LONGVIEW, Washington (From The Daily News) -- An administrative law judge ruled in March that Weyerhaeuser demonstrated an "antiunion animus" when it abruptly revoked Greg Pallesen's leave of absence in 2015 -- after more than decade of service as vice president of Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers. AWPPW represents about 450 hourly employees at Weyerhaeuser's Longview operations.

Union leaders held off on announcing the ruling until last week because they wanted to see if the Weyerhaeuser would appeal the decision, Pallesen said Monday. Notice of the judge's ruling was posted in the Longview mill last week.

Weyerhaeuser confirmed Monday it is complying with the judge's orders to reinstate Pallesen's leave of absence until January 2017, among other requirements. However, the company declined to comment further.

Pallesen was a technician in Longview when he went on a long-term leave of absence to take on the union leadership role in 2003. He has been re-elected to a senior AWPPW leadership positions many times. Under his leave, Pallesen does not receive pay or medical benefits from Weyerhaeuser, but he does receive reimbursement for steel-toed shoes and a pension plan, he said.

According to court documents, Pallesen historically has not had a close working relationship with the mill's leadership. He became more involved in the mill, though, when AWPPW began filing several unfair labor practice charges against the company in late 2014.

In December 2014, when former human resources manager Diana Zolotko claimed that another union official was cyberbullying her with requests for information, Pallesen intervened. He asked to know how a routine request for information was considered cyberbullying; and Zolotko responded with the same message. The exchange was repeated at least once again.

Less than two months later, Zolotko notified Pallesen that the company would terminate his leave of absence, almost two years before the union understood his leave was slated to end in January 2017.

The company argued it was merely following policy and said that his leave of absence was supposed to end at the same time that a 2007 collective bargaining agreement with the union ended. Pallesen was told to show up at the mill in March 2015 ready to work again, but this time under a lower position and at lower pay. He would also have to complete a drug test, physical examination and new employee training, the company said.

Judge Gerald Etchingham rejected the company's argument that Pallesen only had "token" involvement in the mill's labor organizing and that the company somehow was unaware of his union activities in late 2014 to early 2015, at the time the his leave of absence was revoked.

"By discriminating against Pallesen, (Weyerhaeuser) has acted illegally ... thereby discouraging membership in a labor organization by employees, because Pallesen assisted the union and engaged in protected concerted activities," Etchingham wrote.

Even after this, though, Pallesen said he will seek re-election as vice president in the fall.

"I believe in organized labor, where people have a voice in the workplace. Organized labor is the only real voice people have; without it corporations would run all over us," he said this week.

Separately, Pallesen said the union is awaiting a decision from an appeals court in Washington, D.C., regarding another unfair labor practice complaint against Weyerhaeuser. That involves the new food safety rules at the Longview mill which the union argues created additional duties that were never bargained over. An administrative law judge sided with the union in that case, but Weyerhaeuser appealed the decision.