Striking workers at an Enfield warehouse are still hoping the National Labor Relations Board will hear their case after their employer, i-Health, fired them.
Shelton-headquartered i-Health is a subsidiary of Swiss company DSM Firmenich, and makes dietary supplements including the brands AZO, Culturelle and Estroven.
The company’s actions in the labor dispute have been condemned by Connecticut’s Congressional delegation.
Workers at the Enfield location voted to form a union with Teamsters Local 671 in March 2024. During several months of negotiations over a new contract, union members claim the company discriminated against them, imposing 12-hour workdays and a mandatory six-day workweek.
The company denies those claims, saying in an email to the Hartford Business Journal that work schedules at the warehouse have remained the same for years.
In early December, the union members voted to go on strike. The company maintains that the strike was illegal, and two days later, the striking employees were instructed by text message that they would be terminated if they did not return to work.
In the event, 11 employees and one contract worker were fired by the company for remaining out on strike. The company then rehired new employees to fill those roles.
A letter sent April 14, 2025, by members of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation to the parent company, DSM Firmenich, demanded the reinstatement of the workers, saying the firings were illegal.
“To be clear – firing or otherwise retaliating against workers engaging in lawful, protected strike activity is not just unethical but is also a potential violation of U.S. labor law,” the letter says. “Denying your workers a voice, subjecting them to exhausting and unreasonable schedules, and attempting to counteract their unionization efforts through coercion and retaliation is a gross violation of these rights.”
The company says that after the firings, the workforce took a new vote to decertify the union, and no longer be represented by Teamsters Local 671. But the union and the striking workers dispute that claim, saying that a decertification petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board, but then voluntarily withdrawn by the company.
I-Health CEO Hugh Welsh says the decertification is valid.
“Given that more than 50% of the members in Enfield petitioned to decertify, a vote was not required and the Teamsters Local 671 was no longer recognized by iHealth,” he said in an email. “We respect the wishes of our employees in Enfield not to be represented by the Teamsters Local 671.”
DSM Firmenich CEO Dimitri De Vreeze addressed the dispute during the company’s annual meeting in early May.
“I want to clearly emphasize that DSM Firmenich always respects the right of employees to form and join trades unions,” he said, saying that the company engaged with the union at iHealth, making significant progress toward a collective bargaining agreement.
He described the ensuing strike as unlawful.
“These former employees subsequently engaged in behavior that constituted serious misconduct toward their colleagues, and the case is in the hands of the police,” he said.
Teamsters Local 671 spokesman Bryan Chong says that the union is currently waiting on the NLRB to hold a hearing on the union’s request for an injunction against the company.
“We are expecting a hearing in September,” he said. “We wish it would have been sooner, but unfortunately with the current anti-labor federal administration in place, the National Labor Relations Board has been paralyzed without a general counsel and without a functioning majority of commissioners.”
“I believe if it gets heard, it’s pretty clear in our favor,” said former senior quality assurance technician Lawrence Sanchez, one of the fired workers. “They fired us illegally, they withheld our raises, they changed our working conditions.”
