National Labor Relations Board

Sprint Corp. must rehire and pay back wages and benefits to employees of a telemarketing operation closed more than two years ago during a union organizing drive, the government says. In a ruling last week, the National Labor Relations Board found Sprint and its San Francisco subsidiary intimidated pro-union employees and faked a letter to make it seem the office was being closed for business reasons. Sprint filed an appeal Monday with the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Sprint Corp. to rehire and pay full back pay and benefits to 177 workers whose San Francisco telemarketing office was shut down during a union-organizing drive in 1994, the Communications Workers of America said. The NLRB ruled that Sprint's sudden closing of the office just one week before a scheduled union election violated federal law. Sprint, which said it is appealing the ruling, says it closed the office because it was losing money.

Employees at the embattled Price Pfister plant filed a complaint Friday with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the company threatened workers who protest against layoffs at the faucet manufacturing firm. Peter Olney, a labor activist, said a Price Pfister executive held a meeting last week with employees and complained about public protests being held by the workers.

Federal officials have prepared a complaint accusing beleaguered Guess Inc. of a host of unfair labor practices, among them illegally firing nearly 20 workers to thwart a union-organizing campaign. The case by the National Labor Relations Board against Los Angeles-based Guess, which could be issued as soon as today, marks a major victory for the garment industry union UNITE.

The salary cap came off Friday. In an agreement with the National Labor Relations Board, major league owners scrapped the system they implemented Dec. 22. The NLRB, in turn, will drop plans to issue a complaint against the owners for unfair labor practice. A victory for the players' union on the surface, the development angered the union, sources said, and pleased the owners because it removed the NLRB as a legal option for the union in the ongoing labor dispute.

A union representative who was banned from an Orange County nursing home for speaking the Filipino language Tagalog has filed a complaint with federal labor authorities. The Hospital and Service Employees' Union Local 399 filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board this month against the Hillhaven Convalescent Hospital in Orange, charging discrimination based on national origin. The complaint was filed on behalf of Gabriel Espiritu, 46, of Glassell Park.

A union representative who was banned from an Orange County nursing home for speaking the Filipino language Tagalog has filed a complaint with federal labor authorities. The Hospital and Service Employees' Union Local 399 filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board this month against the Hillhaven Convalescent Hospital in Orange, charging discrimination based on national origin. The complaint was filed on behalf of Gabriel Espiritu, 46, of Glassell Park.

The longest and costliest work stoppage in professional sports history is over. Acting baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Sunday that major league owners have accepted the players' unconditional offer to end a strike that began on Aug. 12. The 1995 season, which had been scheduled to start on Sunday night with teams using replacement players, will start April 26. Each team will play 144 games, 18 fewer than normal.

Allan H. Selig, forever branded in the minds of fans as A Man Named Bud, looked out from his perch on the podium and uttered the second great sports revelation in recent weeks to gush forth from this city. But unlike Michael Jordan's, this announcement was plural: "They're Back!" Specifically, Selig, the acting commissioner of baseball--as opposed to the baseball commissioner of acting--said, "The players are back. The game is back." And so it is.

Their losing streak really isn't as long as that of the Washington Generals, the Harlem Globetrotters' longtime patsy, but the lawyers for baseball's owners did take another whipping Tuesday. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York denied the owners' request to stay the injunction issued against them by a federal judge last Friday, apparently clearing the way for the season to start April 26.