Titusville, Pennsylvania

After contact with the Iron Workers District Council of Northern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia (the Union) in early May 2014, several employees of Buffalo Structural Steel in Titusville, Pennsylvania (the Employer) began meeting with their co-workers during break time and after work hours to solicit support for the Union. On May 9, the three most active employees in the Union’s organizing campaign were laid off. The Union filed a charge, and following an investigation, the NLRB’s Pittsburgh office found that the employees had been unlawfully fired because they were helping the Union in its efforts to become the employees’ collective bargaining representative. 

On August 14, 2014, the Board authorized the institution of Section 10(j) injunctive proceedings where the Region was directed to seek an order requiring the Employer to stop its unlawful conduct and to return the laid off employees to work. 

On September 8, 2014, before the Section 10(j) petition was filed, the Region approved a settlement agreement where the Employer agreed to return the three employees from layoff and pay them backpay owed to them for the time period when they were unlawfully prevented from working.