A Case Against a Top New York Restaurant Could Lower Barriers to Unions

The National Labor Relations Board says the management at Lodi unlawfully fought a union drive. If the allegations are upheld, the board could force the company to bargain.

The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against the New York City restaurant group headed by the acclaimed chef Ignacio Mattos, saying that it engaged in illegal practices to dissuade workers from forming a union at Lodi, in Rockefeller Center.

The 24 allegations, some involving Mr. Mattos himself, include surveilling workers’ communications, telling employees that the restaurant would close if a union were formed and warning undocumented workers that their immigration status would be affected if they unionized.

The practices alleged are fairly common anti-union tactics. What is distinct about the case, though, is the new tool at the N.L.R.B.’s disposal: its recent ruling that lowers the bar for a union to win recognition.

The ruling, known as the Cemex decision for the construction-materials corporation it was first used against last August, allows the N.L.R.B. to order a company to recognize and bargain with a union — even when workers have voted a union down, as they narrowly did last year at Lodi — if the board’s general counsel can prove to an administrative law judge that management used unlawful union-busting methods that affected the election’s outcome.

In April, the regional director of the board’s Manhattan office, John Doyle, issued the complaint, which seeks a Cemex order. Administrative law judges have imposed Cemex orders on three companies, but this is its first case involving a restaurant. If a judge deems that Mattos Hospitality acted unlawfully, the company will have to bargain with workers at Lodi — which would become one of only a few independent restaurants in New York with a union.