Citing “overt supervisory taint,” the National Labor Relations Board has sided with executives and dismissed O’Connell Children’s Shelter employees’ petition to unionize.
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 304 filed for election on behalf of 24 residential workers Nov. 14 after Gina Meier-Hummel, executive director of O’Connell, refused voluntary union recognition.
NLRB rules would’ve required at least 30%, or eight employees, to have shown interest in union representation. The NLRB would’ve then determined whether an election should be held, scheduled a vote for the “earliest date practicable” and conducted a secret-ballot election.
NLRB records show its regional office received a request Nov. 22 on behalf of O’Connell to conduct an investigation into supervisory taint. O’Connell “subsequently submitted evidence contending that the organizing campaign and showing of interest were tainted by the participation of multiple managers who are statutory supervisors under the National Labor Relations Act.”
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Supervisors are usually excluded from the same bargaining unit as those they supervise in order to avoid conflicts of interest. IBEW Union Organizer Payton Smith on Monday said the union didn’t see a conflict.
Smith expected the union would “hash out what made sense to be in the bargaining unit” after O’Connell employees cast their votes.
“We filed our petition with both the managers — the house managers — and the non-managers — the residential employees,” Smith said. “And we felt at the time that the managers were kind of in name only. They didn’t meet the NLRB’s definition of a supervisor, so we felt that it was appropriate for them to be in the same bargaining unit.”
NLRB Regional Director Andrea J. Wilkes ordered a Dec. 2 representation hearing to be postponed indefinitely during the investigation.
Meanwhile, O’Connell employees protested outside the organization’s largest annual fundraiser Dec. 6 and called on board members to investigate the leadership of Meier-Hummel and Torrez Dawson, chief operating officer.
Wilkes’ subsequent ruling more than three months later said the NLRB investigation disclosed that managers “encouraged employees to sign authorization cards via both phone calls and emails” and “conversed with rank-and-file employees about unionizing.” It also said three managers spearheaded the union’s organizing campaign and an O’Connell director “encouraged employees to submit authorization cards.”
Wilkes’ order read, “at least three supervisors actively participated in the collection of showing of interest cards themselves.” Wilkes wrote their participation in collecting authorization cards was “documented by both pictures and quotes in the local newspaper. Such wide publication constitutes a ‘universal taint’ for any rank-and-file employee who lives in the community.”
Although Wilkes’ order ultimately dismissed the petition, it provided an avenue for review; however, Smith said the union wouldn’t go that route. Although Smith sees O’Connell’s argument as weak, the review process could drag on due to politics.
More from the Times:
• How to unionize your workplace: Lawrence union leaders share tips
“This campaign, it’s already been delayed by like six months, and at this point, if we were to appeal with all of the crazy stuff happening at the federal level and in the NLRB right now, due to the Trump administration, they’ve already got a backlog of appeals to go through, and we just don’t know how much time it could actually be and if it would be worth it,” she said.
This was the fourth union campaign Smith said she’s worked and the first one where she’s seen supervisory taint stall unionization efforts. She and her colleagues were shocked by the decision.
“So their petition was thrown out,” she said. “At this point, there’s no active campaign happening.”
Smith said the campaign was also delayed because O’Connell’s attorney requested he be allowed to sit in on investigative interviews the NLRB conducted with O’Connell’s employees. Smith said local NLRB representatives would not allow that, so O’Connell appealed that decision. Smith called the request “unethical” and said the NLRB ultimately ruled O’Connell’s attorney could not be present during the interviews.
Since the union petition was filed, employment status had changed for most of the employees specifically referred to within the labor board’s ruling, according to Smith. She said one was fired days after the union’s petition filing, and three others have since resigned.
Smith said O’Connell had also instituted mandatory overtime and given managers additional responsibilities and duties such as sitting in on hiring interviews, which they didn’t do before filing for union election. Smith said it was a tactic used to strengthen O’Connell’s legal arguments with the NLRB.
Meier-Hummel replied on Monday to a list of questions we emailed her. She declined to answer how much the organization had spent on legal and attorney fees, as Smith put it, “to slow down and eventually dismiss the election.”
Nor did Meier-Hummel answer questions about how many employees O’Connell currently employs, how many of those were considered managers, or how many job vacancies the organization has. An online job announcement showed entry-level positions for teaching assistants remain at $14 per hour starting pay — the same wage as last fall.
Meier-Hummel wrote in her response, “On November 22, 2024, we requested that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) review IBEW Local 304’s petition for an election to represent certain O’Connell Children’s Shelter employees to determine whether or not the union’s organizing drive was unlawfully led by and supported by managers and supervisors at O’Connell Children’s Shelter. We had no input into the NLRB’s timing in conducting its investigation. Ultimately, the NLRB’s March 18, 2025 decision indeed found that the election process was tainted by this unlawful influence and it dismissed the IBEW’s petition. As always, we respect our employees’ rights to join or not join a labor union and make the best decision for themselves and their families.”
She also wrote that O’Connell for nearly 50 years “has been committed to working in the best interests of all of the children in its care and all of the employees that make this work possible. We respect our employees’ rights under the law, which includes the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).”
Employees involved in the union campaign didn’t respond to requests for comment.
If our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
More coverage:
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
August Rudisell/Lawrence Times
