NLRB complaint says Snohetta illegally laid off eight employees after union drive

A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint accusing Snohetta, a prominent New York architecture firm, of illegally dismissing eight employees in retaliation for their support of a 2023 union drive. The complaint says the firings targeted employees who “supported the union” and had “engaged in concerted activities,” and it also accuses the firm of having “interrogated employees about their union sympathies or activities.” Internal correspondence that was apparently made accessible to staff included a June 13, 2023 managers’ list classifying employees as union supporters, opponents or undecided; seven of the laid-off workers appeared on that list as supporters and the eighth was listed as undecided.

The union lost a May 2023 election by a vote of 35 to 29, and the layoffs followed a late July 2023 meeting in which leaders said the firm’s financial condition had worsened. Snohetta partner Elaine Molinar said in an email that “all decisions regarding the work force reduction were driven by business considerations that started long before the unionization effort,” and that the firm did not know the union preferences of individual employees in a large majority of instances.

Key Topics

Business, Snohetta, Union Election, Summit One Vanderbilt, Architecture Firms, Elaine Molinar