LABOR PAINS: Sunbelt fires back at Local 139’s NLRB complaint

Listen to this article

The equipment lender Sunbelt Rentals is pushing back against a federal attempt to force it back to the bargaining table with a Wisconsin labor union.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company came under an injunction in February from the National Labor Relations Board meant to force it into negotiations with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, which has been trying to unionize the company’s office in Franksville for two years. Sunbelt stands accused of laying off workers to stop the unionization drive, intimidating workers and refusing to discuss wages and benefits during unproductive bargaining sessions with Local 139.

Sunbelt, in a response last week, instead contends the real reason it laid off two workers who had voted in favor of forming a union was that the Franksville office was running under budget. The company also disputes the NLRB‘s separate allegations that it had failed to bargain in good faith with the union or that it had intimidated workers.

“(The NLRB) cannot demonstrate Sunbelt’s legitimate reason for reorganization is merely a pretext, in light of the uncontradicted economic situation of the location at the time of reorganization,” according to Sunbelt’s filing.

After workers in Sunbelt’s Franksville office voted to form a union in April 2018 but did not get one following a year of talks, union officials took their complaints to the NLRB. Local 139 also began conducting a bannering campaign against the company, bringing an inflatable figure depicting a fat cat in a suit strangling a construction worker to prominent job sites where Sunbelt equipment was present.

Sunbelt is a subsidiary of the London-based Ashtead Group, an international equipment-rental company, and says it is the second-largest equipment rental firm in the U.S. Sunbelt has a number of sites in Wisconsin. Except for the Franksville office, none is unionized — although some workers at its offices in Illinois are part of a union.

The company has responded to Local 139’s action with NLRB complaints of its own. Talks between the two sides stalled in August, and an administrative-law judge has now stepped in to try to find a resolution.

Pat Ryan, an attorney for Local 139, said the NLRB’s and Sunbelt’s arguments in federal court present strikingly different versions of the events that have led the company and Local 139 into conflict.

“It’s not surprising,” he said. “Since we’ve filed all these charges, Sunbelt has disputed weather they’ve violated the (National Labor Relations Act).”

It may take months for the judge to issue a decision. In the interim, the NLRB filed an injunction to force Sunbelt to bargain in good faith.

If successful, the NLRB’s injunction could force Sunbelt back to the bargaining table relatively soon, and a judge could require the company to hire back workers, or transfer some equipment and operations to its Franksville office to reinstate a bargaining unit there, Ryan said.

“If the judge grants the relief, it would effectively result in the parties resuming the negotiations,” he said. Follow @natebeck9