Boston, Mass. (August 20, 2004)<\/b> \u2013 The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation today formally requested an investigation into apparent collusion between Rosemary Pye, the National Labor Relations Board\u2019s (NLRB) Region One Director, and officials of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. <\/p>\n
At the same time, Foundation staff attorneys helped employees at the St. Gobain Abrasives facility in Worcester file an emergency petition with the Washington, DC-based NLRB to force its Boston office to honor an order that it hold a hearing on the employees\u2019 petition for an election to throw out an unwanted union. <\/p>\n
The workers\u2019 emergency petition to the NLRB seeks an order enforcing the Board\u2019s July 8 ruling that required Region One to hold a hearing into whether the union\u2019s unfair labor practice charges filed against St. Gobain are credible and relevant enough to warrant setting aside the election requested by more than 300 employees.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the letter signed by Foundation president Mark Mix to NLRB General Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld and Inspector General Jane Altenhofen urged an investigation of Director Pye and the Region One office. The record demonstrates that Ms. Pye and her subordinates improperly withheld information from the NLRB in violation of agency procedure. They also leaked pre-decisional information to UAW officials and the press, and they appear to have acted in collusion with the union during the decision making process that ultimately resulted in a dismissal of a decertification petition. In recent days, the Regional Director also canceled an evidentiary hearing explicitly ordered by the July 8 ruling of the NLRB. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese troubling actions \u2013 which include refusing to follow a Board directive, failing to follow Board procedure, apparent collusion between the union and the Region, as well as a general lack of regard for employees\u2019 Section 7 rights [to refrain from unionization] \u2013 do not reflect well on the General Counsel\u2019s office or the agency as a whole. I urge each of you to investigate this matter and take appropriate action,\u201d Mix wrote.<\/p>\n
A decertification election has only one purpose and effect: to remove the union as the \u201cexclusive bargaining representative\u201d of the employees. If a decertification election is allowed and is successful, the UAW union would lose its special privilege to act as the \u201cexclusive bargaining representative\u201d of the employees. All St. Gobain employees then would be free to negotiate their own terms and conditions of employment and could be rewarded on their individual merit.<\/p>\n
Under the National Labor Relations Act, if 30 percent or more of the employees in a bargaining unit sign a decertification petition, the NLRB should conduct a secret ballot election to determine if a majority of the employees wish to decertify the union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boston, Mass. (August 20, 2004) \u2013 The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation today formally requested an investigation into apparent collusion between Rosemary Pye, the National Labor Relations Board\u2019s (NLRB) Region One Director, and officials of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. At the same time, Foundation staff attorneys helped employees at the St. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n