NLRB judge says owner of I-95 McDonald’s must rehire union organizers

DARIEN — A judge on Thursday ordered the owner of a McDonald’s franchise at the Interstate 95 service plaza in Darien to rehire four employees laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic who she ruled had not been rehired in retaliation for their labor organizing activities.

The 47-page ruling from National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge Donna Dawson came nearly a year after a nine-day hearing conducted via Zoom that began in December 2020 and ended in January 2021.

The case was prompted by a complaint made in June 2020 by the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ against Michell Enterprises, which owns at least 20 McDonald’s franchises, including restaurants at I-95 service plazas in Darien and Fairfield.

The complaint was filed on behalf of four longtime employees of the McDonald’s at the I-95 northbound rest stop in Darien: Mario Franco, Rosa Franco (no relation), Pilar Mestanza, and Milagros Vasquez, who were laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but, unlike the rest of the restaurant’s employees, not rehired.

Mario Franco, one of the leaders of a campaign to unionize fast-food workers at I-95 rest stops, and an employee at the northbound Darien McDonald’s for nearly three decades, said in a prepared statement that there’s more to come.

“After all the struggles we’ve gone through, I’m so glad that the justice we’ve always desired is finally starting to arrive, and I believe together we can make this New Year the one where we win new union membership for all,” he said.

Mario Franco, Rosa Franco, and Pilar Mestanza have also sued Michell in state court under a new state law that requires the recalling of employees on the basis of seniority.

A lawyer representing Michell in the case could not be reached for comment Friday. A message was also left with a spokesperson for McDonald’s franchises in New England.

In the ruling, the judge repeatedly wrote that witnesses who ran the restaurants for the franchisee, George Michell, were not credible, and offered testimony she found “implausible,” “unsupported and patently false.”

The witnesses said the reasons for not rehiring the four affected employees were “legitimate business concerns” made in the midst of a pandemic.

“I do not doubt that the effects of the pandemic significantly impacted Respondent’s business operations,” the judge wrote. “However, I find that Respondent has not been entirely transparent on the extent of that impact and as to how it resulted in the Discriminatees being treated differently than other of its (I-95 service plaza) employees.”

“Here, Respondent’s articulated reasons have been proven to be false and a mere pretext to cover its scheme to use the pandemic layoffs as an excuse to terminate the discriminatees,” the judge concluded.

The judge ordered the employees to be rehired within 14 days, with back pay, interest, and compensation for the cost of pursuing other work and any adverse tax impacts.

In a prepared statement, the union said it expected the franchisee to appeal, but lauded the judge’s decision.

“This decision lays bare the way that McDonald’s and other fast food outlets have used the pandemic as cover to attack fair pay, basic benefits, and workers’ protected right to form a union,” Rochelle Palache, the union’s vice president, said. “We are proud and thrilled that Mario, Rosa, Pilar and Milagros now join other McDonald’s workers who have won restitution in the service plaza campaign, and we enter the New Year determined to win better conditions and a union for them and all their coworkers, as a part of the national campaign for $15 and a Union.”