Union’s ‘Snitch’ Label for Worker Was Legal, NLRB Attorneys Say

A United Steelworkers affiliate didn’t violate federal labor law when it called a worker a “snitch” for reporting a co-worker’s misconduct and told other workers they could do the same, the National Labor Relations Board’s legal unit said.

The union representing workers at a St. Louis-based copper tube maker was in the clear because the worker branded as a snitch didn’t request the USW affiliate’s assistance, the NLRB’s advice division said in a memo made public Thursday. The union neither threatened nor stopped the worker from utilizing the nondiscrimination clause in the collective bargaining agreement, the division said.

In addition, the union didn’t unlawfully undermine Cerro Flow Products LLC’s ability to enforce that nondiscrimination clause because its statements didn’t repudiate that section of the labor contract or otherwise violate its bargaining obligation, the advice division said.

The NLRB’s regional office in St. Louis dismissed the employer’s charges against the USW affiliate in January, about a week after the advice division sent its memo.

The union’s lawyer, Antonia Domingo of the USW, and the company’s attorney, Conor Neusel of Thompson Coburn LLP, didn’t immediately respond to telephone and email requests for comment.

The case is United Steelworkers Local 4294, N.L.R.B. Gen. Coun. Advice Memo., Case 14-CB-275035, advice memo published 4/28/22.