.  Yet the NLRB chose to let the case proceed without seeking interim relief.  An administrative law judge issued a decision in May 2003, finding Dynasteel guilty of the unlawful terminations, threats of plant closure, and surveillance of union activities.  The Board upheld those charges in a December 2005 ruling, ordering the company to reinstate the two workers—more than four years after they were fired.¹

The Continental Group, Inc.

In the summer of 2004, condominium workers employed by the Continental Group sought union representation with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  Over the next several months, the company interrogated workers about the union, threatened them with unspecific reprisals for supporting the union, spied on their union activities and fired one of the union activists.²  The company also disciplined a union activist for violating a work rule limiting employees' access to the worksite while off-duty.  SEIU filed unfair labor practice charges, and the NLRB issued several complaints against the employer.

The NLRB did not pursue an injunction to order Continental to reinstate the union activist and rescind its unlawful work rule, which limited employees' rights to discuss workplace and union issues.  Such temporary remedies could have lessened the impact of these chilling tactics on the workers' organizing effort.  Instead, Continental appealed a March 2006 administrative law judge order to reinstate the fired worker and cease breaking the law, and the workers are still waiting for the Board to decide the case.³  Until the company is ordered to comply with the law, the signal to workers is that they are not safe from retaliation—that the law is not going to protect them.

Citations

1. Dynasteel Corp., 346 NLRB 12 (2005).
2. Continental Group, JD (ATL)-07-06 (2006).
3. "News Briefs," The Miami Herald, 22 Mar. 2006