Former employees at closed camper manufacturer in Pennsylvania receive backpay and medical payments in settlement

A settlement between the major investor in a defunct Pennsylvania manufacturer of camper trailers and its former unionized workforce has resulted in the withdrawal of charges that the company’s abrupt closure in January 2011 violated federal labor laws. Private equity firm Blackstreet Capital bought the manufacturing plant in 2008 and renamed it FTCA, Inc.. Under the agreement, FTCA, Inc.’s parent company, FTCA, LLC, and Blackstreet Capital will cover employees’ backpay and medical expenses incurred as a result of losing insurance coverage. The amount recovered remained confidential under terms of the private agreement. In February 2011, the United Steelworkers, which represented the FTCA employees, filed a charge with the NLRB regional office in Pittsburgh alleging that the company illegally closed the plant’s doors without bargaining with the union over the effects of the closure, and failed to furnish the union with relevant requested information. Located in Somerset, PA, the plant manufactured pop-up camper trailers for the Coleman Company. It originated as a division of Coleman in 1966, was sold to Fleetwood Enterprises in 1989, and was finally sold again to Blackstreet Capital in 2008. The property and holdings of FTCA, Inc. were liquidated at auction. The settlement, which avoided costly and lengthy litigation, was made possible by the efforts of numerous NLRB employees at headquarters and in the Pittsburgh office, where the team was coordinated by Supervisor Janet Schaefer. The matter was investigated by Attorney Cliff Spungen, Compliance Officer Tara Yoest and Field Examiner Paul Fink, assisted by the full regional team.