A supermajority of SPLC staff signed union authorization cards and filed an election petition with the NLRB. We asked leadership to voluntarily recognize SPLC Union. Instead, they hired Hunton Andrews Kurth, a “union avoidance” law firm.
“The Center cannot truly claim to support workers’ rights, while also hiring a ‘union avoidance’ law firm to prevent its own workers from exercising our right to collective bargaining,” the SPLC Union Organizing Committee said in a statement to the Montgomery Advertiser.
SPLC Leadership is being advised by Amber M. Rogers, who specializes in decertification elections and “union avoidance strategies.”
In their own words, “Hunton Andrews Kurth has a successful track record of advising companies and trade groups facing the threat of corporate campaign attacks. …We have successfully used litigation strategies to bring these campaigns to a halt.”
The law firm’s experience includes RICO cases against labor unions at a Fortune 100 company and an international food service client with over 200,000 employees, according to its website. The firm has helped quash union efforts of workers across industries, from electric workers to bartenders to manufacturers.
A supermajority of SPLC staff across all eligible departments and offices are seeking union representation. We will not be intimidated by SPLC leadership or its “union avoidance” law firm. We will see our SPLC Union drive successfully through an election, if necessary.