Labor board faults Adelphia in CWA charge
BY JOHN WILFONG
and EVELYN RYAN
The Dominion Post – August 19th (Morgantown West Virginia)
Communications Workers of America officials are hoping a National Labor Relations Board decision against Adelphia Morgantown will jump-start stalled contract negotiations. NLRB officials said they agree with some of the unfair labor practice charges filed by CWA Local 2004 against Adelphia, but they are still working to determine any official sanctions.
CWA's charges included encouraging union members to resign from the union, offering wage increases for non-union employees and moving work to non-union locations, according to a CWA release. Until any action is taken, a separate issue of union de-certification remains unresolved. There's a potential the de-certification movement could be dismissed depending on the outcome of the NLRB's findings.
Officials from the NLRB and Adelphia have been meeting to determine a settlement agreement on the findings of unfair practices. If that fails, NLRB has the power to issue a formal complaint against the company. Susan Lorenzo, Adelphia Morgantown general manager, would not comment on the specifics involving the NLRB findings, nor the current status of labor relations. "It would not only be inappropriate, but it's not professional to give any comment until we get a resolution from the NLRB," she said. "Whatever the settlement proposal is, it will have some sort of impact on Adelphia. No matter what the outcome is, we stand 100 percent behind our employees and we will continue to do whatever is in the best interest of our employees."
Ron Gaskins, CWA Local 2004 President, said the latest step in the labor dispute -- which has stretched over the better part of the year -- at the very least boosted the morale of union members who have been working without a contract since Nov. 30, 2002. "We really felt we were hitting by the numbers and working hard," Gaskins said. Still, we weren't getting anywhere, and one of the reasons we weren't getting anywhere was because Adelphia was not playing by the rules." The dispute culminated in a three-week strike that started May 21. Adelphia union members returned to the job June 13, still without a contract. Gaskins said they haven't sat down at the negotiation table since.
Nuts and bolts. The process began when the union filed charges --known as unfair labor practices -- and the NLRB investigated. CWA 2004 filed the charges on May 29, shortly after union members walked off the job. "It's true we have determined that certain aspects of the charges have merit, but not all of them," said Gerald Kobell, Pittsburgh National Labor Relations Board regional director. "No official action has been taken yet. We have communicated what we think is unlawful and we are going to seek a settlement." He said they "are trying to put together a settlement package that will avoid going further" to a formal complaint. "We are now in the talking stages to try to resolve matters between the company and the union. We hope to do this within a week. If we can get it settled, terrific. If not, we will take the steps to set forth a complaint."
He said Adelphia encouraged members to resign from the union.
Adelphia also offered wage increases for non-union employees.
Kobell said companies can pay replacement workers more than they paid striking union employees because the replacement workers are giving up other jobs to work during the strike.
However, companies cannot pay regular employees who cross the picket line any more than their regular union wages.
"They were paying non-striking employees additional money, that's what we found to be unlawful," he said. Kobell also said the NLRB "found merit" in the charge that Adelphia was moving work to non-union locations. No official action has been taken on a petition to decertify CWA 2004 as the union representing Adelphia workers, Kobell said. This petition was filed on June 23. Should the NLRB find that wrongdoing by the company led to the de-certification petition being filed, then it will be dismissed.
