The plaintiffs claim that employees were illegally fired after the companies hired a third party vendor to perform credit checks.

The National Labor Relations Board has filed charges, asserting that the company had illegally fired him and three other workers.

The labor board judge ordered him and six other workers reinstated, ruling that they were illegally fired for supporting a union.

Ms. Viera and her two sisters were among some 350 union members who were illegally fired by Mandarin.

The court ruled that the Chentex factory had illegally fired the union leaders.

Based on this decision Palenick sued the city in January 2008, claiming he was fired illegally and seeking back pay.

In 1980, 10,033 workers were illegally fired by employers during union organizing drives, up from 3,816 in 1975.

The contract does not require Caterpillar to rehire employees the union says were fired illegally.

And the National Labor Relations Board is investigating whether the men were illegally fired because of their organizing activities.

The company was ordered to cease its interference with the union's organizing effort and to reinstate workers that the courts found had been illegally fired because of their union activities.