🗞️ Labor Board Deals Default Judgment to Brooklyn Art Shipper Over Union Firings

The National Labor Relations Board has ordered a Brooklyn based fine art packing and moving company to reinstate three employees and make them financially whole after the firm failed to respond to federal labor charges within the required window. In a decision issued July 24, 2026, the Board's three member panel found that Boxart, Inc. discharged workers Sofia Franklin, Ruaridh Gonzales and Henry Sekimotto in June 2025 because it believed they had joined Teamsters Local 814 and engaged in organizing activity, a violation of Section 8(a)(3) and (1) of the National Labor Relations Act.

Rather than litigate the underlying facts, the case turned on procedure. Boxart's counsel missed the deadline to file a formal answer to the complaint, citing the company's sale to new owners and an unpaid legal bill. The Board rejected that explanation as insufficient "good cause," noting in its opinion that financial hardship and difficulty retaining counsel have long been held inadequate excuses under Board precedent. Because Boxart also failed to submit a sworn affidavit supporting its late filing, as required under the Board's procedural rules, the panel deemed the complaint's allegations true by default and entered judgment for the General Counsel without a hearing on the merits.

The remedy follows the framework the Board adopted in its 2022 Thryv, Inc. decision, which expanded standard back pay awards to include other foreseeable financial losses tied to a wrongful termination, such as job search expenses. That framework remains contested in the federal courts. Several circuit courts of appeals have split over whether the Board has authority to order such expanded, consequential style damages, with the Third, Fifth and Sixth Circuits rejecting the approach and the Ninth Circuit upholding it. Two members of the Boxart panel noted in a footnote that they continue to have reservations about the Thryv remedy's legal footing but applied it in the absence of a Board majority willing to revisit the precedent.

Boxart must offer reinstatement to the three workers, pay back wages and related expenses with interest, remove disciplinary references from their files and post a notice to employees describing their rights under federal labor law.

Key Points

• The NLRB granted default judgment against Boxart, Inc. after the company missed its answer deadline in a case alleging retaliatory firings tied to union organizing.
• Three employees, Sofia Franklin, Ruaridh Gonzales and Henry Sekimotto, were found to have been unlawfully discharged in June 2025.
• Boxart's cited reasons, a change in ownership and an inability to pay its lawyer, did not meet the Board's "good cause" standard for excusing a late filing.
• The company also failed to file a sworn affidavit required to support a late filing request, leading the Board to reject its answer outright.
• Remedies include reinstatement, back pay with interest, coverage of job search and related expenses under the Board's Thryv standard, and a posted notice to employees.
• Two panel members flagged unresolved legal questions about the Thryv remedy, which several federal appeals courts have split on.

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

Primary Source: Boxart, Inc. and Teamsters Local 814, 375 NLRB No. 12 (July 24, 2026)

Primary Source Link: nlrb.gov/case/29-CA-370489

Supplemental Links

• NLRB Edge case recap: Complaining About Workplace DEI Programs Can Be Protected Activity
• Thryv, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 22 explainer, National Law Review
• Circuit split on Thryv remedies, HR Law Watch
• Ninth Circuit upholds Thryv remedies, Perkins Coie
• Federal appeals courts limit NLRB remedies, CDF Labor Law