GRESPA wins NLRB appeal
Three-member panel confirms Dean Transportation broke federal law
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has upheld an administrative law judge’s decision that Dean Transportation broke federal labor law when it refused to recognize the Grand Rapids Educational Support Personnel Association (GRESPA) as the bargaining agent for its employees.
The NLRB decision means Lansing-based Dean Transportation must notify its employees that the company broke the law and that they recognize GRESPA as the bargaining agent.
In October 2005, GRESPA filed charges with NLRB, citing Dean Transportation’s failure to recognize it as the privatized employees’ bargaining agent. In September 2006, Administrative Law Judge Michael A. Marcionese ruled in favor of the employees. Dean Transportation appealed the decision.
“GRESPA has been affirmed on every count,” said Buz Graeber, MEA UniServ director representing the MEA affiliate. “This is an example of union advocacy at its best. This is why employees need unions.”
Since the Grand Rapids school board’s 5-4 decision in 2005 to privatize its transportation services, GRESPA has fought to continue representing its transportation members.
In addition to the NLRB win, GRESPA has also prevailed in a Tortuous Interference charge against Dean Transportation. Dean agreed in February 2007 to pay GRESPA more than $600,000 to resolve the dispute just days before the case was scheduled for trial.
The Grand Rapids School Board also stipulated that it violated the Open Meetings Act in May 2005 while it was in the process of privatizing transportation workers. The board was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and to pay more than $6,000 in GRESPA’s attorney fees.
As a result of the NLRB decision, GRESPA has the legal right to represent more than 220 former Grand Rapids School employees who now work for Dean.
Graeber said, “We’re here for our members who have been waiting patiently for this decision. GRESPA is ready to bargain a fair contract for them and to represent them as a true union should.”