NLRB Subregion 24 – San Juan Obtains Settlement Agreement with Consolidated Waste

On March 28, 2025, NLRB Region 12 – Tampa Regional Director David Cohen approved a settlement agreement between Consolidated Waste, LLC (ConWaste) and Central General de Trabajadores (the Union).

The settlement resolved four unfair labor practice charges filed against ConWaste concerning its waste collection services provided to various municipalities from facilities in Gurabo, Fajardo, and Carolina, Puerto Rico.  The charges included allegations that ConWaste (1) suspended and discharged a total of 9 drivers and helpers and suspended another driver because of their efforts to organize and support the Union and their other protected concerted activities, (2) maintained and enforced work rules that restricted employee rights to engage in union activities and other protected concerted activities, (3) threatened employees with discharges, loss of municipal contracts and layoffs, and other reprisals because of their union activities and sympathies, (4) promised employees improved wages and benefits if they voted against the Union in an NLRB election, (5) interrogated employees about their union activities and sympathies, and (6) created the impression that it was engaged in surveillance of its employees’ union activities and sympathies.  The settlement follows the issuance of complaints alleging this unlawful conduct by Regional Director Cohen, most recently on March 17, 2025.  In conjunction with the unfair labor practice settlement, ConWaste and the Union resolved post-election objections and determinative challenged ballots in related representation cases. 

Under the settlement agreement, ConWaste will pay full backpay plus interest and compensation for excess tax liability to all suspended and discharged employees and pay front pay to the discharged employees in the total amount of $215,877, rescind or lawfully revise the allegedly unlawful work rules and distribute a lawfully revised  Employee Handbook to all of its current employees, post a remedial notice and NLRB Explanation of Rights poster at its Gurabo, Fajardo, and Carolina facilities, and mail the remedial notice and NLRB Explanation of Rights poster to all current and former employees who were employed at its Gurabo, Fajardo, and Carolina facilities at any time since March 16, 2024.

“I’m very proud of the Subregion 24 team for their excellent work investigating these cases, calculating the monetary remedies, preparing for trial, and negotiating a comprehensive settlement agreement that upholds the guarantee in Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act that workers have the right to organize a union and engage in other concerted activities for their mutual aid or protection,” said Regional Director Cohen.