7-06-05, 9:02 am

Last week the United Auto Workers (UAW) union announced a major victory for Thomas Built Bus workers in High Point, North Carolina. The workers voted by a large majority of 58% to join the UAW in an election supervised by the National Labor relations Board (NLRB), the federal regulatory body that oversees union matters.

'This is a great victory for our members, for our plant and for our community,' said Niels Chapman, president of UAW Local 5287. 'We’ve been working hard for a long time to form our own union, so today’s vote is really important for all of us. Now we’re ready to negotiate a contract that will improve our plants and improve our jobs.'

The High Point election is one of several key recent victories for the UAW in the south. During the past two years, thousands of workers in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee have joined the UAW as a result of a neutrality agreement with Freightliner, the parent corporation of the bus manufacturer and a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler.

A neutrality agreement is an agreement with the corporation that it will not interfere negatively against the union's organizing efforts. A March 2004 'card check' at the bus assembly plant in High Point, an unofficial election done by counting the total number of employees who have signed union membership cards and which resulted in a majority vote in favor of union representation, was challenged by the ironically named anti-union organization Right to Work Foundation. To avoid protracted and costly litigation, Thomas Built management and the UAW agreed to set aside the 2004 election and proceed with an NLRB-supervised vote.

The Right to Work Foundation's third party interference added tremendously to taxpayer's expenses that otherwise could have been avoided by ratifying the 'card check.' The interference also clearly did not reflect the will of the majority of the workers.

'TBB workers have a lot to be proud of today,' said Gary Casteel, director of UAW Region 8, which includes North Carolina and other southeastern states. 'They stuck together despite unjustified attacks against the democratic process by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and others who oppose the exercise of civil rights in the workplace.

'A majority of TBB workers already voted in favor of union representation during a card check election last year,' said Casteel. 'Yesterday’s vote confirms that result and shows that card-check is a fair, fast way to determine majority sentiment about union representation.'

Since workers organized in 2003, workers at Freightliner manufacturing plants in Gastonia and Cleveland have negotiated first contract agreements, which improve wages and benefits. The company has hired more than 2,500 workers in Freightliner and Gastonia since workers organized in 2003.

'DaimlerChrysler and Freightliner have honored their commitment to allow workers to make up their own minds about union representation,' said UAW Vice President Nate Gooden, who directs the union’s DaimlerChrysler Department and its Heavy Trucks Department.

'The successful vote in High Point today shows what happens when workers have a free choice about union representation,' said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. 'It’s unfortunate that their effort to form their own union was delayed for more than a year by legal challenges. We’re going to continue to work with employers to create partnerships that respect workers’ rights, and we expect the National Labor Relations Board to follow the law by assisting these efforts to promote labor-management cooperation.'

The workers' successes in the South come on the heels of intensifying talks over layoffs and proposed health care coverage cuts at General Motors. After announcing a loss of over $1 billion earlier last month, GM also announced that it would slash its workforce by 25,000 jobs and then threatened the union unless it agreed to allow massive cuts in agreed upon retirement health care costs.

Despite claims that GM mismanages its resources, overpays its corporate bureaucracy and executives, and has improperly invested finances, the company refuses to accede to worker demands to 'open the books' and allow the union to examine just exactly how the world's largest company has managed to 'lose' the money.

In a statement a couple of weeks ago, the union rejected the company's demand to allow more cuts. 'As we have said consistently,' a union press statement reads, 'the UAW does not intend to reopen the UAW-GM National Agreement. We have been just as consistent in saying that we are willing to work with GM to find mutually agreeable ways to reduce costs in health care and other areas.'