Interbake labor relations hearings close

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nvdaily.com/business/2009/02/interbake-labor-relations-hearings-close.html

Decision on unfair practice charges to be issued soon

By James Heffernan -- Daily Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- For seven weeks, attorneys for the nation's third-largest cracker and cookie maker have been chewing on a 48-count indictment charging the company with unfair labor practices at its Front Royal bakery.

Hearings in the case against Interbake Foods wrapped up on Tuesday. A federal labor relations judge will issue a written decision in the coming months.


Interbake Foods near Front Royal faces 48 counts of unfair labor practices. Dennis Grundman/Daily file

The complaint, brought by the Baltimore regional office of the National Labor Relations Board, centers around a more than two-year effort on the part of workers at Interbake Foods' local facility to join the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union. It alleges the plant's union supporters were routinely harassed, intimidated, put under surveillance, threatened with loss of benefits, disciplined and even fired leading up to a series of union elections going back to 2006.

Interbake's parent company, George Weston's, had a long-standing relationship with BCTGM, and shortly after the Front Royal plant opened in the spring of 2006, about two-thirds of the employees signed authorization cards expressing their desire to join the union. But that fall, the company declined to recognize BCTGM as the plant's bargaining representative, leaving the union decision to play out through the normal election process.

BCTGM international representative John J. Price said the move raised an eyebrow among union officials.

"Given Weston's prior history, I have no idea why they did it," he said. "That's the million-dollar question."

Interbake attorney Mark Keenan, of the law firm McGuireWoods, said union campaigns are nothing new to the company. Interbake's bakery in North Sioux City, S.D., is a union facility.

FULL story at link.