GCIU Organizing Director Bert Haft said the union has "seen NLRB findings supporting claims of harassment and intimidation from three Quebecor plants in three states. The board's new findings show that this is a pattern of coercion from Quebecor World management."

During a previous organizing campaign in Dickson, Tenn., the NLRB found that Quebecor unlawfully fired a worker who openly supported the union and ordered the company to reinstate that worker with back pay.

Rogers confronted Brian Mulroney about his termination at the company's annual meeting last May. Mulroney is the former Conservative prime minister of Canada and chairman of Quebecor World's board of directors.

Mulroney told Rogers to file a complaint with the NLRB. "We would not tolerate for a second the fact that you might be intimidated by someone," Mulroney told the group of workers. "This would be inappropriate and unacceptable."

"Mr. Mulroney told me to file my charge with the government," Rogers said. "I did, and the NLRB supports my claim that the company fired me because I want to form a union. The company has repeatedly claimed that it does not tolerate this type of harassment. But to me, the NLRB's finding shows that Quebecor not only tolerates but actively perpetrates this behavior."

David Bonior, a former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan who now chairs American Rights at Work, an advocacy group for fair labor laws, said the violations found at the Covington plant "have an enormously negative impact on workers' ability to have a free and fair election" for a union.

"If the company is serious about workers having a truly democratic vote on forming a union, it will stop its campaign of fear and intimidation," Bonior said.

Meanwhile, workers at Quebecor World's Versailles, Ky., plant filed a formal complaint with the Kentucky Labor Cabinet that charges the company with a failure to maintain a safe workplace. The workers asked the state agency for an inspection of the Versailles printing facility.

The complaint included toxic chemical and fire hazards and broken and inadequate safety equipment on machines.

Dean Compher, who has worked in the pressroom at the Versailles facility for eight years, said: "As a participant on the plant's employee/management safety committee, a certified firefighter, and an emergency medical technician, I have a unique perspective on the health and safety problems in the plant. I've seen injuries happen that shouldn't have. Unfortunately, there will be more unnecessary injuries in the future if things stay the same."

Government documents confirm that employees in the Versailles plant have lost fingers and suffered other serious injuries, many of which occurred because of missing machine guards and lack of training.

Workers seeking union representation at U.S. Quebecor plants cite a pattern of behavior on the company's part that leads to serious injuries, including lost limbs. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Quebecor World nearly 140 times since 1998 for unsafe working conditions in its printing plants.

Tim Neat, a Versailles pressroom employee, said: "When a part of a machine is broken, management says they will fix it, but I've come to see that this is an empty promise. It's time for a change."

GCIU Contracts and Research Director Alan M. Tate said that "printing facilities can be extraordinarily dangerous. By not fixing these hazards, Quebecor World is gambling with these workers' lives."