A citizen of Union Vale, NY, just gave me a tip about a case involving an employee of her town who was subjected to egregious harassment during his effort to organize his fellow highway department employees. 

As a public employee, Christopher Kemlage had to pursue his case with a federal district court since he is not covered by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). According to the judge, the town’s supervisors responded to Kemlage’s organizing efforts by using racial slurs, denying him the benefit of safety flagmen while he performed road work, and forcing him to remain confined in a truck where he feared for his life. The judge ruled that the supervisors violated several of Kemlage’s constitutional rights, including the right to freedom of association, and ordered the jury to award him damages. The town recently settled the case for $237,500.
 
While Kemlage deserved far more for all the pain he endured, this remedy was much more meaningful than one issued in a recent National Labor Relations Board case, in which an employer who subjected her employees to violent retaliation for their union support was merely ordered to post a notice saying she would not break the law.

Since the NLRB is without the ability to force employers to pay damages when they violate their employees’ rights, there is little incentive for private employers to obey the law. Yet I’m sure the government leaders of Union Vale are rethinking their employee relations after coughing up that settlement. This is just one more reason Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act: significant penalties for employers mean the punishment could finally fit the crime.