NLRB Orders Workers Who Tried to Destroy Business Rehired

The firing of six minimum wage workers is costing a sandwich shop local franchisee hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A National Labor Relations Board judge has ruled that six workers who protested a sandwich shop’s sick policy-and who were fired more than a year ago-should get their jobs back within 14 days. The judge has also ordered the local franchisee to pay each fired worker about $10,000 in back pay.

The owner had fired the workers after they papered part of the local Minneapolis-St. Paul area with posters claiming the restaurant’s customers were at risk of illness because of a policy that required workers to find their own replacements before taking a sick day. The workers also had been active in efforts to unionize 10 local franchises.

The posters featured pictures of two sandwiches. The text read: “Can’t tell the difference? That’s too bad because Jimmy John’s workers don’t get paid sick days… We hope your immune system is ready, because you are about to take the sandwich test.”

Judge Arthur Amchan ruled the owner had violated the union organizing rights of the employees by firing them.

The judge’s ruling is the latest turn in an unusual unionization battle pitting the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) against the popular sandwich chain.

The IWW had earlier lost a close union election to represent the workers. It was a rare attempt to organize the fast-food industry, conducted by a union outside of the mainstream labor movement and known for grass-roots militancy.