Fired Timet worker appeals to NLRB

Greg Harman

Friday, Aug. 25, 2000 | 10:24 a.m.

An ex-employee has filed a complaint about Titanium Metals Corp., alleging to the National Labor Relations Board that the company is violating the National Labor Relations Act.

David Smallwood, who filed the complaint Thursday, was fired from Timet in May 1999 after five years with the company. While working there, he had been a regular critic of Timet's policies.

Smallwood had crossed a turbulent picket line at the Henderson plant in 1993 to get his job with Timet only to later launch an unofficial company newsletter that routinely took jabs at the company's administrative and safety policies.

"I'm not a bellyacher. I'm not a tattletale. I tried to work within the system," Smallwood said.

Smallwood's Titanium Times Newletter, published in 1997 and briefly again in 1999, criticized the company for minor items such as the condition of the employees' coveralls and the sad shape of the United States flag on the building's exterior -- both of which were promptly addressed by the company.

But it also took on cases of perceived injustices, such as employee firings and alleged company harassment.

Before he was fired, Smallwood was disciplined in other ways, including a suspension.

Stephen Wamser, deputy regional attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, said, "Workers have the right to engage in sort of a free-flow of discussion about working conditions. But it's not unlimited."

Cases of product disparagement or the urging of boycotts, for instance, are not protected, Wamser said.

Smallwood's newsletter did not exceed the bounds protected by federal law, Wamser said.

Smallwood and Timet representatives are scheduled to appear before a Labor Relations administrative law judge on Jan. 16.

Timet officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

In the midst of Smallwood's corporate conflict he has had a change of heart when it comes to unions and the work they do.

"I'm now more pro-union than I've ever been because now I've seen what they're up against," he said.