Sacramento, California

Java City, Inc. of Sacramento, California (the Employer) roasts, processes, and provides coffee and coffee-related products for wholesale customers. Beginning in March, 2014, one of the employees spoke with a majority of his co-workers to gauge support for a union organizing campaign. Finding that a majority of employees did in fact support voting in a union to be their collective bargaining representative, he met with an organizer from Teamsters Local 150 (the Union) in early April, signed a union-authorization card.  The employee then invited his co-workers, who had expressed an interest in union representation, to a meeting scheduled for April 12. The meeting never took place because the employee was discharged on April 9.  

Following the filing of a charge and subsequent investigation, the NLRB’s San Francisco office found that the employee’s discharge was directly related to his union activities. On July 30, 2014, the Board authorized the institution of Section 10(j) injunctive proceedings. 

On August 15, 2014, after a Section 10(j) petition was filed, the Employer agreed to pay full backpay to the discriminatee for the losses he incurred due to his unlawful discharge.