Federal Appellate Court Enforces NLRB Ruling Against Chicago Parking Valet
Local 727 Still Pursuing Justice in Wake of 2014 Arbitration Decision
A federal appellate court judge has enforced a decision and order issued last year by the National Labor Relations Board against Chicago Parking Valet in which the NLRB found the company had engaged in unfair labor practices.
Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in his Dec. 23, 2015, judgment upheld the NLRB’s decision and once again ordered the company to desist its unfair labor practices and provide Teamsters Local 727 with information it requested on Sept. 29, 2014.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which is one step from the United States Supreme Court, also issued a formal notice that Chicago Parking Valet must post and distribute electronically.
FORMAL NOTICE FROM SEVENTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
“This company remains dead set on breaking labor laws and shirking its responsibility as an employer, and the union will not stand for it,” said John Coli Jr., President of Local 727. “Employers like Chicago Parking Valet need to know they can’t take advantage of our members, because if they do, this union will fight them every step of the way.”
The NLRB’s June 2015 judgment stemmed from Chicago Parking Valet’s refusal to comply with an arbitration decision handed down in November 2014. The arbitrator had ordered Chicago Parking Valet to pay employees, Teamsters Local 727 and the union Benefit Funds years’ worth back pay, dues and benefit contributions. However, the company refused to furnish the union with requested information that was essential to carrying out the arbitration decision.
Chicago Parking Valet owes upwards of $250,000 in benefit contributions and union dues alone, in addition to the wages, sick/vacation pay and other benefits it denied Local 727 members. According to the arbitrator’s November 2014 decision, Chicago Parking Valet violated the collective bargaining agreement by failing to classify the Reid Murdoch Center parking garage as a commercial location. As a result, the arbitrator said, all employees, the union and the benefit funds were to be made whole.
“The company’s blatant disregard for the contract resulted in our members being denied their fair wages for years, and the union has fought tirelessly to remedy the problem – and we’re not done fighting yet,” Coli said. “We will see this through to the end.”
Teamsters Local 727 represents more than 3,500 parking industry workers across the Chicagoland area.
Category: PARKING, Union News
