No Justice, No Solidarity

Feel free to contact our International and Local Representatives in support of the Five Terminated Workers.

president@uawlocal3520.org

DABortz@aol.com

TBressler@UAW.net

GCasteel@UAW.net

GHolifield@UAW.net

rickklinedinst@freightliner.com Corporate HR Manager

philbezaire@freightliner.com Plant HR Manager

bobpacillas@freightliner.com  Plant Manager

 

 

Contract Negotiations were officially kicked off on February 17, 2007 at the Freightliner Training Center in Cleveland, NC. The Local Union Bargaining Commmittee had requested neutral territory for negotiations. However, the Company and our International servicing Rep. (David Bortz) reached an agreement to use Company property for negotiations. We stood our ground against  the Company and negotiations continued in Mooresville, NC then moved to Charlotte, NC on March 19, 2007. The move to Charlotte was supposed to be for the economics portion of our contract, but there were so many open articles that this time was being consumed by contract language.

 

Our membership voted 98.4 percent in favor of giving the Bargaining Committee the right to strike on March 16/17, 2007

 

A strike authorization form from the International UAW was signed by the Bargaining Chair on March 30, 2007 

 

Hard Bargaining between the Company and the UAW resulted in no tentative agreement to take to our membership for ratification by the expiration of our contract.

 

 

Our contract expired at midnight on March 31, 2007.

 

 

 

On April 1, 2007 the Company's Corporate Bargaining Team informed us that they were leaving the bargaining table and going back to Portland, Oregon. What was specifically said by the Company's head negotiator was more or less:  This is our last, best and final offer. Take it back to your membership and get it ratified. We are finished here.

 

Our International Union's Bargaining Team told us that Local Management and the Local Union Bargaining Committee would resume negotiations on Monday, April 2, 2007 at 8:00 am at the Holiday Inn Express in Mooresville, NC.

 

We Bargained for over a month with Local Management on articles of our contract and were unable to reach many tentative agreements on the articles of our contract. We were all thinking, how are we going to proceed without  our International Union's help.

 

The Local Union Bargaining Committee arrived at the agreed upon location at 8:00 am Monday morning.

 

Rick Klinedinst, (HR Manager for the Cleveland facility) notified us, by telephone on Monday morning that Local Management would not meet with the Union Bargaining Committee again, until we (the Bargaining Committee) signed off on the companies last, best and final offer that was  presented to us on Sunday April 1, 2007.  He also stated that Good Friday would not be a holiday due to the fact there was no contract in effect. He also mentioned that the offer had been delivered to our International Reps and they were in agreement with it. The statement was made to him that if we have an extension Good Friday is a Holiday. He expressed that there was no extension and no contract so there was no Holiday.

 

The Bargaining Committee decided to call the Local President in to make him aware of the situation.

 

The Bargaining Committee tried in vain to reach our UAW Servicing Representative (David Bortz)after Rick Klinedinst relayed this to us.

 

We could not reach anyone from the International UAW that was at bargaining with us.

 

Our Local President arrived in Mooresville, NC around 12:00 pm and the entire Bargaining Committee proceeded to bring him up to speed on what was happening. He committed himself to back any decision made by the Bargaining Committee.

 

We succeeded in getting our International Rep. David Bortz to come to the Hotel and he got our International Rep. (Tim Bressler) on a conference call, a heated exchange ensued. Tim Bressler said he would get back to us.

 

We were getting calls from our membership asking why we were working without a contract. Many of them were telling us the company announced that Good Friday was not a Holiday because we had no agreement. Company officials were calling Employees at home that were on vacation to inform them of this. They were telling employees they would have to use Vacation or personal time to cover their absence on Friday. We were also being told our insurance was no longer in affect. Members were going to their Doctor's and being told our Health Insurance was cancelled.

 

Jasper Brown an attorney with the NLRB gave David Crisco (one of the Bargaining Committee members) advice on our situation. He said that if there was no extension to our contract our members were at will employees and the company could discipline them as such and there was no protection for the employees. He also told David that an extension was not valid if the Local Bargaining Committee was not involved in brokering it and that it had to be a signed document. David let him know we were not involved in obtaining an extension and there was no signed document. At this point he reaffirmed that our membership was at will empolyees.

 

We had numerous conversations about the situation and our concern for our Union and non Union members inside the plant.

 

We were contacted by Jim Coakley assistant to General Holifield VP International UAW via speaker phone and he stated that our International Reps had told him we would be taking the Company's offer to our membership for a ratification meeting. We let him know this wasn't true. 

 

There were 22 open articles of our contract. Health and safety had over 86 unresolved issues. Our local health and safety Rep. was recommending that we not accept the Company's last offer for resolution on these open issues. 

 

The Bargaining Committee voted unanimously to recommend a strike.

 

We left Mooresville around 6:00 pm and met at the local union office in Cleveland.

Our Local's President called into the plant to get the Executive Board members who were at work excused so we could convene the Strike Committee, which consists of the Bargaining Committee and the Executive Board to Vote on the strike. The Strike Committee convened at around 7:00 pm and we discussed the situation.

 

A vote was taken at approximately 8:00 pm and 12 of the 16 Strike Committee members voted yes to calling an unsanctioned strike (not sanctioned by the International UAW, but legal as our contract expired on March 31^st 2007 and we did not have an extension).

 

The Bargaining Committee and other Union officers entered the Plant at approximately 8:20 pm and notified the workers of the Strike Committees decision and that the action was not sanctioned by the International UAW.  Most of the 1200 - 1500 people working left the facility and formed a picket line outside the Employers property.

    

 

  Strike rally in support of strike action if necessary...