NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | August 19, 2016 | PAGE 11
...Union-busting bakery
accused of wage theft
From Page 1
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legal question: whether Oregon
manufacturing employers must
pay time-and-a-half for both
hours worked beyond 10 in a
day and hours worked beyond
40 in a week. A “frequently
asked questions” web page pub-
lished by the Oregon Bureau of
Labor and Industries (BOLI)
says employers must pay one or
the other, whichever is greater,
but not both. But attorney
Spencer-Scheurich, deputy di-
rector of the Northwest Workers'
Justice Project, says the agency
is providing erroneous advice.
The lawsuit also accuses Port-
land Specialty Baking of ille-
gally discouraging workers from
using sick leave they’re entitled
to under an Oregon law that took
effect Jan. 1. A points-based at-
tendance policy at the company
assigns disciplinary points
and/or written warnings when
employees use their legally pro-
tected sick leave, the suit alleges.
Plaintiffs are asking the court
to bar further violations and or-
der Portland Specialty Baking to
pay the unpaid wages, civil
penalties equal to 30 days
wages, and attorneys fees. For
the seven named plaintiffs, the
unpaid wage claims total $3,300
and penalties total $17,808, ac-
cording to the suit. But plaintiffs
are also asking the court to cer-
tify the suit as a class action on
behalf of all current and former
employees of Portland Specialty
Baking — several hundred
workers in all.
The lawsuit comes after Port-
land Specialty Baking workers
voted 123 to 38 vote not to join
Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco
Workers, & Grain Millers
(BCTGM) Local 114. Union or-
ganizers said they had over 60
percent support when they re-
quested the union election on
Jan. 11, but after a consultant-led
anti-union campaign, just 23
percent of the workers voted for
the union in the Feb. 4 election.
In charges filed with the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) afterward, Local 114
accused the company of numer-
ous violations of federal labor
law leading up to the election,
including: threatening to dis-
charge workers and close the
plant if the union won, transfer-
ring and re-assigning workers to
interfere with union activities,
removing union literature from
the break room while allowing
antiunion literature, and promis-
ing improvements if workers re-
jected the union, such as more
desirable work assignments, a
fixed 40-hour week, higher
hourly wages, and more lan-
guage interpreters.
Portland Specialty Baking
settled all the charges on July 18
with a promise not to do those
things in the future, to post a no-
tice to that effect, and to return a
worker to his former job and re-
move disciplinary notices from
another worker’s personnel file.
But on Aug. 4, Local 114 filed
new NLRB charges, accusing
Portland Specialty Baking of
wrongfully terminating two
union supporters on June 19 and
July 21.