The Lansing City Council approved a multi-million-dollar plan to capture local tax revenue for an expansion project at Neogen even as the company is under investigation over alleged union busting practices.
Some Neogen employees were threatened with a loss of benefits, pay raises and jobs if they organized to form a union, according to an unfair labor practices complaint filed last year with the National Labor Relations Board.
The city council approved a $208 million Brownfield Redevelopment plan last week for Neogen’s expansion along 2.5-acres on Shiawassee Street and Michigan Avenue.
A brownfield designation is given by the Environmental Protection Agency on a property up for redevelopment that’s been contaminated in the past.
But some Lansing City Council members say they are concerned about the alleged labor violations raised against Neogen.
“I would encourage Neogen, if those [violations] are true, take a hard look in the mirror and realize that it's very important for workers to be able to form a union, to collectively bargain,” said council member Jeremy Garza at a September 9 meeting.
All council members except one voted in favor of the resolution approving the project. Brian Jackson said he wanted to wait to support the project until the NLRB investigation is complete.
“What would it be if we approve and support and just didn’t wait and find out there’s been violations of some law,” said Jackson.
The developers are estimated to receive $8.6 million in tax revenue reimbursement over the next 10 years.
The tax credits would be rescinded or temporarily paused if Neogen is found to have engaged in unfair labor practices.
“All brownfields require compliance with state, local and federal law, and if something comes up that Neogen did, in fact, commit what was charged in this ruling, they would have to be in compliant with federal law before the brownfield could continue,” said council member Peter Spadafore.
The NLRB complaint alleges Neogen CEO John Adent and Human Resources Officer, Julie Man, threatened full time and regular part time shipping clerks and material handlers with loss of benefits, access to managers and supervisors and flexibility if they voted to unionize with the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters.
“The CEO threatened to take the work to Kentucky,” said Bill Black, business representative of Teamsters local 243 in Lansing. “What made no sense on a personal standpoint is, well you’re doing this couple $100 million expansion here but you’re threatening to send jobs out of state.”
Adent allegedly also solicited grievances from employees and promised to remedy them if they chose not to be represented by the Teamsters.
According to the complaint, employees held a December election to decide whether to form a union, the proposal received 10 votes in favor and 17 votes against. Black blames the results on the company’s union-busting tactics.
“They threatened employees…even all the way up to the election,” Black added.
Neogen officials have said they support employees’ efforts to unionize and that the construction project is 100% union.
“It's not an issue of Neogen not supporting unions. There was a union drive. Neogen employees voted against representation by the Teamsters, and this is the process,” said Amy Rocklin, legal counsel for Neogen, during the September 9 meeting.
The Brownfield Redevelopment Project for the Neogen expansion, she said, is completely unrelated to the NLRB investigation.
“The plan benefits the city and Neogen,” Rocklin added. “It remediates and redevelops old contaminated and urban industrial sites that without these tax credits people wouldn’t be able to remediate and it stabilizes the nearby neighborhood and provides job for Lansing and Michigan residents.”
The case against Neogen will be argued under a new National Labor Relations Board standard established in November. It states an employer is required to allow bargaining with a union if the employer commits unfair labor practices between the time of the union demand for recognition to the run-up to an election.
The hearing between Neogen and the Teamsters is scheduled in Detroit on October 28.