When truckers voted to unionize, their employer retaliated with illegal layoffs, judge rules

Weeks after a group of port truck drivers voted to unionize, they opened their mailboxes to find termination notices from their employer. That letter was a violation of federal labor law, a judge ruled Tuesday in a decision that will reinstate the terminated drivers with back pay and interest.

The drivers worked for Universal Intermodal, an affiliate of Universal Logistics Holdings, which operates several companies that transport freight containers and merchandise flowing through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. They are some of the busiest ports in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in recent weeks with a massive supply chain bottleneck causing gridlock at the Port of L.A. The group of about 30 drivers voted to join a local of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Rosas found in his ruling that the company was in violation of federal labor law on multiple counts. He said that the company unlawfully interrogated and fired two employees leading union efforts and that once workers at the facility unionized, it slashed their hours, closed the Compton facility where many of them worked, and laid off the unionized workers in order to punish them for organizing.

The company laid off about 70 employees in total from facilities in Compton and Fontana, including workers employed by its Roadrunner and Universal Trucking subsidiaries.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/truckers-voted-unionize-employer-retaliated-031058570.html