Interfering With Unions’ Organizing and/or Bargaining Relationships
Cutting deals with employers has long appeared to be the core of IUJAT’s organizing strategy (read more here). IUJAT has gained members by interfering with organizing efforts or bargaining relationships of other unions, and accepting contracts with lower wages, benefits, and worker protections. Some examples include:
Threatening and Retaliating Against Workers at Alle Processing Corp:
According to a 2020 NLRB ruling, when workers at a Long Island food processing plant signed a petition asking for higher wages and contacted the United Food and Commercial Workers, management announced that IUJAT Local 726 would be the union and that they had already signed a contract. Workers were not allowed to see a copy of the contract. One of the workers who had been in touch with UFCW was called into a meeting with a manager and an IUJAT representative and fired. The NLRB ruled that the firing was illegal and retaliation for organizing. Read the NLRB decision here.
IUJAT Business Manager Allegedly Assaults LIUNA Official:
As reported in the New York Daily News, in 2014, Laborers International Union of North America sued an IUJAT affiliate, the United Plant and Production Workers Local 175, for allegedly assaulting a LIUNA representative at a job site in the Bronx where the employer replaced LIUNA workers with IUJAT members. According to the article, Roland Bedwell, Local 175’s business manager, allegedly slammed a hard hat into Lowell Barton, vice president of Local 1010, and allegedly threatened to “F*** him up” if he came near any more job sites. Read the article here.
IUJAT Works with Association of Building Trades Contractors to raid LIUNA:
According to a 2001 article by Professor Niev Duffy, an employer association, the Association of Building Trades Contractors (ABTC) promoted USWU, an IUJAT affiliate, to contractors who had bargaining agreements with the Mason Tenders Local 78 and 79. According to the article, a bullet point on one ABTC agenda read “Union Offensive: Local 78” and ABTC distributed fliers encouraging contractors to sign bargaining agreements with USWU instead of the Mason Tenders. The article further notes that USWU/IUJAT has signed contracts in the middle of organizing drives by building trades unions and has harassed union organizers. Read the article here.
NLRB Accusation of IUJAT Working With Management to Push Out Teamsters:
According to a 2015 NLRB ruling, in 2011, a Westchester waste management company, R&S Waste Services LLC, fired three Teamster leaders in the middle of a contract dispute with Teamsters Local 813 and managers began soliciting workers to sign union cards for IUJAT Local 726. The company withdrew recognition of the Teamsters and voluntarily recognized IUJAT Local 726. IUJAT quickly negotiated a new contract with R&S Waste Services. The NLRB found that the withdrawal of recognition was unlawful, ordered that R&S recognize Teamsters Local 813, and reinstated the fired workers. Read the NLRB decision here.