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🗞️ Labor Board Rules Against Shuttered Buffalo Area Nursing Home Operator After Missed Deadline

The NLRB entered default judgment against Menorah Campus, operator of the closed Weinberg Campus nursing home near Buffalo, after it missed contract obligations and failed to answer the labor complaint on time.

onthelaborfront

onthelaborfront

— 3 min read
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🗞️ Labor Board Rules Against Shuttered Buffalo Area Nursing Home Operator After Missed Deadline

The National Labor Relations Board has entered a default judgment against Menorah Campus, Inc., which did business as The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus, a long term care facility in Getzville, New York. The ruling closes out a labor dispute that unfolded alongside the organization's financial collapse. Weinberg Campus, which had served the Buffalo area's aging population for decades, began shedding operations in late 2024 amid what it described as severe financial strain. It closed the 180 bed Rosa Coplon nursing home in November 2024, then moved weeks later to close its Dosberg Manor adult home and Garden House assisted living facility, decisions that together cost more than 300 healthcare workers their jobs, according to local news coverage. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2025.

The workers were represented by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which filed unfair labor practice charges alleging the employer stopped honoring its collective bargaining agreement well before the closures were announced, including failing to remit withheld union dues, pay agreed upon raises, maintain health and dental coverage, and make pension contributions. The union also said the company refused to provide legally required layoff notices, would not process grievances, and declined to turn over financial and staffing records the union had requested to carry out its representational duties.

Because Menorah Campus never filed a timely answer to the NLRB complaint, and its eventual answer arrived months late without any sworn explanation for the delay, the Board rejected the filing outright. Under its procedural rules, that meant every allegation in the complaint was deemed admitted. The Board also rejected the company's argument that its bankruptcy filing should have paused the case, noting that longstanding precedent allows labor law enforcement actions to proceed despite an active bankruptcy.

The order requires Menorah Campus to make employees and the union financially whole for lost wages, benefits, dues, and pension contributions, to bargain with the union over the effects of the closure, and to pay a period of backpay similar to remedies used in past plant closing cases. Given that the facility is no longer operating, the Board ordered the company to mail its compliance notice directly to the union and to employees' last known addresses rather than post it on site.

Key Points

  • The NLRB granted default judgment after Menorah Campus failed to answer a labor complaint on time and later filed an answer without the required sworn justification for the delay.
  • All complaint allegations, including failure to honor the union contract's wage, dues, health, dental, and pension provisions, were deemed admitted as a result.
  • The employer also failed to provide layoff notices, process grievances, and furnish requested financial and staffing records to the union.
  • The Board found the company unlawfully failed to notify and bargain with the union over the effects of the closure and layoffs before announcing them.
  • Chapter 11 bankruptcy, filed in February 2025, did not shield the company from the NLRB proceeding.
  • Remedies include back pay, dues and pension reimbursement with interest, effects bargaining, and mailed notice to affected employees.

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

Primary Source: Menorah Campus, Inc. d/b/a The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus and 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, 375 NLRB No. 19, Case Number 03 CA 353575 (July 31, 2026)

Primary Source Link: NLRB Case 03 CA 353575

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