ExxonMobil’s Union Worker Lockout Legal, Labor Board Judge Says

ExxonMobil Corp. had legal justifications for its 10-month lockout of about 625 union workers in Texas, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled.

Abundant evidence shows ExxonMobil locked out union employees to pressure the United Steel Workers to accept the company’s contract proposal and avoid the potential hardships of a strike, Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey Wedekind said in his Thursday ruling.

“In contrast, there is little or no evidence that the Company locked out the unit employees to unlawfully pressure them to decertify the Union or otherwise provide enough evidence of disaffection to permit withdrawing recognition from it,” he ...