NLRB Alleges Strong-arm Tactics in Use
Seeks to curb Verizon pickets
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/bu ... ics_in_use
By Donna Goodison Tuesday, May 24, 2016
The National Labor Relations Board is seeking a court order to stop striking Verizon union workers from picketing and using alleged strong-arm tactics at area hotels housing Verizon employees and subcontractors amid a work stoppage over contract negotiations now in their sixth week.
The NLRB is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop nine International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers locals from picketing at hotels in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, including Motel 6 in Danvers, Extended Stay America in Westboro and a Days Inn in Middleboro.
The union locals’ “confrontational” and “highly disruptive” picketing has included allegedly shouting to hotel guests that they were staying with “scabs” at bedbug-infested hotels; blocking hotel entrances, [b]threatening and yelling obscenities at hotel workers[/b]; assaulting a Verizon subcontractor; damaging car tires; and using air horns that woke up guests, according to NLRB court documents filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Boston, which include witness testimonies and photographic evidence.
The NLRB is seeking the restraining order on grounds that the picketers are violating the National Labor Relations Act by posing a “serious threat” to the free flow of commerce by pressuring the hotels from doing business with Verizon. Verizon filed a charge against the union locals with the NLRB on May 11.
The IBEW locals’ attorney, the national IBEW office and NLRB did not respond to Herald inquiries.
Myles Calvey, business manager of IBEW Local 2222 in Dorchester, which is named in the court case, said he saw no evidence of members using strong-arm tactics during pickets at the hotels, which he maintained were used as Verizon dispatch centers.
“It’s been pretty low-key,” Calvey said. “There’s been no craziness. We have been respectful as we can be.”
A New York judge granted a temporary restraining order against the Communication Workers of America on May 9 after its striking Verizon union members allegedly engaged in a similar campaign at hotels in New York.
“These acts have been aimed at harassing and driving out of these hotels Verizon managers, other replacement workers and other hotel guests having nothing whatsoever to do with the current labor dispute,” Verizon general counsel Amy Seifer said. “These businesses and the customers they serve should be free from the IBEW’s blatantly unlawful coercion.”