Max
08-26-2001, 07:11 AM
Labor board investigates Rhode Island Disability Law Center
By Richard Lewis, Associated Press, 8/25/2001 10:04
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) The National Labor Relations Board will investigate complaints of unfair labor practices at the Rhode Island Disability Law Center in Providence.
The NLRB, in an Aug. 20 hearing notice, said the center and its executive director, Raymond Bandusky, ''has been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights'' as union members.
The board also accused Bandusky and the center of threatening in writing to discipline union members for going public with their grievances.
A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 13 at the NLRB's regional office in Boston.
Five unionized attorneys at the center accuse Bandusky of stonewalling on a contract since spring 1999 in an effort to break the union. Among the issues under contention, they say, are pay raises and layoffs.
The attorneys also said management refused to allow an extra half-hour for a disabled attorney to vote in a union certification election at the center last March.
Ed Stapans, a center attorney who has a spinal cord injury, did make it in time to vote, but union attorneys say he put himself in danger by speeding to get there.
''We are the Disability Law Center, and we believe people shouldn't lose the right to participate in an activity that everyone else is involved in just because he has a disability,'' said Karen Rosenberg, a union attorney at the center.
Bandusky did not immediately return a phone message at his office Saturday and didn't answer his home phone.
Robert Brooks, an attorney with Adler, Pollock & Sheehan, Inc. in Providence, didn't answer a phone call to his office Saturday. The corporate law firm has represented the center during contract negotiations.
Union attorneys accuse the center of wasting money to employ the firm in the contract negotiations.
The union attorneys are represented by the National Association of Legal Services Workers, Local 2320 of the United Auto Workers.
The privately held center provides legal assistance to disabled people.
By Richard Lewis, Associated Press, 8/25/2001 10:04
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) The National Labor Relations Board will investigate complaints of unfair labor practices at the Rhode Island Disability Law Center in Providence.
The NLRB, in an Aug. 20 hearing notice, said the center and its executive director, Raymond Bandusky, ''has been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights'' as union members.
The board also accused Bandusky and the center of threatening in writing to discipline union members for going public with their grievances.
A hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 13 at the NLRB's regional office in Boston.
Five unionized attorneys at the center accuse Bandusky of stonewalling on a contract since spring 1999 in an effort to break the union. Among the issues under contention, they say, are pay raises and layoffs.
The attorneys also said management refused to allow an extra half-hour for a disabled attorney to vote in a union certification election at the center last March.
Ed Stapans, a center attorney who has a spinal cord injury, did make it in time to vote, but union attorneys say he put himself in danger by speeding to get there.
''We are the Disability Law Center, and we believe people shouldn't lose the right to participate in an activity that everyone else is involved in just because he has a disability,'' said Karen Rosenberg, a union attorney at the center.
Bandusky did not immediately return a phone message at his office Saturday and didn't answer his home phone.
Robert Brooks, an attorney with Adler, Pollock & Sheehan, Inc. in Providence, didn't answer a phone call to his office Saturday. The corporate law firm has represented the center during contract negotiations.
Union attorneys accuse the center of wasting money to employ the firm in the contract negotiations.
The union attorneys are represented by the National Association of Legal Services Workers, Local 2320 of the United Auto Workers.
The privately held center provides legal assistance to disabled people.