ACME Bus of Middletown On The NLRB carpet

The NlRB is asking a Federal Judge to issue a "bargaining order" to bypass the actual election and allow Teamsters Local 445 to bargain with Acme Bus Co. in Middletown on the workers' behalf because it is that likely that Acme Bus engaged in union-busting activities "so serious and substantial" that workers were prevented from holding an election to unionize.

"This charge is so serious that the NLRB is saying there's going to be no election and wants to issue a bargaining order," said Local 445 Officer Adrian Huff. "This is something that happens very rarely. I've never seen one of these in my lifetime, and I don't think I'll ever see another one again."

"We're going to vigorously fight them," Mark Portnoy, Acme's lawyer said.

If the judge agrees with the NLRB and decides to issue the bargaining order, the workers would be unionized. Teamsters local 445 would then begin to negotiate, along with the employees for a written contract.

Local 445 filed a complaint on September 29, 2008 accusing Acme General Manager Charles Mazzei and two men known as "JJ" and "Cowboy" of threatening, interrogating and firing workers who tried to organize.

Additional charges were filed after that date concerning managers videotaping union representatives talking with workers, calling the police on union representatives, and prohibiting employees from discussing the union.

Where is Acme Bus - in Russia some place?

The complaints were backed up by a huge amount of the employees

"I'm all for the union," said one worker. "When Charlie found out I and a couple of others were helping the union out, he slowly got rid of each one of us."
She was fired by Acme in September.

"The union thinks they're going to lose," the lawyer chuckled.

.....He thinks the Labor Board likes wasting a federal judges time too.
65 of Acme's 100 employees signed authorization cards requesting a union election.

If the Employee Free Choice Act was law, those employees who were fired would not have been and the employees would already be bargaining for a written contract.

This type of illegal activity happens all over the country and even in our back yard many times a year.

Why shouldn't employees be able to have their rights and the rules at work in written form?

That is what a contract is. Is that so terrible? How much money does their attorney make? That money could have been available for the employees benefit.

Now the attorney will get rich holding the little people down and denying them their rights.

Pass the EFCA or any improvement to the way it is now. It is an absolute shame what happens in this country to American workers.

"We would have had the election in November," he said, "but terminations, interrogations and surveillance, prevented it. Acme poisoned the well by frightening the workers away from the union. People can't vote in an atmosphere of a police state, in an atmosphere of fear."

"Nonsense," Portnoy said. "These aren't stupid people; these are sophisticated people. If they go into a voting booth, they're going to vote their conscience. They think we're a good employer. We don't believe the union has any strength."