Broomfield nonprofit to pay laid-off workers $450,000 after forming union

Ten workers who lost their jobs three years ago after forming a union have agreed with their former nonprofit employer to pay $449,999 in back pay, benefits and wages, according to a wrongful termination agreement announced Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board.

Big Green, the Broomfield nonprofit founded by Kimbal Musk (Elon’s brother), has agreed to end its appeal of charges stemming from the firing of its entire 10-person bargaining unit on Sept. 13, 2021. The organization, which was restructuring its operations at the time, must also require current managers and supervisors to attend NLRB training sessions on employee rights, according to the agreement.

According to the filing, Big Green workers, represented by the Denver Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America, Local 37074, AFL-CIO, said the organization “threatened employees with discipline and termination for participating in union activities” in July 2021.

On September 13 of that year, Big Green changed its business model from maintaining community gardens and teaching students about gardening and healthy eating choices to distributing grants, and laid off the 10 workers who operated the community gardens.

The union filed suit, and earlier this year a U.S. district judge issued an injunction requiring Big Green to stop unfair labor practices and reinstate the workers after finding that the company had retaliated less than three months after the workers sought union recognition. At the time, a company spokesperson said it had offered to reinstate the 10 former employees. Two of them returned, according to a motion filed last month.

The Colorado Sun reached out to the union and Big Green for comment but did not receive a response.

According to legal documents, the settlement calls for the $449,999.98 to be split among the 10 workers. The total amounts range from $18,500 to $119,000. The payments include back wages, interim expenses, interest, excess taxes and what is called advance payment, or compensation for the income they would have earned had they not been wrongfully terminated.

In the meantime, Big Green must not only send and email copies of the agreement to all current and former employees, but also read it aloud to staff at a meeting “scheduled to ensure the broadest possible participation each shift,” according to the filing.

In a statement, Matthew S. Lomax, regional director of NLRB Region 27 in Denver, said, “Workers have the right to take collective action without retaliation from their employer. The work done by Region 27 staff to secure this settlement exemplifies their diligence and dedication to employee rights.” The Big Green workers’ union is among more than 100 new unions formed in Colorado since the start of the COVID pandemic. But few of those new unions have reached new contracts, according to a previous Sun investigation.