NAVY YARD — The National Labor Relations Board is investigating claims that electronics giant B&H has launched a campaign of fear against warehouse workers trying to form a union, officials told DNAinfo.
Federal investigators are looking into allegations that B&H managers are retaliating against workers for filing for an election, they said, including physically pushing workers out of their warehouse after they voted to consider joining a union.
"Our Region 29 Office in Brooklyn will be heading up the investigation in this matter," an NLRB spokeswoman said Wednesday.
B&H's two warehouses, which supply the B&H headquarters on 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue, are located at 105 Evergreen Street in Bushwick and a warehouse inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 63 Flushing Ave.
Managers yelling "Get out, get out" physically pushed workers out of the Navy Yard building on Oct. 15, two days after the union's petition for an election was filed, according to Rosanna Aran of the grassroots Laundry Workers Center, which has been working with the Steelworkers Union to represent 240 workers at the company's two Brooklyn warehouses.
They returned to work the next day, but conditions have been "hostile and intimidating" since, she said.
B&H spokesman Juda Engelmayer said warehouse staff voluntarily walked off that afternoon, and denied the union's account.
"They have a right to assemble and we did not impede them in any way," he wrote in an email. "No one was locked out or terminated, and everyone was back at work the next morning. No one operating with any direction from B&H management intimidated or threatened anyone."
The company has "no issues" with the union drive, Engelmayer said.
"We are not standing in our employees’ way as they seek to potentially organize," he said. "We are not hindering anyone’s ability to be heard, or to take part in any decision making process and reject the notion that intimidation has occurred. There is a process underway in which they will make a choice, and we look forward to putting this behind and moving ahead even stronger as a brand that has been caring for its customers as a result of caring for its loyal employees for over 40 years."
Jorge Lora, 36, who works at packing and shipping in the company’s Bushwick warehouse, told DNAinfo that B&H managers have been wearing keychain necklaces that say "Vote No" and asking workers to watch an anti-union movie.
He and other workers were also asked to meet individually with “consultants” who had never been in the office before to sign some papers, he said.
“They were calling people one by one to come to the office and sign these papers,” he said, adding that he does not know what the papers contained. “Nobody wanted to go to the office to sign these papers.”
Lora said managers have been trying to approach workers — many of whom are Spanish-speaking — to solicit them to watch the anti-union videos.
Managers also suggested that B&H could create its own union for workers, he said.
Lora said the company often demands its warehouse staffers work up to 18 hour days and sends managers to hover behind the line workers to try to speed them up.
“They always are putting pressure, they are never good with the work that we are doing,” he said. “They are behind us all the time.”
But Engelmayer said conditions and pay are "above-average" and "generous."
"We provide solid benefits, highly competitive wages and a safe environment," he said. "The average employee tenure in our distribution and fulfillment center is more than five years."
