Court Finds San Francisco Custodians Illegally Fired for Picketing

Last week the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling on a labor dispute from 2014. The court ruled that custodians in San Francisco were illegally fired by their employer in 2014 for picketing an office building, MSN reports.

In the fall of 2014, custodial employees from Preferred Building Services sought help from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 87 in addressing their concerns about low wages, poor working conditions, and alleged sexual harassment from their manager—Rafael Ortiz, owner of Ortiz Janitorial Services.

The SEIU Local 87 president suggested the custodians picket outside of their employer’s building, so the workers did so on October 29, 2014 and November 19, 2014. In response, Ortiz fired four of the picketers. The custodians’ employer, Preferred Building Services, terminated its contracts with Ortiz Janitorial Services and with the building’s management company, Harvest Properties, 30 days later, and many of the remaining custodians were laid off.

SEIU Local 87 filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) alleging that Preferred and Ortiz engaged in unfair labor practices and fired the custodian employees for picketing and union activity. NLRB sided with the employer and ordered the complaint dismissed in its entirety. The union filed petition for review at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court ruled 3-0 that the employees were fired illegally, siding with the union. The court panel said that the picketers acted legally and were entitled to seek support from building tenants.