Members of Local 274 at Lamson & Goodnow Manufacturing in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts are scheduled to return to work on Wednesday, February 17, after being locked out by management since December 4, 2009. Just four days ago, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) informed the union and the company that it would be issuing a large group of complaints against Lamson & Goodnow.
The complaints result from numerous unfair labor practice (ULP) charges filed by the union, and allege that the company engaged in bad faith bargaining, made their negotiation proposals worse over time, harassed union members, changed the existing contract by calling back a worker from layoff out of seniority, demanded that the union bargain over issues that they had no legal right to demand, and illegally locked workers out.
“This is a great victory,” said UE International Representative David Cohen, who has been assisting the UE shop committee with bargaining and with the ULP case. Chief Steward Tyler Clark was “ecstatic” upon hearing the news. “This is a really a big thing. David Cohen was telling us that the labor board doesn’t usually rule on bad faith bargaining charges, and I’m pretty happy that we were able to win.”
The company had been insisting in bargaining that the union agree to allow the company to replace union production workers with non-union production workers, whom the company called “working foremen.” The company had tried this under the old contract, resulting in a union grievance, and in September 2009 an arbitrator ruled that this was a violation of the contract.
The issuing of a complaint by the NLRB is equivalent to an indictment of a suspect in a criminal investigation. It means the NLRB is prepared to have its legal staff prosecute the matter, if necessary, in a hearing before an administrative law judge. The union is confident that it will prevail on the NLRB charges and the company will be required to pay the members for the time they were locked out. Members collected state unemployment benefits throughout the lockout.
Negotiation for a new contract will continue between UE Local 274 and Lamson & Goodnow. The union is waiting to see if the company’s proposals change for the better now that the NLRB has said that many of its proposals constitute bad faith bargaining.
Local 274 is an amalgamated local representing workers at several employers in the Greenfield area. The 13 members at Lamson & Goodnow manufacture high-end cutlery. The current owner, Ross Anderson bought the company in 1999 and has been trying to break the union ever since. There were 60 workers when he bought the company. He has gone through two different management teams, each of which tried to break the union; now Anderson’s son and son-in-law and son run the company.
Around 2004 the company insisted that the arbitration clause in the contract be changed to “loser pays” – the losing side pays the full cost of the arbitration. Since getting that change in the contract, the company has lost six out of seven arbitrations. In the current negotiations managers began by insisting that they be allowed to pick a “local lawyer, who knows what we want and need” to be the arbitrator. Later they agreed to retain the current arbitration language, but then after they lost the latest arbitration, over their attempt to replace bargaining unit members with “working foreman,” they proposed a much worse arbitration procedure. They wanted a panel of three arbitrators for every arbitration case, with the union required to pay all costs, win or lose.
“We have 13 people, and they’re all wonderful – strong solidarity amongst all of them,” said Tyler Clark. The lockout was “a real touchy situation, and everybody stuck together. I’m just proud of everyone for sticking together and not caving in.”