Union victory highlights hard-fought, behind-the-scenes labor battles

http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/behind-a-union-victory-1.1381046

JULY 26, 2015 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY HUGH R. MORLEY
STAFF WRITER | THE RECORD

A year after he lost his job, and two weeks after a judge ruled that he should be allowed to return to work, Julio Mercedes of Passaic is still waiting.

He's eager to get back to 1 Meadowlands Plaza, the East Rutherford office building where he cleaned the cafeteria, hallways and first-floor lobby for 15 years, until a new owner awarded the cleaning contract to a non-union company that replaced Mercedes and his union-member colleagues.

But although an administrative law judge on July 13 ordered the new contractor, Eastern Essential Services Inc. of Fairfield, to reinstate Mercedes and 17 other union workers who cleaned the building to their former or similar jobs, that may not happen soon. The contractor has indicated it will appeal, which could take years, unless the National Labor Relations Board backs the union's effort for immediate reinstatement, which includes back pay and benefits.

The case offers a window into the contentious and lengthy disputes between unions, which seek to secure their members' rights under federal labor laws, and employers, who try to resist what they see as the inefficiency and higher costs that unionization brings.

FULL 2 page story at link.