No Justice, No Solidarity

Our membership  was betrayed by our International Union. This  was accomplished by dividing our local at a time when Solidarity was crucial. I have read statements from International and local Union Officers proclaiming that this is a time for healing and Solidarity is more inportant than ever.  In fact, Solidarity was evident on the night of April 2, 2007. Our Union Brothers and Sisters walked out of that plant as one . Their decision was based on the truth. We were without a contract, we had no extension and most importantly, the International Union abandoned us at the bargaining table. We told everyone including company officials the strike was not authorized by the International UAW. It doesnt have to be. The membership is the highest authority. The membership spoke on March 16 and 17 2007  when they voted in favor of strike action if we could not reach an agreement. The International UAW's Constitution gives them no right to interfere with fundamental rights of workers as guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). There was no  contract and no extension. Therefore the International UAW had no right to deny the Highest Authority of our Local Union their right to protected concerted activities.. We would like to thank all our Brothers and Sisters that still believe in us for their support...

Our Local Union President decided, after the fact, he did not want to back this action and notified Company Management and Gary Casteel (Director Region 8 UAW) of the unsanctioned strike.

 

Our local's President put out a phone tree message at approximately 11:43 pm to notify workers that the International UAW did not authorize the strike action and he advised all workers to report for duty the next day for regular shifts. This in essence killed the strike. All or nearly all first shift employees reported to work as normal. Approximately 100 second shift employees came back to the picket line in support of the strike even though they got the phone tree message. The action of our local President made the strike unorganized as all planning went through him. He did not follow through with his duties. The strike captains were not called in to perform their tasks. People were confused and baffled. Everyone wanted answers and the President was no where to be found. He was the one with all the information. He was the go to man, but no one could find him.

 

A signed contract extension was received at our local by fax on April 3^rd in the early afternoon.

 

The Bargaining Committee was notified by the International UAW to meet back in Mooresville. The Company Bargaining Committee was supposed to be meeting with us.

 

The signed extension was faxed to the bargaining committee at the Holiday Inn conference room later that day.

 

If you would like to view the actual document vist here:

 

www.justice4five.com/myPictures/contract_ext_2007.jpg

International UAW Representatives arrived at approximately 5pm and notified us that 11 Union Officers were terminated and 700 other union members faced discipline. They could not elaborate on how the Company determined who was being terminated.

 

The entire Bargaining Committee for Local 3520 was denied the right to bargain with the Company from this point forward. The International UAW informed us that the Company would not bargain with terminated employees. If this actually was the reason we were kept out of the process why weren't the other Bargaining Committee members allowed to participate?  We were kept in a conference room in a hotel for 4 days. We had no contact with the Company or any of the International Reps. through most of this time.

 

Our International Reps. brought a Tentative Agreement that they reached with the Company (minus any Local Bargaining Committee input) to us on Friday April 5, 2007. We told them we could not accept it but we would take it to our membership. At this point Jim Coakley who was present said that the membership turning down the contract was the best chance we had to regain our jobs. The company had taken a stance that this Bargaining Committee was difficult to deal with in negotiations and believed the membership did not back us.

 

The ratification meeting was set for April 18, 2007. Jim Coakley informed our membership of the good contract and that if it was not accepted we would be on strike. Our membership turned down the contract and booed the International Reps. off the stage. It was obvious they were there for one reason. That reason was to "Get the contract ratified at all cost".

 

Within days a push was made to get the membership to revote. Gary Casteel, Director, UAW Region 8, sent out a letter proclaiming the contract was a good and fair contract and our membership needed to rethink their position on it.

 

A yahoo hate group was formed. If anyone wants to dispute this, we can post some of your emails here for clarification. The first 4 months of emails were nothing more than bashing of the terminated Bargaining Committee members. Not surprisingly most of the people that posted derogatory emails  have been appointed by the local President to positions on Local Union committees.

 

The President of our Local put together a petition for a revote and a smear campaign was started to make the terminated employees look bad.  We have been called many things ranging from liars to bottom feeding scum. The smear campaign along with scare tactics worked well.

 

The petition was successful. A new contract ratification vote was scheduled. The question and answer session was scheduled to take place on Company property. This prevented  the terminated Bargaining Committee members from being able to participate. Our termination letters stated we could not come on Company property.

 

The Company coincidentally announced a lay-off at the same time that the revote petition was going around.

 

The contract was overwhelmingly ratified the second time around.

 

Kudo's to all those involved.

 

Now the workers are living proof that the Contract Language was not strong enough to ratify the agreement. The last thing this Bargaining Committee wanted to do was lead our membership into a strike; especially one that ended with our International Union agreeing to a weak Contract for them.