NLRB Backs Utility Workers, Ruling Covanta Energy’s Work Rules Illegal

by James Parks, Feb 26, 2009

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has authorized a complaint charging Covanta Energy with violating federal labor law at more than 50 locations across the United States. The complaint is based on charges filed by Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 369, which challenged Covanta work rules as illegal, including rules that employees would be fired for providing any information about the company to government investigators, the news media or other “outside representatives.”

Gary Sullivan, president of Local 369, says:

The Board’s decision to issue a nationwide complaint against Covanta confirms our charge that this renegade company runs roughshod over workers’ rights. We intend to challenge Covanta’s illegal conduct at every turn.

Covanta operates more than 50 waste incinerators and related facilities throughout the nation and is aggressively increasing its international operations. The NLRB complaint covers all Covanta’s U.S. facilities.

Some 150 workers at Covanta’s Rochester, Mass., plant voted for Local 369 in May 2008 but have been unable to win a first contract because of unfair company tactics—including the work rules. The NLRB complaint also challenges a Covanta rule prohibiting solicitation or distribution of “unauthorized” material anywhere on “company property” or on “company time.”

Other Covanta policies charged under the complaint include rules prohibiting employees from discussing wages with each other or from wearing any “political slogans” at work.

David Leonardi, business agent for Local 369, told the Andover (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune that the rules made it difficult for workers to form a union at the Rochester plant last year.

Leonardi said the rules caused uneasiness among union members at the facility last fall when the union’s chief steward distributed leaflets in the lunchroom notifying union members of an upcoming union meeting.

A supervisor walking behind him was collecting them, crumbling them up and tossing them into the trash. I’m sure it made employees feel the company doesn’t support them being in or a part of a union. I think the rules were drafted by someone who really pressed the envelope and that they thought they could get away with something.

He said a rule that bans employees from speaking to members of the news media also created uneasiness among Covanta employees who had evacuated the Rochester facility in 2007 after a fire broke out.

The workers, who are fighting for safer working conditions, say they must change high-voltage electrical gear while standing in several inches of boiler water.

Says Gerry Fadich, chief steward at Covanta’s Rochester, Mass., plant:

It’s a shame that management refuses to simply respect our rights, but we’re not going to let that stop us from building a strong union for Covanta employees.

The union also is picking up international support for their cause. In Britain, the Trade Union Congress recently requested its member unions to publicize Covanta’s anti-worker polices in four British communities where the company has proposed building new plants.  

For more information on the UWUA’s campaign for justice for Covanta workers, click here.

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