When a union is reprimanded by a member of Barack Obama’s pro-labor National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) you know that things are bad. An NLRB arbitrator ordered the Kansas-based AFL-CIO affiliate, the Aerospace Workers District 70, Local 839, to stop threatening bodily harm against union dissidents it was supposed to represent in a grievance case.
The NLRB sanctioned the Kansas local “for using intimidation tactics against dissidents. The board’s regional director concluded the union had used threats of physical abuse and had attempted to get non-members fired from Spirit Aerosystems.”
Specifically he ordered the union to:
Cease and desist from: Attempting to cause or causing Spirit Aerosystems to discharge employee-members because of their dissident union and and/or other protected concerted activities. Threatening employee-members with bodily harm or impeding their grievances because of their protected concerted activities. Discriminatorily and/or arbitrarily processing employee-members’ grievances because of their protected concerted activities.
The union dismissed the charges in a statement following the April decision.
In response to an April 29 ruling by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 70 in Wichita, KS, said today it will appeal the decision to the NLRB.
“We are aware of the decision and believe it was wrongly decided on the facts and the law,” said District 70 Directing Business Representative Frank Molina. “We intend to appeal it to the NLRB and we are confident that the NLRB will reverse it.” The IAM represents more than 4,000 members at SpiritAerosystems in Wichita, KS, in addition to more than 600,000 active and retired members across North America.
According to the Washington Free Beacon:
Jarrod Lehman and Ryan Hastens were employees at the Wichita plane manufacturer and previously held leadership posts with the union. They filed unfair labor practice complaints against the IAM in July 2014 alleging that the union pushed for their firings against company policy.
And then the union claimed they tried to reverse the firing which is the union’s responsibility.
The AFL-CIO has a tradition of violence. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, has a history of thuggery. He has made violence and even murder part of the union arsenal.
Cross-posted at The Lid
