The US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on 20 November informed the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) that it would seek a rare federal court injunction against Covanta Energy over the waste-to-energy company’s unfair labour practices against workers attempting to organize and collectively negotiate a labour agreement.

In issuing the Section 10(j) injunction against Covanta under US labour code, the NLRB has determined that Covanta has committed serious labour law violations that cause real and immediate harm to workers. The NLRB invokes the rare procedural application of Section 10(j) only in cases considered egregious enough to warrant federal court intervention.

In May 2008, 140 workers at a Covanta solid waste plant in Rochester, Massachusetts, voted in an NLRB-conducted election to join ICEM-affiliated UWUA. Since, the UWUA and its Local 369 bargaining committee at Covanta have negotiated in good faith in hopes of achieving a first labour contract, but the company has frustrated that process.

Earlier in 2009, the NLRB did issue unfair labour practice complaints against the company, including one charging Covanta with withholding scheduled salary and bonus payments to workers because they formed a union.

An NLRB trial before an administrative labour law judge resumes today in the state of Massachusetts over that and other illegal workplace practices committed by the company.

Publicly-listed Covanta generates electric energy from the burning of solid waste at some 40 US locations. As the company has attempted to expand its waste-to-energy businesses in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and Canada, the ICEM has assisted the UWUA in illuminating Covanta’s work rights violations, safety and health infractions, and certain environmental practices before communities and trade unions in those countries.

For more information on the UWUA’s Campaign for Justice at Covanta, visit here.