Kansas Machinist Union bosses ordered to stop their elementary-school bullying

By Samantha Zinnen

Much like a blue moon, or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s not every day that you see the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) call out a union on their intimidation tactics. Recently, we saw just that.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 70, Local 839, which represents workers at Spirit Aerosystems, a Wichita, Kansas plane manufacturer, has been sanctioned by the NLRB. Workers who disagreed with leadership’s decisions, policies, or tactics were threatened with employment termination- and even physical harm.

Nearly a year after two workers, Jarrod Lehman and Ryan Hastens, filed their unfair labor practice complaints against the local, the union was finally rebuked and ordered to cease and desist on April 29^th when NLRB administrative law judge Michael A. Rosas ordered it to:

“Cease and desist from: Attempting to cause or causing Spirit Aerosystems to discharge employee-members because of their dissident union and and/or other protected concerted activities. Threatening employee-members with bodily harm or impeding their grievances because of their protected concerted activities. Discriminatorily and/or arbitrarily processing employee-members' grievances because of their protected concerted activities.”

The machinist union loudly disagreed with the findings and promised to file for an appeal in a statement released to the public by the District 70 Directing Business Representative Frank Molina.

How ironic! The union which had promised to provide a safe work environment to workers, like all unions do, proceeded to threaten the safety and job security of workers.