From the Horse’s Mouth: NLRB Telling Companies “Why Should You (Or Your Client) Cooperate with the NLRB”

The paragraph below is taken verbatim from the August 25th newsletter published by NLRB Region 13 (Chicago). From a management lawyer’s perspective, this appears to be a thinly veiled threat of intimidation by the Board for companies to forego some of their rights and blindly yield to the Board’s allegations. Nonetheless, it does a good job of highlighting the power the Board has in forcing companies to comply with its orders by involving customers of the offending company.

“On January 31, 2013, the Chicago Regional Office issued a Compliant against Lintrac (Employer) alleging the company unlawfully fired employees. During the investigation, the Employer refused to respond to the allegations or cooperate with the investigation and failed to file an answer to the complaint. The Board then directed the Employer to make the employees whole for all loss of earnings suffered from the unlawful terminations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit enforced the Board’s order. The Employer continued to be unresponsive. On March 14, 2014, the Region initiated garnishment proceedings against a client of Lintrac’s in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Subsequently, Lintrac contacted the Region and agreed to pay back pay to the employees it had unlawfully terminated. Lintrac entered into a settlement agreement and made an electronic transfer of funds to the Board.”