Dana workers choose the UAW

For Sherry Amos-Wydermyer, a voice on the plant floor translates into job security.

That’s why she and her co-workers at the Longview, Texas, Dana Corp., facility recently voted to join the UAW as Local 2297.

“We know what works and what doesn’t work with the product,” she said after finishing her shift at the plant that manufactures frames for the Shreveport, La., General Motors facility. “The ideas they have on paper don’t always work when you get physical.”

Union representation means having a say in how the frames will be made. Getting top-quality frames to their customer means job security, she said.

“Can we find a better way?” she said of her 681 co-workers. “Listen to us. That’s the most important thing.”

A card-check campaign was held late last year. Dana, in earlier negotiations with the UAW, agreed to be neutral.

The card-check system again demonstrates that when workers are allowed to decide without manipulation or intimidation by companies, they choose to be represented by unions.

Amos-Wydermyer said card check allows workers to organize without feeling that management is watching their every move. There was a level of comfort in knowing that those who supported the union were not being targeted for exercising their democratic rights.

Vince Piscopo