Contact: Tony Montana (412) 562-2592; tmontana@usw.org
PITTSBURGH – The United Steelworkers (USW) today said that the union has updated its unfair labor practice charge with Region 8 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against Phillips Manufacturing Co. because on Monday, April 22, the company again refused to bargain over the issue of recalling workers from a strike in Niles, Ohio and informed the USW that Phillips, which is headquartered in Omaha, Neb., no longer recognizes the USW as the bargaining representative of its employees.
After the state unemployment officer denied USW members compensation based on the company’s testimony that the striking workers were not permanently replaced and had jobs to go back to if they asked the company, the union ended its strike at Phillips on April 1, 2013, by submitting an unconditional offer to return to work.
By April 9, the company reinstated only a few Steelworkers to their jobs, so the USW filed a charge with the NLRB for Phillips falsely telling employees that they had been permanently replaced in bargaining and for refusing to return employees to work after they made an unconditional offer to return.
After continued attempts by the union to request information and negotiations over how and when the remaining employees would be recalled were rebuffed by the company, the USW amended its unfair labor practice charge to include Phillips’ ongoing refusal to provide information or meet with the union about recalling the members of USW Local 4564-02 to their jobs.
Phillips manufactures drywall finishing beads and trims, channels, framing components and other construction materials. About 40 members of USW Local 4564-02 began a strike at the company’s Niles, Ohio production facility on September 14, 2012.
The USW represents 850,000 men and women employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations.
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