NLRB Judge Orders Backpay, Bargaining in Plumbing Firm Dispute

A Chicago-area plumbing company must hire several workers and bargain with their union after a National Labor Relations Board judge found it broke federal labor laws numerous times while its workers were unionizing.

Reliance Plumbing, Sewer and Drainage Inc. unlawfully threatened workers, invited them to quit, unilaterally altered their schedules, and committed a plethora of other unfair labor practices at its facility in Northbrook, Ill., said NLRB Administrative Law Judge Geoffrey Carter in a decision Monday.

Workers at the company sparked a unionization campaign in August 2023 when management proposed changing the way it paid them from hourly to ...