Region 19 Obtains Injunctive Relief Order Against Hood Rivers Distillers, Inc.

Seattle, Washington — On May 7, 2021, Judge Michael Simon of the District of Oregon granted Director of Region 19 Ronald K. Hooks the petition for injunctive relief against Hood River Distillers, Inc. in Hood River, Oregon. Section 10(j) of the National Labor Relations Act authorizes the National Labor Relations Board to seek temporary injunctions against employers and unions in federal district courts to stop unfair labor practices while the case is being litigated before administrative law judges and the Board.  

To succeed before the District Court, the Petitioner needed to prove it was likely to succeed on the merits of the case in the NLRB administrative proceeding. That administrative proceeding begins with a hearing before an administrative law judge on May 24, 2021.   

The injunction was sought because of Hood River’s alleged: failure and refusal to recognize and bargain with Teamsters Local Union 670 as the exclusive collective-bargaining representative of its employees; unlawful declaration of impasse in bargaining; failure and refusal to reinstate unfair labor practice strikers; institution of unilateral changes to its employees’ terms and conditions of employment; and threats to its employees as well as statements deprecating the Union. Hood River Distiller’s alleged unfair labor practices culminated in the replacement of the unfair labor practice strikers by replacement workers who have since petitioned to decertify the Union.   

Judge Simon found the Petitioner proved this case as likely to succeed in the administrative proceeding and granted the injunction. He further found that allowing Hood River’s alleged unfair labor practices to remain unchecked while waiting for the proceeding would cause irreparable harm to the national policy of encouraging good-faith collective bargaining embodied by the National Labor Relations Act as well as harm its unlawfully replaced workers personally and through the loss of support for their exclusive collective-bargaining representative. The Judge has ordered Hood River to rescind its changes upon request by the Union, meet and bargain with the Union, reinstate the unfair labor practice strikers, stop threatening employees, and hold meetings with employees to read them the injunctive order. 

“I’m proud of Region 19’s work in defending the collective bargaining rights of these workers and glad that Judge Simon granted this temporary injunction,” said Region 19 Director Ronald K. Hooks. “These injunctions are a powerful tool needed to protect employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.”