A regional labor relations board’s decision that Palermo’s did not violate workers’ rights in firing a group of employees will likely not change student labor activists’ approach to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s ties with the pizza company, one activist said Sunday.
The Milwaukee office of the National Labor Relations Board ruled last week Palermo’s termination of 75 workers under an immigration audit was legal and not retaliation against workers’ creation of a union, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Wednesday. However, the NLRB also said the company unlawfully fired nine workers for supporting union activity and a workers’ strike that began in June to protest unsafe working conditions.
An attorney for Palermo’s worker groups said they plan to appeal the decision regarding the immigration audit at the Washington D.C. NLRB, according to the Journal Sentinel.
UW-Madison’s Student Labor Action Coalition, Teaching Assistants’ Association and Labor Licensing Policy Committee urged the university to cut all ties with Palermo’s in mid-October.
SLAC and LLPC member Lingran Kong said the NLRB’s decision is separate from previous recommendations, which were grounded in the UW-Madison code of conduct and found four “concrete” violations of Palermo’s contract with the university.
Kong said the NLRB’s decision does not change that resolution.
“Right now the situation is still UW-Madison has a $200,000 sponsorship agreement with this company that has a history of treating its workers poorly,” she said.
Two weeks ago, after the LLPC urged him to cut ties with the company, Interim Chancellor David Ward said UW-Madison would review its contracts with Palermo’s.
