A U.S. District Court judge in New Jersey has ordered Lifetime Brands, the company behind such names as KitchenAid and Mikasa, to reinstate two employees it is alleged to have fired for attempting to unionize.

Judge Brian Martinotti on Tuesday ordered a temporary injunction against Lifetime Brands, Inc., saying he found reasonable cause to believe the company committed unfair labor practices at its Robbinsville warehouse when it terminated employees engaged in this protected union activity.

As part of the temporary order, Lifetime Brands was ordered to stop discharging or discriminating against employees who support unionization, to stop interrogating employees over their union support, to refrain from offering employees promotions to "induce" employees to withdraw their support for unionization, and to no longer threaten to close the warehouse or fire employees if they choose representation.

The case is scheduled before a NLRB administrative law judge July 31.

In the petition for the temporary injunction, the regional director for the National Labor Relations Board in Newark said the company's actions had a "chilling effect" on unionizing at the facility.

Lifetime Brands' "retaliatory disciplines caused employees to avoid union representatives by refusing to return their telephone calls and some of the most active union supporters indicated to union organizers that they no longer wished to take active roles in the organizing campaign," the petition said.

An attorney representing Lifetime Brands, Michael Taylor, declined to comment. But in response to the petition, the company denied violating the National Labor Relations Act.

Lifetime Brands also was given five days to offer two employees, Rafael Ordonez and Anaudy Sanchez, their jobs back. The company had already rehired three employees and two others had chosen to retire, said Jose Vega, an organizer with United Service Workers Union Local 947 who was collaborating with the warehouse employees.

Ordonez was a 25-year employee at the Robbinsville facility warehouse when he was fired in July 2017, according to the request for the injunction.

"The union's campaign momentum led (Lifetime Brands) to target Rafael Ordonez, the leading internal union organizer, and another union adherent by pouncing on minor safety violations and abruptly terminating them," the petition said.

Ordonez was first offered a promotion, which he declined, and was then fired after his employer concocted a safety violation, the petition said.

The company argued they were fired "for serious safety related conduct."

Vega said Ordonez's firing "shook" employees.

"People are very afraid that what happened to Mr. Ordonez is going to happen to them," he said.

Then last September, the petitions said, other employees were "coerced" into resigning, the petition, said, after a supervisor who drove them to the facility for work announced that he was resigning, and they no longer had transportation to Robbinsville from New York. He was rehired once they had resigned.

"The evidence demonstrates that (the supervisor's) abrupt decision to resign, without giving employees a chance to obtain alternate transportation, was a subterfuge created ... to force the employees' departure," the petition said.

Despite the decision in their favor, Vega said employees "won't believe anything until they see him back."

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.