Fifteen years ago, several Arizona carpenters, millwrights, and other construction workers who supported unions got the door illegally slammed in their faces when they applied for jobs.
This fall they and their families secured a measure of justice after a record-setting legal settlement brought back pay and interest payments totaling $12 million.
While the victims received compensation and the satisfaction of prevailing in their fight for fairness, the episode also illustrates the glaring need for the labor-rights reforms contained in the Employee Free Choice Act now before Congress.
When the nonunion came in, it was over for us. The only thing to do was to try to organize.
Mel Boyd, former Local 1914 president
The 26 UBC carpenters and millwrights in the case were among 79 union members who applied for jobs in 1994 at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station outside Phoenix.
Palo Verde had been built and operated for years as a union shop by Bechtel Corp., but was being taken over by Fluor Daniel, which was determined to operate nonunion.
“When the nonunion came in, it was over for us,” said Mel Boyd, a millwright who served as president of UBC Local 1914 at the plant. “The only thing to do was to try to organize.”
That meant applying for their old jobs, now offered by Fluor Daniel at lower pay and without the protections unions provide.
The former Bechtel workers wore union insignia and wrote “Voluntary Union Organizer” on their applications. They aimed to accept positions if offered, do a good job, let co-workers know how unions could help them, and keep records if the company violated workers’ rights.
But none ever got hired by Fluor Daniel. Some submitted applications but were told no openings were available in their crafts. Others tried to submit applications but were refused. Investigations later proved that during that period Fluor Daniel was having trouble meeting its staffing needs.
Even today, the company’s refusal to let them practice their trades gnaws at the workers.
“We built that plant, and were trained to run it from Day One,” Boyd said. “We had the skills training and the security clearances.”
It is illegal to refuse to hire a worker because of union activity, so, in response, unions filed charges against Fluor Daniel with the National Labor Relations Board, and after a hearing at the regional level, a judge found Fluor Daniel guilty of violating the law.
But it didn’t end there.
“This case is such a good example of why federal labor law needs to be reformed,” said UBC attorney Brian Quinn. “Fluor Daniel appealed through the board process, then into the appeals court. They even asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, though they were turned down.”
Months of wrangling turned to years, and then a decade and more, until, finally, Fluor Daniel’s guilt was established, and in 2007 hearings began to determine the back pay awards—another opportunity for the company to drag things out.
Meanwhile, many of the workers had been forced for years to travel long distances from their families to find work. Some, including two UBC members, have died. Others are in declining health, and most have retired.
But the workers would not give up and with their unions pressed forward with back pay hearings. In late summer, Fluor Daniel finally made an acceptable settlement offer to compensate the Palo Verde workers as well as workers in two related cases that did not include UBC members.
“That company spent years and spared no expense to fight this case,” Quinn said.
The settlement ended the legal battle, but Mel Boyd, for one, still had fight left in him.
“As time went on, it wasn’t the money,” he said. “It was the idea of what [Fluor Daniel] did to all those workers. They were so bad. I would have kept going all the way through another trial if that’s what it took.”