Federal judge orders Illinois gas hauling company to recognize union, restore pay and benefits

Source: NLRB

At the request of the National Labor Relations Board, a U.S. District Court has ordered an Illinois gas hauling company to recognize and bargain with the union representing its drivers, even though the original company closed and its operations were transferred to a non-union entity owned and managed by the same people.

The injunction, issued July 11 by District Court Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr., also compels the company to restore the union pay and benefits that the drivers lost in the transfer, pending final resolution of the case before the Board.

A key question in the case is whether the company owner improperly closed A.D. Conner Inc., where employees were represented by unions, and transferred its operations to a non-union firm he also owned, without bargaining with the unions.

In his decision, Judge Dow wrote that “there is copious evidence from which the Board could conclude that (the owner) decided to shut down Conner in order to avoid the collective bargaining and other labor-related obligations that it had to Conner’s employees.”

Drivers at A.D. Conner’s two facilities, in Frankfort, Illinois and Porter, Indiana, had been represented for more than a decade by two Locals of the Truck Drivers, Oil Drivers, Filling Station and Platform Workers Union, an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. At several points in 2010, according to court testimony, the owner and manager of Conner told union representatives that the company was in financial trouble and needed concessions.

In September, company representatives urged employees to decertify the union and accept wage and benefit cuts to prevent the company from closing. In October, soon after the union notified the company that it would accept concessions, company representatives announced that Conner would be closed. About half the drivers were then transferred to another company, Heidenreich Trucking Company, which was owned and managed by the same people, operated the same trucks and used the same facility in Frankfort. There were no negotiations with the union over the closure or transfer of work.

The union filed charges, and after conducting an investigation, the NLRB Regional Office in Chicago issued a complaint. The case was presented to an Administrative Law Judge, who found in June that the employer had committed multiple unfair labor practices.



Read more: http://www.nlrb.gov/news/federal-judge-orders-illinois-gas-hauling-company-recognize-union-restore-pay-and-benefits

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another judge ruled the Illinois must start referring foster kids back to the catholic charities that won't deal with gay couples as well.

Sometimes, we must endure the bad in order for others to acquire that which is good.

Even though I posted that story about the outsourcing, not many people understood the BMW problems.

Its a suburb of Los Angeles?

NLRB law is a case by case basis (according to most lawyers representing employers). Good question I wish I had a good answer for.

I thought it was a Canadian distribution center. Update on that story: http://maintenance.autoblog.com/2011/07/18/teamsters-fire-up-website-to-protest-bmw-prepare-to-picket-deal/

By Aaron Richardson

Posted Jul 18th 2011 8:28AM


Ontario, California's Local 495 chapter of the Teamsters union has taken aim at BMW to protest the company's outsourcing of 100 distribution center jobs. Like every large company, BMW is looking for ways to save money in lean times, and laying off unionized workers is an easy way to do that.

Still, it leaves 100 guys, all of whom have been on the job at least 10 years, without a source of income and up against stacks of bills. To protest, Local 495 set up BMWUltimateMisery.com, depicting an evil, flesh-eating 6 Series threatening a family of workers. On the site, the Teamsters have aggregated headlines and videos relating to their plight.

To augment the website, they've started picketing BMW dealerships and posting videos to Vimeo saying why they're angry and what they want done about it. We'll leave that for you to figure out by watching the video after the jump. While this is certainly a well-organized protest, we're going to go out on a limb and guess that BMW's mind remains made up. Video and press release are after the break.

Video at link.

:thumbsup: