Two Jimmy John’s franchise owners were brought before the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday morning over allegations that they fired employees last year because of their role in organizing a union.

The controversy arose in March 2011 when  six Jimmy John’s union workers were fired for distributing posters claiming that eating at Jimmy John’s put customers at risk of food-borne illness.

The posters were in response to the union’s unmet demands for paid sick days, which “force” employees to come in sick, and employees said this put customers at risk, according to a previous Minnesota Daily article.

In a letter to the editor , former employee Erik Forman said “the truth that our posters revealed is certainly an ugly truth, but it is the truth nonetheless, and we have a duty to the public to tell it.”