CLARKSBURG — Two former employees filed a class action lawsuit suing Mylan Pharmaceuticals claiming it breached its contract with two sets of workers that it laid off in 2018 and in 2021.
Viatris Inc.; Pfizer Inc.; United Steel, Paper & Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial & Service Workers International Union; and Local Union 8-957 were also named as defendants in the suit.
Kristina Sypolt and Gregory Sypolt are members of the defendant unions and were employed by Mylan, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
The plaintiffs claim Pfizer and Viatris harmed them when the companies laid them off from their jobs in 2018 and 2021. They filed the lawsuit as a class-action lawsuit.
The 2018 and 2021 class members allege the defendants breached their contracts with the class members.
They claim Mylan knowingly violated the terms of the agreement when it was in place to avoid paying rates for members solely in order to form another corporation, move operations overseas and pay less in wages than the agreement provided.
The plaintiffs claim Mylan entered into the agreement with the unions with the intended benefit owed to its members and set rates and other benefits to be kept in place until 2023. The agreement was in place when the defendants violated the agreement and cost more than 1,500 jobs.
"Importantly, Mylan via its newly named company will continue production of the exact same products (drugs) that were being produced in Morgantown, West Virginia," the complaint states. "No loss of production demand exists. Thus, the decision to close the operation violates the agreement that was, and still is, in place."
The plaintiffs and class members are suing a jury trial and injunctive relief. They are represented by D. Adrian Hoosier II of Hoosier Law Firm of Charleston.
The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Irene M. Keeley
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number: 1:21-cv-00108
