Posts Categorized: Local Union Resources

Every year in February, the UFCW joins with our partners and allied communities in celebrating Black History Month.

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Black History Month dates to 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans dedicated the second week in February as “Negro History Week” to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In 1976, the celebration was officially recognized and expanded by President Gerald Ford and every U.S. president since then has celebrated Black History Month during the month of February.

During Black History Month, we will pay tribute to civil rights and labor leaders and other prominent individuals in the African American community for all they have done to advance equality and justice. Not only will we honor and remember the past and how far we have come, but we look to the present and highlight those who are actively fighting for civil, human, and labor rights to ensure a better life for all. The International’s Black History Month virtual program will take place on February 28 at 1:30 p.m. ET and will revolve around the theme “Reflecting on Black Resistance and Black Resilience.”

Please visit our website and social media platforms throughout February to find the latest information about additional events and programming for the month. If your local has a member activist you would like to profile during Black History Month, please contact Julie Anderson at janderson@ufcw.org.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently ruled to expand compensatory damages for workers by increasing liability for Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs). Following this decision, locals should think broadly and creatively about all of the harms workers experience due to a ULP and demand that companies fully reimburse workers for all of these harms. While the NLRB has always been able to order compensatory damages or “make-whole” remedies to compensate workers for the harm caused by a company’s ULP, the Board announced in a recent decision that it will use this power more expansively. In addition to the remedies the Board has ordered in the past, it will now order companies to compensate workers for all harms that are “direct or foreseeable” consequences of a ULP. This new practice will apply in all ULP cases, regardless of whether the company’s conduct is particularly “egregious.”

The purpose of a make-whole remedy is to restore workers who were harmed by a ULP to the position they would be in if the company had not committed the ULP. The most common make-whole remedy is backpay and reinstatement. The Board cannot award punitive damages.

Even before the new Board decision, the Board has ordered companies to reimburse workers for a variety of expenses in order to make workers whole following the company’s ULP, including:

• Transportation
• Room and board
• Legal expenses
• Costs associated with searching for work elsewhere
• The cost of replacing clothing, when the company committed a ULP by assigning a worker to do work that would ruin her clothing
• Medical expenses, when the company committed a ULP by assigning a worker to do work that would exacerbate a medical condition
• Towing expenses, when the company committed a ULP by removing workers’ toolboxes from its facility and they had to be towed away
• 401(k) contributions and compensation for the investment growth those contributions would have experienced during that period, when the company committed a ULP by withholding contributions
• Health care costs, including increases in premiums, copays, coinsurance, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket expenses, as well as any still unpaid medical bills, when the company committed a ULP by unlawfully discontinuing employee health care coverage

Now, the Board will go further, ordering companies to reimburse workers for all “direct or foreseeable” financial consequences of a ULP. While the exact harms and therefore the exact remedy will vary in each case, the Board gave some examples of harms that may be direct or foreseeable results of a ULP as follows:

• Interest or late fees on credit cards
• Penalties for early withdrawals from a retirement account
• Loss of car or home due to an inability to make loan or mortgage payments
• Increased transportation costs
• Child care costs

In compliance, the General Counsel will need to present evidence showing the exact costs of the harm workers experienced as a result of the ULP, as well as evidence showing how the harm was a direct or foreseeable result of the ULP. So, in ULP cases, locals should be creative and brainstorm to fully consider all of the harms the workers have experienced due to the ULP. Locals should also gather evidence of any increased or additional expenses.

The case is Thryv, 372 NLRB No. 22. Any questions regarding this NLRB decision should be directed to Sarah Anderson at slanderson@ufcw.org.