Rieth-Riley Construction is back to their old tricks: ignoring facts and trying to deceive the hard-working employees that made them who they are. It’s disappointing but hardly surprising. After being handed a decision by an Administrative Law Judge of the National Labor Relations Board, even after a trial that dragged on for multiple years, Rieth-Riley has again decided they would rather be dishonest about what happened and pretend the facts aren’t facts.
That is not going to work this time.
Operating Engineers 324 has always maintained that the September 2018 lockout by Rieth-Riley was illegal. We have always said that the treatment of Operating Engineers during this time – locked out of their equipment, chased off the job site, some left standing on the side of the road without a vehicle to even return home, their paychecks frozen and their future uncertain – was more than wrong, it actually violated the law.
The Administrative Law Judge ruled we were right.
Operating Engineers 324 has always maintained that additional actions of Rieth-Riley during this time were illegal too. That the company had no legal right to take money back from employees, and that the company was wrong in doing it.
The Administrative Law Judge ruled we were right.
Operating Engineers 324 has always maintained that Rieth-Riley employees were entitled to their missing and lost pay. That approximately 1.8 million dollars of wages were due to these employees who did nothing wrong, and that we would fight to make sure they were made whole.
The Administrative Law Judge ruled we were right.
These are facts. To prove it, we have posted the entire ruling, untouched, to our website at https://www.oe324.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ALJD-RR.pdf. You can read it for yourself. When you are done, you might find yourself asking a few questions of your own, like:
• Why is Rieth-Riley choosing to send deceitful letters rather than checks as recommended by the NLRB Judge?
• Why is Rieth-Riley more interested in paying a huge high-priced legal team to continue to fight in appeal a case they lost, but not paying the employees they were found to have mistreated?
Employees could be paid this money tomorrow, but Rieth-Riley is choosing not to. Furthermore, Rieth-Riley could meet with Operating Engineers 324 tomorrow as well and resolve all of this, but they aren’t doing that either.
But don’t take our word for it – see yourself by reading it online. And then ask yourself:
When will Rieth-Riley accept the facts and make things right for their employees?