On March 17, a panel of three delegates from the National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of Boilermaker members at Aggregate Industries in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The board found and affirmed a July 2021 decision that the company interfered with employees’ rights to unionize and discriminatorily terminated three employees: therefore, violating Section 8(a)(1) and (3) of the National Labor Relations Act.
The board ordered Aggregate Industries to cease and desist from any further threatening and interrogatory behavior towards union members. Orders further include offering the three wrongfully terminated employee’s full reinstatement to their former jobs and making whole any lost earnings they suffered during the time of discrimination.
Further, the company is being ordered to post a notice to Aggregate Industries employees that states: “The National Labor Relations Board has found that we violated federal labor law and has ordered us to post and obey this notice.”
The notice goes on to explain the protected rights guaranteed to employees who choose to form a union, the actions the company will not take against these employees and the orders they must follow to correct their labor violations.
“The NLRB’s affirmation of the administrative judge’s ruling is an important victory,” said ISO Executive Director Tyler Brown. “Not just for our members but for future workers that look to organize with the Boilermakers union. This win sets a precedent that our union will fight for its members’ rights to unionize without company interference.”
Workers at Aggregate Industries voted in June 2019 to join the Boilermakers union and were certified by the National Labor Relations Board in July 2019. This decision is an end to a long fight for their right to be union members.
