NLRB issues complaint against Mountain Xpress regarding Max Cooper termination

Posted on by Jeff Fobes

The National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against Mountain Xpress this week alleging:

“On or about October 25, 2013 the …employer terminated the employment of Max Cooper because of his protected concerted activities. … On or about October 25, 2013 the …Employer threatened employees with termination if they raised concerns to the management.”

The party filing the charge is the Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO.

Mountain Xpress denies these allegations and believes that they will be determined to be without merit. A hearing is scheduled for June 2, at which time the parties can present their evidence. A judge will make findings, which can be appealed by either party to the NLRB. No further comment by Xpress is appropriate at this time.

The Communications Workers of America union also filed a charge against Xpress’ company handbook on Feb. 20 that reads:

“Since on or about December 30, 2013, the … Employer has interfered with, restrained, and coerced its employees by promulgating, maintaining and/or enforcing the following overly broad and/or coercive rules in its policy manual that prohibit and/or restrict employees from exercising their Section 7 rights: Confidentiality of Mountain Xpress information; Business Conduct; Use of Communication Systems; Termination Policy; and Acknowledgement.”

This charge is currently being investigated by the NLRB and Mountain Xpress has asked its attorney to evaluate this charge.

 

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About Jeff Fobes
As a long-time proponent of media for social change, my early activities included coordinating the creation of a small community FM radio station to serve a poor section of St. Louis, Mo. In the 1980s I served as the editor of the "futurist" newsletter of the U.S. Association for the Club of Rome, a professional/academic group with a global focus and a mandate to act locally. During that time, I was impressed by a journalism experiment in Mississippi, in which a newspaper reporter spent a year in a small town covering how global activities impacted local events (e.g., literacy programs in Asia drove up the price of pulpwood; soybean demand in China impacted local soybean prices). Taking a cue from the Mississippi journalism experiment, I offered to help the local Green Party in western North Carolina start its own newspaper, which published under the name Green Line. Eventually the local party turned Green Line over to me, giving Asheville-area readers an independent, locally focused news source that was driven by global concerns. Over the years the monthly grew, until it morphed into the weekly Mountain Xpress in 1994. I've been its publisher since the beginning. Mountain Xpress' mission is to promote grassroots democracy (of any political persuasion) by serving the area's most active, thoughtful readers. Consider Xpress as an experiment to see if such a media operation can promote a healthy, democratic and wise community. In addition to print, today's rapidly evolving Web technosphere offers a grand opportunity to see how an interactive global information network impacts a local community when the network includes a locally focused media outlet whose aim is promote thoughtful citizen activism. Follow me @fobes
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4 thoughts on “NLRB issues complaint against Mountain Xpress regarding Max Cooper termination”

    • Michael Hopping

      Thanks for the factual detail. It always helps to know what’s actually at issue.

  2. RavenRavinoff

    @ Jeff Fobes:

    Many of us in this community have long supported the Mountain Xpress. We have watched the decline of both the paper and the website with great sadness. If the judge rules against you it may very well be the coup de gr

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