Hearthside Food Solutions, LLC

National Labor Relations Board - Unpublished Board Decisions

Dec 1, 2020

08-RC-264349 (N.L.R.B. Dec. 1, 2020)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
HEARTHSIDE FOOD SOLUTIONS, LLC
Employer
and Case 08-RC-264349
BAKERY, CONFECTIONERY, TOBACCO
WORKERS AND GRAIN MILLERS
INTERNATIONAL UNION AFL-CIO, CLC
Petitioner
ORDER
The Employer’s Request for Review of the Acting Regional Director’s Decision and
Direction of Election is denied as it raises no substantial issues warranting review.1
On November 9, 2020, the Board issued its decision in Aspirus Keweenaw, 370 NLRB
No. 45 (2020), which sets forth the guidelines and parameters applicable to determining the
propriety of a mail-ballot election under the current circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In denying review, we note that the direction of a mail-ballot election was consistent with
the concerns articulated in Aspirus Keweenaw.2 Moreover, the election has been held and setting
it aside would result in waste of resources and delay and would be a disservice to the employees
who cast their ballots in good faith. Denying review is also warranted because the current Covid
situation in the State of Ohio, where the Employer is located, would support a mail-ballot
election under Aspirus Keweenaw if this election were set aside and a new determination were to
be made now.3 Under these circumstances, we find no reason to overturn the Acting Regional
Director’s determination.
1 We also deny the Employer’s Emergency Motion to Stay Mail Ballot Election as moot.
2 In this connection, we note that the Acting Regional Director found that there had been
27 confirmed cases of Covid among the employees at the Employer’s facility, with two cases
confirmed as recently as late August-early September. Moreover, the logistical challenges of
holding a manual election in a unit of 1200 employees under the Covid protocols, cited by the
Acting Regional Director, also militate in favor of a mail ballot here.
3 Current positivity rate data for Hancock County does not appear to be available from any
official source. The positivity rate for the State of Ohio, however, was 15.87 percent for the week
ending November 24, 2020. See https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/us/ohio. See Aspirus
Keweenaw, supra, slip op. at 6 fn. 25.
Member McFerran agrees to deny review of the Acting Regional Director’s Decision and
Direction of Election for the reasons given in her separate opinion in Aspirus. She further
agrees, however, that setting aside the election at this point would be inefficient and unfair to the
JOHN F. RING, CHAIRMAN
WILLIAM J. EMANUEL, MEMBER
LAUREN McFERRAN, MEMBER
Dated, Washington, D.C., December 1, 2020.
unit employees, and that, even under the majority opinion in Aspirus, the Acting Regional
Director’s decision should be affirmed for the reasons given above.