Marathon Pundit: Four years after decertification vote, union finally gone

Friday, March 08, 2013

Four years after decertification vote, union finally gone

Justice moves slowly, especially when it involves one of President Obama's favorite castes--Big Labor.

From the Workforce Fairness Institute:

On August 11 and 12, 2008, employees of the Arkema company located in Houston, Texas voted to oust their union, the United Steelworkers of America. It took four and one-half years for the employees to be guaranteed the union-free workplace they voted for.

After it lost a decertification election, the Steelworkers union filed a charge to nullify the employees' vote claiming the election was tainted by the employer’s unfair labor practices. Sure enough, in not atypical fashion, the National Labor Relations Board marched in lockstep with Big Labor and found that the employer violated the law just as the union bosses had charged and ordered a new election.

In a carefully crafted 22-page decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the Board’s findings and denied enforcement of its order. And for good reason: the Board’s unfair labor practice findings were unwarranted.

In its first finding, the NLRB declared that the employer violated the law by issuing a written reminder to a pro-union employee for violating the company's anti-harassment policy. The employee, a man, threatened to withhold needed physical support for a female co-worker in a very physically demanding job that he previously provided if employees voted to oust the union. For this partisan Board, the male employee "did nothing that could conceivably be considered to have created an offensive working environment." For the impartial judges of the Fifth Circuit, "harassment and intimidation are not protected union activities."