Judge to rule on Asarco charges

Will decide if firm engaged in unfair practices
By Thomas Stauffer
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

An administrative judge will decide next month whether unfair labor practices provoked or have prolonged the 3-month-old Asarco strike.

The National Labor Relations Board's Phoenix office issued a formal complaint against Tucson-based Asarco LLC this week. It charged the company with labor violations related to the withholding of accrued vacation benefits, interrogation of union workers and surveillance of union activities, said Gordon Jorgensen, assistant to the board's regional director in Phoenix.

"We found that those three main issues at least in part either caused or have prolonged the strike," Jorgensen said.

If an administrative law judge upholds the NLRB's findings, Asarco will be required to guarantee that striking workers will not be replaced by new hires. <snip>

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