A vote to establish a labor union at Hannam Chain’s Los Angeles store was rejected.
The Los Angeles branch of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), an independent federal agency, announced on December 15 that the unionization vote was rejected with 26 votes in favor and 37 votes against.
The NLRB will be sending letters to both labor and management shortly to officially communicate these results.
The NLRB explained that 20 of the 22 challenged ballots, which had been pending counting, were included in the final tally. This resulted in 11 additional votes in favor and nine against forming a labor union. When combined with the initial count in October, the opposition still held a majority, leading to the unionization’s failure.
According to NLRB regulations, more than half of all votes cast must be in favor of unionization. On August 3, 65 employees at Hannam Chain’s Los Angeles store participated in the unionization vote. To form a union, at least 33 employees needed to vote in favor.
The vote counting process was conducted online and was observed by attorneys representing Hannam Chain, including Scott Witlin of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, and Jose Hernandez, president of the California Retail & Restaurant Workers Union (CRRWU).
On October 13, the NLRB disclosed that they opened the ballot box for the unionization decision. Out of the 65 ballots submitted, 43 were agreed upon by both sides for counting, showing 15 votes for and 28 votes against the labor union. The NLRB had held 22 ballots uncounted at the time, which both labor and management claimed were invalid. However, the two sides recently agreed to count them, resulting in 20 being included.
The two ballots that remained uncounted were from employees who had already quit.
After the final result was announced, Soo Y. Park from Barnes & Thornburg law firm, representing Hannam Chain, stated, “Hannam Chain, in operation since before the LA riots, employs numerous individuals who have been with the company for over a decade, indicating a positive labor relationship.”
Meanwhile, the CRRWU, shortly after the results came in, claimed that August’s elections had not been conducted fairly. The CRRWU announced that they had already challenged the final result.
Hernandez told the Korea Daily, “The election was not conducted properly due to pressure from Hannam Chain when voting. We filed an appeal to have the election nullified,” he said, adding, “We will continue to fight for employees who are being treated unfairly.”
BY NICOLE CHANG, JUNHAN PARK [chang.nicole@koreadaily.com]
