Medieval Times Broke Law To Defeat Union, NLRB Judge Rules

A decide on the Nationwide Labor Relations Board ruled Thursday that Medieval Occasions broke the regulation repeatedly because it tried to fend off a union organizing marketing campaign at its castles in New Jersey and California.

The dinner-theater chain’s violations included firing a union supporter, threatening to withhold raises, attempting to get the union’s social media accounts shut down and submitting a trademark lawsuit in opposition to the union – all actions meant to discourage staff from organizing, in response to NLRB Administrative Legislation Choose Lauren Esposito.

Esposito ordered that Medieval Occasions “stop and desist” its illegal habits, supply reinstatement to the fired employee and reimburse the union for its litigation prices within the trademark lawsuit.

Medieval Occasions didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The corporate’s knights, actors and stablehands launched a union campaign in 2022 aimed toward boosting wages and enhancing security requirements round its dinner exhibits, which characteristic dwell stunts on horseback. Employees managed to unionize two of the 9 U.S. castles by way of NLRB elections, becoming a member of the American Guild of Selection Artists, or AGVA.

However Medieval Occasions resisted the organizing marketing campaign and tried to forestall it from spreading to different places, as HuffPost reported on the time. Employees filed a slew of unfair labor observe fees alleging they have been retaliated in opposition to for supporting the union effort.

In 2022, Medieval Occasions sued the union over the identify and brand for its marketing campaign, Medieval Occasions Performers United, claiming it infringed on the corporate’s mental property — a transfer the union known as “illegal thuggery.” The grievance was ultimately thrown out.

Medieval Occasions additionally managed to get the union’s TikTok account shut down after submitting an mental property grievance with the social media platform, as HuffPost reported on the time. It filed the same, although unsuccessful, declare with Fb.

Esposito wrote that the trademark lawsuit was designed to “retaliate in opposition to the Union for partaking in its profitable organizing marketing campaign,” and its outreach to TikTok and Fb was an try to “intrude with, restrain, and coerce workers” by muzzling them on social media.

She additionally discovered that Medieval Occasions’ CEO, Perico Montaner, personally violated the regulation when he informed workers he must withhold raises as a result of the New Jersey staff had petitioned for a union vote. She deemed his remarks “unlawfully coercive.”

Esposito’s ruling can’t do a lot to assist the union marketing campaign, which dissolved last year. The AGVA notified the corporate it not meant to symbolize staff on the unionized New Jersey and California castles after it turned clear the union not had sufficient assist to win a protracted contract struggle.

However the ruling validates what Medieval Occasions union activists maintained all alongside: that the corporate was breaking the regulation in an effort to crush the organizing marketing campaign.

Medieval Occasions is more likely to attraction Esposito’s ruling to the NLRB’s board in Washington, the place the case may sit for months or probably years ready for evaluate. President Donald Trump lately fired one of many board’s Democratic members, eliminating its quorum and making it unable to challenge choices.