NLRB judge says owner of I-95 McDonald's must rehire union organizers laid off during COVID-19 pande

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CTPost

By Ethan Fry

DARIEN — A judge on Thursday ordered the owner of a McDonald’s franchise at the Interstate 95 service plaza in Darien to rehire four employees laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic who she ruled had not been rehired in retaliation for their labor organizing activities.

The 47-page ruling from National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge Donna Dawson came nearly a year after a nine-day hearing conducted via Zoom that began in December 2020 and ended in January 2021.

The case was prompted by a complaint made in June 2020 by the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ against Michell Enterprises, which owns at least 20 McDonald’s franchises, including restaurants at I-95 service plazas in Darien and Fairfield.

The complaint was filed on behalf of four longtime employees of the McDonald’s at the I-95 northbound rest stop in Darien: Mario Franco, Rosa Franco (no relation), Pilar Mestanza, and Milagros Vasquez, who were laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but, unlike the rest of the restaurant’s employees, not rehired.



A 2019 file photo shows McDonald’s employees who worked at locations along Interstate 95 seeking to organize under the SEIU union, from left, Ema Vasquez, Rosa Franco, Guadalupe Lopez, an unidentified worker, Mario Franco (not related to Rosa Franco) and Itamar Contreras. On Dec. 30, 2021, an NLRB judge ordered that Rosa Franco and Mario Franco, who were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic and not offered their jobs back, be rehired with back pay.

Dan Haar /Hearst Connecticut Media file photo


Read more: https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/NLRB-judge-says-owner-of-I-95-McDonald-smust-16741106.php

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FULL title: NLRB judge says owner of I-95 McDonald’s must rehire union organizers laid off during COVID-19 pandemic

Rehired with back pay.

[twodogsbarking]

1. The guy looks like a Latino Michael J. Fox.

Happy New Year folks. Thanks for your service.

[3Hotdogs]

2. With back pay.

That's gonna frost their cookies a bit.

[Karma13612]

3. WooHoo!

Merry Christmas and Happy PROSPEROUS New Year!!!!!!!!

They deserve every cent!

If they are gainfully employed, I would welcome the back pay, but I would tell McDonald’s to “take their job and shove it”.

[KS Toronado]

4. Shame we don't have a law that requires unions

after a certain number of employees. 25 sounds good to me.

[Oppaloopa]

5. I agree only maybe just 20. They will all hire just 24 and work them half to death.

[usaf-vet]

6. Great news for folks who are trying to better themselves and their families. The back pay WOW!

Happy New Year! Hopefully, this will give your family a little security.

My Dad was a union member together with my mom; they raised six kids, bought and paid for a home, and enabled all of us to earn post, high school degrees.

And he was a WW II veteran. With a service connected disability.

[bluestarone]

7. So nice to hear this good news!

Thank God for UNION PROTECTION!!

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. I am glad for them if they are glad.

Personally, I would not be inclined to return to a place with such a hostile (to employees) management. If they pulled this stunt after the other stuff that created this desire to unionize, I would say to hell with such a place. It kind of goes back to the old saying, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!'. I am glad they won this tiny battle. The war is still going on and these little skirmish wins are not going to change the outcome, however. We need to literally gut the current incarnation of 'capitalism' that is destroying our society in the name of greed and ego. And, as things stand, that is not going to happen. So, we celebrate getting one person out of the burning cabin while the entire ship goes down. We could fix this. But, that would require some folks actually sacrificing the gains that have been made in this biased game that is our modern socioeconomic structure. And, it will require effort, an effort that will spell the loss of the hierarchal system we have been under. We won't do it.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Go Back

Accept the back pay, & in the first week start looking for a different job.
I'm concerned that by not going back, the back pay may be in jeopardy.
I may be wrong about that, but I wouldn't risk it.
In fact, the may already have different gigs. Take a week off (probably without pay) go back to McDonald's for a week. Get one week of pay, back pay & go back to the place that already hired them.
If the back pay is guaranteed no matter what, I might do as you suggest. Just find something else & don't go back.

[OldBaldy1701E]

10. All are great ideas.

And, I understand that it makes fiscal sense to do any of those. They have families to feed. And, thanks to our current societal model, they have little choice but to return, even as they have to remove another layer of humanity in the name of unfettered capitalism.