Auto glassworkers dog-tired of not having a voice

Photo: VINCE PISCOPO

Dee Dee Forshaw, a 40-year veteran at PPG’s plant in Crestline, Ohio, stands outside UAW Local 549, which helped workers win their
representation vote.

If you want loyalty, go buy a dog.

That’s what one manager reportedly told a worker at the PPG Inc. auto glass plant in Crestline, Ohio.

But PPG workers there and in Evansville, Ind., and PPG contract workers in O’Fallon, Mo., were tired of rolling over and playing dead each time management dogged them by freezing wages and benefits, canceling vacations or by bringing in temporary workers. They decided the individual begging was over and collectively unleashed their power by voting for UAW representation in three separate National Labor Relations Board-supervised elections.

It’s all about having a voice on the job, said Steve Hoffer, a general maintenance mechanic with more than 33 years on the plant floor at Crestline.

“I am loyal to PPG, but I am also loyal to myself and to my family,” said Hoffer, who helped organize his co-workers. “I think now that we are organized, we’re going to be profitable, we’re going to have much better morale and productivity is going to increase.”

One particular move by the company convinced many workers of the need for representation. Earlier this year, PPG told workers at the company’s Lima, Ohio, warehouse they no longer had jobs because it had just contracted out the work at half their wages.

Nonunion workers like Kelly Dunlap, a single mother with a daughter in college, traveled to PPG plants to tell workers about the hardships she and her daughter now face.

“It just kind of kills me that they took that away from me, being able to help her, and now I’ve got to rely on other people to do it,” Dunlap said.

Marylyn Robinson, a relief line operator at the Evansville plant, said Dunlap’s predicament woke workers up.

“I think a lot of people looked at her and thought, ‘That could be me,’ ” said Robinson, a 17-year veteran at PPG.

Now the combined 720 workers at the three plants can look forward to forming bargaining committees and sitting down with management to negotiate a first contract that works for all.

“These workers realize they can help themselves, their families, their company and their communities by being organized,” said UAW Vice President Terry Thurman. “The goal is a win-win situation for everyone.”

Vince Piscopo