Covanta Complaint Shows Need for Employee Free Choice Act

by James Parks, Jul 1, 2009

Here’s another example of why the Employee Free Choice Act is so important. The National Labor Relations Board this week issued a comprehensive complaint charging Covanta Energy Corp. and all of its U.S. subsidiaries with violating federal labor law.

More than 130 workers at Covanta’s Southeastern Massachusetts (SEMASS) facility in West Wareham, Mass., voted to join Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 369 in May 2008. The facility converts solid waste into energy by shredding and burning the trash. The employees have been trying to negotiate a first contract for more than a year.

If the Employee Free Choice Act were law, this dispute would have been over months ago. The legislation provides the mediation and arbitration assistance to help settle a contract when a company and a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after three months.

The Covanta dispute also points out the need to ensure that the new wave of green jobs are good jobs. Green jobs, like those at the SEMASS facility, can help rebuild the middle class if they include union representation to help secure decent wages and benefits for the workers.

The complaint issued June 30 by NLRB Region 1 in Boston consolidates a previously issued board complaint regarding illegal work rules in Covanta handbooks at all of its U.S. facilities.  The new complaint also charges that Covanta committed numerous other unfair labor practices at SEMASS.

 Says Local 369 President Gary Sullivan:

The board’s action confirms our first-hand experience that Covanta is a rogue employer with no respect for the rights of its employees.  This is another step in our continuing struggle to win justice for these workers.

The complaint charges Covanta with withholding performance bonuses, safety bonuses and annual wage increases because workers voted for the union and that the company refused to allow a union steward to serve on another employee’s Peer Review Committee because he was a steward.

According to the complaint, the company announced it would refuse to negotiate until the union stopped publicizing the dispute at SEMASS.  The NLRB region said Covanta changed work rules and employee health insurance without negotiating with the union, refused to provide information necessary for the union to represent employees and engaged in other illegal conduct.

The NLRB hearing on the complaint is scheduled for October 19 in Boston. To download the complaint, click here.

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