Union contracts = safer jobs

Todd Baker was like many workers at the Gastonia, N.C., Freightliner parts plant when the organizing drive was under way in 2003.

Photo:Brad Marker / UAW Local 5286

UAW-represented workers from Freightliner's facilities in Cleveland, Mount Holly and Gastonia, N.C., participate in UAW-taught health and safety programs with managers because health and safety is a shared responsibility.

‘Before the union got in and got our health and safety committee up and going, you couldn’t get anything done.’

- Todd Baker, Freightliner welder

He didn’t have much experience with unions and withheld judgment.

Three years later he sees the tangible results of UAW membership because he sits on the joint health and safety committee, a panel that was the byproduct of the first contract between UAW Local 5286 and Freightliner. Before UAW representation, health and safety issues were not a priority, he said.

“You could tell that things were not right from a health and safety standpoint,” the welder said. “Before the union got in and got our health and safety committee up and going, you couldn’t get anything done.”

Freightliner recently added two new exhaust fans to pull away toxic welding fumes.

“We’ve also got a lot more signs up, and the word is spreading a lot more about health and safety,” Baker said. “Safety wasn’t talked about.”

It is talked about now, and at the very least on a monthly basis, the 14-year veteran worker said.

The committee, which usually has eight or nine union members and six or seven managers, has an agenda and tracks the previous month’s problems to make sure they have been addressed, he said.

“We hold them accountable and if it doesn’t get done, we talk to the plant manager,” Baker added. “We usually don’t have a lot of problems with that.”

Another big advantage his plant has over nonunion plants is a union health and safety representative, a position the local’s bargaining committee won in the first contract.

The representative, Danny MacEachern, said the International has provided joint training in ergonomics, lockout/tagout, accident investigation, establishing a local safety committee, and right-to-know laws.

“The company participated in all activities, just like the members,” MacEachern said. “It didn’t cost them a dime, except for the lost time.”

The first step for solving a health and safety issue usually rests with the immediate supervisor. But if that fails, workers always know they can turn to MacEachern, Baker said.

“He’s done a lot for us,” the welder said. “He’s helped us out when we couldn’t get anything done. It’s a huge difference.”

Vince Piscopo