NLRB Hearing Over Comcast’s Anti-Union Tactics in Chicago

Comcast and Chicago-area Local 21 had no sooner started preparing for a Nov. 29 National Labor Relations Board hearing on the union’s complaint that the company was engaged in bad-faith bargaining on a new contract when Comcast took more illegal reprisals against its union work force.

The company threatened to discipline workers at its Cortland Street facility who wore union-purchased hats to work embroidered with the message “Fair Contract Now.”  Since the workers have always been permitted to wear hats of their choice on the job, the NLRB contends that—by censoring the union-sponsored gear—the company is illegally infringing upon the members’ right to engage in activity protected by the National Labor Relations Act.

If that wasn’t enough, a supervisor at the same facility then attempted to threaten and isolate a member of the union’s bargaining committee, resulting in another NLRB charge. 

“Companies like Comcast who violate our nation’s collective bargaining laws will receive no safe quarter from the IBEW,” says President Edwin D. Hill.  “We are always ready to negotiate, but our members are just as ready to stand together when employers try to tilt the scales of workplace justice.”

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