23 February, 2009
The US labour board has issued a blanket unfair labour practice complaint against Covanta Energy at more than 50 worksites across America. The charge was brought by ICEM-affiliated Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), which organised Covanta staff at a worksite in Rochester, Massachusetts, in May 2008, but has since been unable to secure a first collective agreement because of company intransigence.
Covanta is a waste-to-energy company that operates incinerators and then sells electric power generated from those incinerators to local grids. The ICEM has assisted the UWUA in its first contract fight over the past several months by tracking the company as it seeks new contracts in Ireland and the UK. The ICEM has alerted trade unions, public officials, and environmental groups of the Chicago-based company’s anti-union bias.
The US labour law complaint, issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), cites the company with numerous illegal work rules, as outlined in its employees’ manual. Such violations include threatening to terminate workers for providing any information – such as environmental or health and safety – to government regulators, news media, or other “outside representatives.”
The NLRB complaint also challenges a Covanta rule prohibiting distribution of “unauthorised” material on “company property” or on “company time,” a form of anti-union bias that has been illegal in the US for 60 years. Other Covanta workplace policies ruled illegal include guidelines prohibiting workers from discussing their wages with each other, or from wearing “political slogans” while at work.
The UWUA filed the charge in Massachusetts but since Covanta uses the same employees’ manual at all US worksites, the NLRB issued the nationwide complaint at all company locations. Only a handful of Covanta’s 50 plus workplaces are unionised.
“We want Covanta employees everywhere to know that our union will stand up for their rights, not only in Massachusetts but at every other Covanta location,” said Gary Sullivan, President of UWUA Local 369, which represents the 130 Covanta workers in Massachusetts.
As Covanta seeks to expand its trash to electric energy business globally, the ICEM will continue to alert social partners of its anti-worker policies in the US.