The NLRB Approves Settlement Agreement between World Class Corrugating and General Drivers, Warehousemen & Helpers, Local 89, IBT, in Louisville, Kentucky

When the Wheeling Corrugated Company (Wheeling), a roofing and siding business in Louisville, Kentucky, went bankrupt in 2012, World Class Corrugating, LLC (the Company) purchased some of their assets in a bankruptcy proceeding.  World Class Corrugating, LLC began similar operations and employed Wheeling’s managers and supervisors.  However, in order to avoid a bargaining obligation with International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), General Drivers, Warehousemen & Helpers, Local 89 (the Union), which was the collective-bargaining representative of Wheeling’s unit employees, it directed a temporary hiring agency to ensure that former employees of Wheeling were not hired in numbers such that they would comprise a majority of the new World Class Corrugating workforce.  Further, when the Union sought recognition, the Company refused to recognize or bargain with it and unilaterally changed the employees’ terms and conditions of employment, including making changes to their health and retirement benefits.
After the Board authorized seeking Section 10(j) injunctive relief, which, if so ordered by the district court, would have required the Company to stop its alleged unlawful conduct, hire Wheeling unit employees, and recognize and bargain with the Union, the NLRB’s Region 9 - Cincinnati, OH Office settled the matter.  Based thereon, World Class Corrugating agreed to hire or place on a preferred hiring list 18 employees who had previously worked for Wheeling, to pay nearly $120,000 in backpay, to pay more than $11,000 in reimbursement for expenses incurred by the workers as a result of the company’s conduct, and to provide the workers with retroactive pension fund contributions.  Notably, successful bargaining between the Company and the Union led to a mutually acceptable collective bargaining agreement that is currently in effect at the workplace.