Company must remit back pay to suspended employee, remove disciplines and terminations from files

Phoenix, AZ—After being found guilty in October 2007 of illegally firing, intimidating and harassing its workers, Milum Textile Services of Phoenix elected this month to avoid prosecution for further alleged violations of worker rights by entering into a settlement agreement with the National Labor Relations Board.

Under the settlement, Milum Textile—a Phoenix laundry and linen supply firm—agreed to post a notice in the plant promising not to interfere with the rights of employees, including a promise not to discipline, suspend, or discharge anyone for supporting unionization. The company also agreed to expunge from its files any reference to the 2007 discipline of employee Adela Montoya, discipline and suspension of Maria Delgado, and an April 2007 incident involving Eva Guzman. The settlement arises from several charges filed by the laundry workers union UNITE HERE with the National Labor Relations Board, including a charge for the April 2007 termination of Ms. Guzman days after she testified against the company at a previous NLRB hearing.

Milum workers have been organizing to improve working conditions since 2006, but have faced attacks from the company and wholesale violations of their rights. An Administrative Law Judge for the National Labor Relations Board last year slammed Milum for multiple severe violations of United States labor law finding the company guilty of, among other things, illegally suspending and firing pro-union workers, threatening to reduce wages, placing surveillance cameras in the employee lunchroom, and interrogating workers days before a National Labor Relations Board hearing. That decision ordered the company to reinstate the fired employees, pay back pay to those fired and suspended, and post a notice promising workers it would not violate their rights again. The company is appealing the decision.

Frustrated with the slow legal process, Milum workers have taken their fight to the public, informing patrons of Milum’s restaurant clients about the company’s health and safety and labor law violations. Restaurants including Bobby’s, Mancuso’s, and Barcelona in Scottsdale all ended their contracting relationships with Milum during the campaign. And in January the Scottsdale-based restaurant group Fox Restaurant Concepts pulled all 18 of its Arizona locations out of Milum and contracted with another linen company.

Milum Textile Services is a medical and hospitality laundry located in Phoenix, Arizona. Its customers include restaurants, hotels and hospitals around the state.

UNITE HERE represents 50,000 workers in the laundry industry nationwide, including 1,200 in Arizona.

For more information contact Brian Callaci at 646-460-3867.