🗞️ Fired for Complaining About Late Paychecks: A Texas Contractor Faces Federal Labor Reckoning at Hyundai's Georgia Megasite

Three construction workers who joined together to protest late paychecks at one of the most closely watched economic development projects in the American South have won a federal labor ruling against their employer, a decision that arrives roughly two years after they were dismissed.

On May 5, 2026, the National Labor Relations Board issued a default judgment against LSRI, LLC, doing business as Lone Star Rebar Installers, a Burleson, Texas-based rebar installation contractor. The Board found the company had violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act by threatening, intimidating, and ultimately terminating three employees, Miguel Angel Bartolo Salvador, Eugenio Lobato Falcon, and Alfredo Cezar Duarte Gonzalez, who had made group complaints about delayed paychecks while working at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America construction site in Ellabell, Georgia.

The violations, which the Board found occurred between September 2023 and January 2024, included supervisors telling workers they had no legal right to complain about their pay or working conditions, threatening them with job loss and replacement, and discharging all three men between January 11 and 13, 2024. The company's project manager and two site supervisors were identified in the findings as having carried out the conduct.

LSRI never filed an answer to the consolidated federal complaint, issued on February 6, 2026, nor did it respond to a subsequent notice from the Board. That silence triggered a default judgment under the NLRB's procedural rules, which treat unanswered allegations as admitted.

The ruling orders the company to offer the three workers full reinstatement within 14 days, make them whole for lost wages and benefits with interest, and compensate them for other direct and foreseeable financial harms, including job-search costs, under the Board's expanded remedial framework established in Thryv, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 22 (2022). LSRI must also remove references to the firings from its personnel files and post a formal notice at the Ellabell site, or mail it to all affected employees if it is no longer operating there.

The case unfolds against a broader backdrop of scrutiny at the Hyundai Metaplant, a $7.6 billion facility widely described as the largest economic development project in Georgia history. Investigations by regional and national news organizations documented more than 50 workplace injuries requiring emergency medical services during the site's rapid construction, with federal safety authorities opening at least a dozen investigations and recording three worker fatalities on site. The LSRI matter adds a federal labor law dimension to that record, illustrating how workers several layers down a subcontracting chain can face significant consequences when they raise workplace grievances collectively.

Under federal law, employees engaged in protected concerted activity, including collective complaints to an employer about wages, cannot be threatened or discharged in retaliation. The Board's action against LSRI affirms that those protections apply to workers regardless of union membership.

Key Points

• The NLRB issued a default judgment against Lone Star Rebar Installers after the company failed to respond to the federal complaint and a subsequent Board notice, resulting in all allegations being deemed admitted.
• Three workers, Miguel Angel Bartolo Salvador, Eugenio Lobato Falcon, and Alfredo Cezar Duarte Gonzalez, were discharged between January 11 and 13, 2024, after making group complaints about late paychecks at the Hyundai Metaplant site in Ellabell, Georgia.
• Company supervisors told the workers they had no legal right to complain about pay or working conditions and threatened them with replacement, conduct the Board found violated Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA.
• The Board ordered full reinstatement, back pay with interest, and compensation for other foreseeable financial harms, including job-search expenses, under the expanded Thryv remedial standard.
• The Hyundai Metaplant separately drew scrutiny for worker safety conditions during construction, with federal safety authorities recording at least a dozen investigations, more than 50 injuries requiring emergency medical services, and three on-site fatalities.
• The case was administered by NLRB Region 10 and decided by Chairman James R. Murphy and Members David M. Prouty and Scott A. Mayer.

Primary Source Author: National Labor Relations Board (Chairman James R. Murphy, Member David M. Prouty, Member Scott A. Mayer)

Primary Source: LSRI, LLC d/b/a Lone Star Rebar Installers, 374 NLRB No. 105 (May 5, 2026)

Primary Source Link: https://www.nlrb.gov/case/10-CA-336223

Supplemental Sources

• NLRB: Interfering with Employee Rights, Section 7 and 8(a)(1)
• NLRB: Protected Concerted Activity, Enforcement Examples
• National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 151–169
• Worker injuries mount as giant Hyundai project nears completion, The Current GA via GPB
• Safety issues and injuries at Hyundai megasite concern workers and advocates, WTOC
• Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, Wikipedia
• NLRB: Concerted Activity, Employee Rights Overview