NLRB ruling unlikely to spur G&D to work with Iron Workers

The National Labor Relations Board last month ruled that in cases where companies break labor law, violators’ punishment will dramatically increase – which logically should discourage law-breaking and encourage some employers to avoid now-costly criminal behavior.

But a central Illinois company involved in one of the area’s highest-profile disputes probably isn’t one of those employers, says the union behind organizing a small Iron Workers unit.

Dozens of workers at G&D Integrated in Morton some 17 months ago started organizing at the transportation, warehousing and manufacturing company. In September of 2021, a group of them met with management and asked for union recognition. The company refused. So that October in an NLRB election, G&D workers voted 18-4 to unionize anyway. After initially agreeing to start contract talks, G&D negotiators suspended bargaining in January 2022, and by March 1 of last year, most of the work force was laid off.

Asked whether stronger enforcement with stiffer financial consequences could bring G&D back to the table, a Peoria-based district representative said he was doubtful.

“My gut feeling is no. They’ve broken to many laws,” said Vince Di Donato, with the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers union. And “they haven’t seemed willing to even talk.

“There is some hope,” he continued. “We’re looking to push the envelope a little bit more.”

The NLRB – responsible for enforcing federal laws protecting workers’ rights to strike, to be free of retaliation, and to join together to improve their wages and working conditions –  on Dec. 13 decided to expand the fees and penalties the agency can collect from employers that illegally terminate workers for labor activism.

"Employees are not made whole until they are fully compensated for financial harms that they suffered as a result of unlawful conduct," said Labor Board chair Lauren McFerran.

That’s much different that the last several decades, when employers found guilty of firing workers for their involvement in labor organizing – a legal right – have only had to pay for the employee's reinstatement and lost wages.

Labor advocates have long said that’s amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist – the cost of doing business (non-union).

In some ways, legal protections are less relevant than worker power, Di Donato said.

“Don’t get me wrong; labor laws are great,” he said. “But workers were unionizing before there were labor laws. When the work force sticks together, we don’t need laws or politics.”

This far, the Iron Workers have filed more than 150 charges of law-breaking with the NLRB, mostly Unfair Labor Practice allegations ranging from wrongful termination and illegal surveillance, to improper discipline and interrogation, and discrimination. Most remain active.

“The Board dismissed a few – three, I think – but the last we were told, they have four agents working on the case,” Di Donato said. “Right now, it’s a matter of them all sitting down at one time and figuring out how to proceed to take this all before a judge.

“We’ll see,” he added. “We’ll stir the pot. But I doubt a [federal] policy will change some employers and there’s a special place in Hell for people like that.”