JONESVILLE, La. — Charges have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board against Concordia Electric on behalf of an ex-employee who claims he was fired as retaliation for his union involvement.

The charges were filed Jan. 31 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on behalf of Dewayne Guice, president of IBEW’s Local 788 and former Concordia Electric lineman. Guice charges Billy Harris, general manager at Concordia Electric, asked Guice on Dec. 1 to &uot;get rid of the union.&uot;

&uot;Then, on the same day Concordia Electric signed a contract with the union, I&160;was fired,&uot;&160;Guice said in a Tuesday interview.

In the NLRB documents, he charges he was fired Dec. 29 over an &uot;alleged one-half hour discrepancy&uot; on his time sheet but that two other employees with similar discrepancies were only suspended for three days.

&uot;NLRB is still investigating these charges, so it is inappropriate for us to comment until their investigate is complete,&uot;&160;Harris said Wednesday. The agency hopes to complete its investigation of the charges by the end of April, said Rodney Johnson, assistant to Curtis Wells, director of the NLRB’s New Orleans regional office.

The charges follow years of union-management problems at the electric cooperative. In December, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lance Africk ordered the company to strike a deal with Local 788 as soon as possible — more than six years after workers first voted to start the union.

The company has said it is exempt from NLRB requirements because it is a public body, a view rejected by the NLRB and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. It has also argued that it was agreed that union members would have to ratify an agreement before it would be executed, but Africk disagreed.