Thread regarding Altice USA (Cablevision) layoffs

H.R. 785

agreed, Verizon related issues need to be posted in the Verizon section of the website.

I believe this following news article is more appropriate to post here.

6 Cablevision Workers Wrongly Moved Over Union Ties, NLRB Says

Law360, New York (May 12, 2017, 8:39 PM EDT) -- The National Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday that Cablevision illegally transferred a half-dozen employees out of a Bronx facility because they were known as union supporters whose removal would shift the balance at the worksite toward anti-union workers amid a potential unionization drive.

A unanimous three-judge panel upheld a September ruling by Administrative Law Judge Mindy E. Landow that Cablevision Systems New York City Corp. and holding company CSC Holdings Inc. violated the National Labor Relations Act when they involuntarily transferred six workers — Andres Garcia, Paul Murray, Bernard Paez, Wayne Roberts, Ezequiel Lajara and Mike Vetrano — from the Bronx to locations in Connecticut and Westchester County.

“The respondent failed to provide a credible explanation for its suspicious decision to transfer the six discriminatees just one month after they were all identified as union supporters and in the context of the respondent’s growing concerns about the threat of unionization,” the board said. “Moreover, we agree with the judge that the respondent’s harsh execution of the transfers pointedly contradicts the respondent’s assertion that the transfers were nondisciplinary and nondiscriminatory.”

The six employees at issue had worked as outside plant technicians at Cablevision's Bronx facility. After an unsuccessful 2012 organizing campaign at the worksite by the Communications Workers of America, the company began “closely monitoring” its employees for signs of interest in unionization, according to Thursday’s ruling.

That monitoring included the constant questioning of employees as well as numerous internal communications, according to court documents.

The company responded to the threat of unionization with mandatory “union awareness” meetings for supervisors and managerial personnel, internal communications, and employee meetings where unionization was discussed, according to court documents.

In the ensuing months, an incident arose over an OSP technician — not one of the six individuals at issue in the instant case — engaging in threatening and physically aggressive behavior, according to court documents. After Cablevision conducted an investigation, it fired the worker and his supervisor, but also decided that further actions were needed to facilitate a positive working environment, it said.

As part of those additional actions, the company involuntarily transferred the six employees and told them they had to report to new work locations in Connecticut and Westchester. In some cases, the workers' commutes were made much longer, and two of the individuals who were transferred to Connecticut had been commuting to the Bronx with family members and were not given time to make new arrangements, according to court documents.

In ruling that the involuntary transfers were illegal, the NLRB said Cablevision knew or should have known that the workers were engaged in protected activity, and said the NLRB general counsel proved that the employer had shown animus toward that protected activity.

“That animus is compellingly demonstrated by the fact that the respondent’s involuntary transfers of the six discriminatees flipped the balance of the OSP technicians from a majority of pro-union (Red Sox) supporters to a majority of pro-company (Yankees) and on the fence (Mets) employees,” the NLRB said, referencing baseball-themed code words it said the company used to keep track of union support. “The respondent acted on its demonstrated concern by diluting union support among OSP technicians to a point at which it believed that a union vote would be unsuccessful.”

Specifically, the board noted that prior to the transfers, there were 27 pro-union employees against 25 anti-union and on the fence employees, with the transfers knocking the former down to about 20.

The board agreed with the ALJ that the reasons Cablevision stated for transferring the workers — to improve the working environment in the Bronx facility and to give the six employees “a fresh start” — were pretextual.

The board pointed out that Cablevision transferred only pro-union workers, none of whom had engaged in any aggressive behavior.

“The only other reason proffered by the respondent for the selection of the discriminatees was their commutes,” the board said. “However, as found by the judge, [testimony by Cablevision HR representatives] was inconsistent, vague and undermined by the fact that the resulting commutes were more difficult for some of the discriminatees.”

As a result of the order, Cablevision was ordered to stop involuntarily transferring employees, transfer the six workers in this case back to the Bronx facility or an equivalent site, and make several of them whole for commuting expenses they were forced to incur, according to the ruling.

https://www.law360.com/articles/923488/6-cable-workers-wrongly-moved-over-union-ties-nlrb-says

Verizon page is a couple over. Our company has many problems and this certainly isn't one