Pols warn art firm in union scrap

Elected officials are threatening to yank public funding from a fine art moving and storage company if management doesn’t curtail “aggressive and coercive tactics” against unionizing workers.

Queens-based UOVO launched a combative antiunion campaign after workers announced they were organizing with Teamsters Local 814 last month, elected officials charged.

Management refused to recognize the union and held a meeting to tell workers that “no companies match 401(k) contributions anymore,” according staffers present.

These “repeated mandatory ‘information sessions’ with socalled ‘educators” were followed by “packets of disinformation” sent to workers’ homes, according to state Sen. Julia Salazar, (D-Brooklyn) City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (DManhattan) and Councilmen Keith Powers (D-Manhattan), Antonio Reynoso (D-Brooklyn, Queens), Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Queens) and Ben Kallos (DManhattan).

The company also dispatched “consultants” to ride with drivers “to pressure them while they are behind the wheel,” the pols wrote in a letter that will be sent to UOVO boss Steve Guttman on Tuesday.

“This aggressive tactic raises all kinds of issues: from the public safety risks of having workers operate heavy duty vehicles while under stress to insurance compliance and client confidentiality,” they wrote. “And lastly, Uovo should also not be threatening to deliberately drag out bargaining after the workers’ union is certified via election.”

The officials said this “antiworker behavior” could prompt an investigation into how city funding can be cut off.

UOVO is opening a fourth warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn, this fall in Salazar’s district with nearly $17 million in funding from the New York City Economic Development Corp. The company also serves museums that get city funding.

Employees at Queens-based UOVO help deliver priceless works of art to museums like the Met and Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan.

“We are following all federal laws regarding the election process as set forth by the National Labor Relations Board. This includes the right to communicate directly with our employees,” company spokeswoman Anne Maso said.