National anti-union group keeps grasping at straws

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund, an anti-union group with the financial backing of corporate interests, thinks it can stop the pro-union momentum built by Freightliner workers throughout the South.

It somehow believes the filing of a frivolous lawsuit in January will stop workers from standing up for themselves in the plant and for their communities.

But most workers at Freightliner locals have been too busy to notice. They’ve been busy building quality trucks and buses and a strong local union movement. And they’ve been far too busy helping out in the community to notice how a fringe anti-union group is desperately trying to stop workers.

“I guess they are just grasping for straws here,” said UAW Local 5286 President Scott Gordon, in Gastonia, N.C. “It’s just more scare tactics and myths about unions in the South.”

Gastonia local workers have adopted a platoon in Iraq and collect wet wipes, writing tablets and other items for them. Freightliner, which in 2003 agreed to remain neutral as its workers considered a union, ships the collected items to the soldiers.

The UAW local has also adopted a stretch of highway that workers clean. When the local high school asked for sponsorship for its sports program, UAW members stepped up to the plate. Local 5286 members answered the bell when the local fire department asked for donations, giving money in memory of a fallen UAW Local 5285 worker at the Freightliner plant in Mount Holly, N.C.

It’s a model of community involvement that workers at Thomas Built Bus, UAW Local 5287, in High Point, N.C., hope to duplicate. Those 1,200 workers raised the UAW flag at their plant in January with company representatives in attendance. A new contract was reached in October and includes lower monthly health care premiums, wage increases and lump-sum payments.

The anti-worker crowd likes to scare potential union members with phony stories of plant relocations, layoffs, wage reductions, possible strikes and other anti-union propaganda. But the Gastonia local has added 500 workers since voting for representation and won strong wage, pension, health care, health and safety and other gains, Gordon said.

Unfortunately, the anti-union group has plenty of corporate money to continue its discredited campaign.

"We've been dealing with these people for more than two years now, and every time we win another vote, they come up with another reason why it shouldn't count," said Niels Chapman, Local 5287 president.

The lawsuit says Freightliner workers were somehow coerced into signing union cards and the anti-union group even trudged out two Gastonia workers who have been repeatedly outvoted by their co-workers to make its point at a sparsely attended news conference.

“These lawyers make a good living by trying to break unions,” said UAW Vice President Nate Gooden, who directs the union’s Heavy Trucks Department. “Workers in the South realize that by standing together, they benefit themselves and their communities. They won’t be intimidated.”

But the lawsuit also names Freightliner as a defendant, a troubling sign because the corporation, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, did the responsible thing by letting workers decide for themselves. Not satisfied with merely intimidating workers, the anti-union group now seeks to intimidate good corporate citizens who let workers decide for themselves.

“Top management at Freightliner and Thomas Built Bus made a commitment that workers would have a free choice about whether or not to be part of our union,” Gary Casteel, director of UAW Region 8, said. “They have stood by their word 100 percent and set a great example for other employers.”

Vince Piscopo