ALJ Grants Bargaining Order Against Novelis Corporation

ALJ Grants Bargaining Order Against Novelis Corporation

In a decision issued on January 30, 2015, Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas found that a bargaining order was appropriate to remedy unfair labor practices that Novelis Corporation committed in response to the organizing campaign conducted at its Oswego, New York facility by the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers, International Union, AFL-CIO (Union). He also ordered that Novelis make whole a Union organizer it had demoted and restore him to his prior position.

In December 2013, the employees sought union representation at the Oswego facility where it manufactures rolled aluminum products for the can and automotive industries. Novelis then began an anti-union campaign, which resulted in the Union filing numerous unfair labor practice charges with Region 3 of the National Labor Relations Board located in Buffalo, New York.

In February 2014, a representation election was held with 599 employees eligible to vote. The Union lost the election by 14 votes out of 570 cast. The Union objected to the results of the election and Region 3 issued a complaint alleging that Novelis committed numerous violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The consolidated complaint alleged that Novelis restored benefits to employees to dissuade employees from unionizing, threatened employees with job loss and loss of benefits, disparaged the Union, and demoted a lead Union organizer. Seeing that the Union had demonstrated a majority of employee support before the election, as established through signed authorization cards, the Region also sought a bargaining order alleging that the unfair labor practices were serious, substantial, and widely disseminated which undermined the Union’s majority support and made the holding of a fair election unlikely.

After a 17 day hearing held from July through October 2014, Judge Rosas issued a decision finding that the Union had established a majority of support through signed authorization cards, and that Novelis had violated the Act. Judge Rosas determined that a bargaining order was the appropriate remedy because the “Company’s commission of several hallmark violations along with numerous other violations, many of which directly affected the entire bargaining unit, and many of which directly involved upper-level management, strongly suggests that the lingering effect of these violations is unlikely to be eradicated by traditional remedies.” Judge Rosas ordered that the election be set aside and that Novelis bargain with the Union as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of employees.

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