Chicago, IL October 16, 2012 \u2013 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has frozen out Latino Express workers from participating in a dispute between their employer and Teamsters Local 777 that will determine whether they must accept an unwanted union in their workplace. Meanwhile, the NLRB subpoenaed the National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney advising these workers to testify during the Latino Express hearing, a move that prevented him from advising his clients, three of whom also appeared as witnesses. <\/p>\n
Although a majority of Latino Express employees oppose the Teamsters\u2019 presence and have signed a decertification petition to remove the union, Teamster lawyers filed charges with the NLRB alleging that the company unlawfully withdrew recognition of their union. <\/p>\n
Despite union officials\u2019 claims, a majority of workers oppose the Teamsters. Ramiro Lopez \u2013 the employee who submitted the petition for union decertification \u2013 and 36 other workers subsequently moved to intervene in the hearing to have their voices heard. However, an Administrative Law Judge denied this motion. <\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of promptly recognizing that a majority of Latino Express employees don\u2019t want the Teamsters\u2019 so-called \u2018representation\u2019, the NLRB is subjecting them to a lengthy legal struggle between the company and the union without even allowing them to participate,\u201d said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s worse, the NLRB subpoenaed Lopez\u2019s Foundation-provided attorney, Matthew Muggeridge, to testify at the hearing on the union\u2019s charges. Muggeridge opposed the subpoena on the ground that it interferes with his representation of Lopez and several other Latino Express employees, but the NLRB\u2019s acting general counsel\u2019s attorney maintains that Muggeridge must testify and has threatened to enforce the subpoena in federal court. <\/p>\n
By issuing the subpoena, the NLRB\u2019s attorney also prevented Muggeridge from attending most of the hearing and advising any of the Latino Express employees, three of whom testified as witnesses. Subpoenaed witnesses are sequestered from participating in any part of a hearing other than their own testimony. Consequently, the NLRB\u2019s subpoena effectively prevented Muggeridge from acting during the proceedings as an attorney for the Latino Express workers who retained him. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot content with blocking the employees\u2019 decertification petition, the NLRB has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent Latino Express workers from participating in a hearing that will determine whether they are still forced to accept the Teamsters\u2019 presence in their workplace. As if that weren\u2019t enough, by calling their attorney as a witness, the Board has effectively taken away the employees\u2019 legal representation,\u201d continued Mix. \u201cThis subpoena reeks of retaliation by the NLRB against one of the Foundation staff attorneys who successfully intervened in the notorious Boeing prosecution for several nonunion South Carolina employees and helped expose the Board\u2019s overreach in that case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chicago, IL October 16, 2012 \u2013 The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has frozen out Latino Express workers from participating in a dispute between their employer and Teamsters Local 777 that will determine whether they must accept an unwanted union in their workplace. Meanwhile, the NLRB subpoenaed the National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney advising these workers to testify during the Latino Express hearing, a move that prevented him from advising his clients, three of whom also appeared as witnesses. <\/p>\n
Although a majority of Latino Express employees oppose the Teamsters\u2019 presence and have signed a decertification petition to remove the union, Teamster lawyers filed charges with the NLRB alleging that the company unlawfully withdrew recognition of their union. <\/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-3082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n