California Warehouse Cited for OSHA Violations, Faces Class-Action Lawsuit

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Wilmington, CA: A complaint by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) together with a California OSHA labor class-action lawsuit filed in late 2014 combine to allege both health and safety hazards, and retaliation against union activity undertaken by workers at the California Cartage Company and Orient Tally Company.

According to The Daily News of Los Angeles (3/30/16), the warehouse is located in Wilmington and is involved in the movement of goods for a number of retail giants including Lowe’s, Kmart and Amazon. Workers at the warehouse have been railing against what they have described as less-than-adequate working conditions at the site, and with the help of a non-profit entity advocating for non-unionized workers, have lodged complaints against three managers at the facility, accusing them of discouraging employee efforts to organize a union.

It is alleged that Hermann Rosenthal, Freddy Rivera and John Rodriguez threatened to fire any employee who participated in union-organizing activities. Those allegations have yet to be proven in a court of law.

The specific working conditions, about which employees are concerned, were not spelled out in the report. However, it was reported that the facility has been the recipient of various Cal/OSHA citations.

According to federal and state laws, employers are mandated to provide workplaces and working environments that are safe and free from unnecessary hazards.

It’s been just over a year that alleged conditions on various fronts at the facility achieved a sufficient level of angst for a class-action lawsuit to be filed in December of last year. That lawsuit alleged wage theft and various labor law violations.

In recent months, employees at the facility, who are tasked with driving forklifts and the loading and off-loading of large appliances and other goods from shipping containers, have been campaigning toward organizing. The Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC) brought the lawsuit in December 2014. Celene Perez, the co-director of the non-profit advocacy group, noted that the more recent complaint by the NLRB outlines a number of alleged incidents from July through October of last year, including one incident where a worker was subjected to an interrogation about employees taking breaks while working in hot conditions.

Perez says the complaint, coming from the NLRB, is an important development. “It is a very big deal for us to have gotten this complaint because it means that the federal government has investigated and found merit,” Perez said in comments published in The Daily News of Los Angeles. She added that the case will go to trial in June unless a settlement is reached. “It sends a clear message and the workers feel validated.”

The WWRC filed various charges relating to alleged retaliatory conduct over the past six months. Those charges caught the attention of the feds, who investigated and filed their own complaint. Case information was not available.

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