Unfair Labor Practice Charges Filed Against R.R. Donnelly

Pontiac, Illinois, Employees Allege Harrassment

Charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) against publishing giant R.R. Donnelly by the Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters Union (GCC) on behalf of the employees of the Pontiac, Illinois printing facility.

The union charges that R.R. Donnelly managers surveilled its employees’ union activities, threatened to close the plant if employees joined the union, threatened to retaliate against an employee if he continued to support the union and engaged in other unlawful acts.

“These workers want to improve their wages and gain some real job security through membership in the Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters Union,” said George Tedeschi, President of the GCC and Teamsters Vice President. “We already represent employees of other R.R. Donnelly facilities and word has spread about workplace improvement due to union membership. It’s amazing that the company’s own managers are treating their employees with such hostility.”

Recently, the NLRB found that five of the charges against R.R. Donnelly were merited and the board offered to settle the case. However, R.R. Donnelly rejected the settlement. Now the next step will be a hearing before an administrative law judge on June 23, 2008.

“We look forward to presenting our case before the NLRB,” Tedeschi said. “The law is on our side when it comes to the rights of employees to form a union in their workplace.”

The Graphic Communications Conference of the Teamsters Union represents more than 70,000 employees of newspapers, magazines and book publishers throughout the United States. The Teamsters Union was founded in 1903 and represents more than 1.4 million hard working men and women in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

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