NYT: How Do You Drive Out a Union? S.C. Factory Provides a Textbook Case

[DeepModem Mom]

How Do You Drive Out a Union? South Carolina Factory Provides a Textbook Case
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Published: December 14, 2004


SUMTER, S.C. - Tom Brown, the leader of an anti-union campaign at the EnerSys battery factory here, made some surprising admissions in recent testimony about how his campaign had been run and financed.

Mr. Brown, a longtime maintenance man, acknowledged that a mysterious consultant known as Mr. X had advised him on how to oust the union and had helped him write fliers that called the union's leaders names like "trailer trash," "Uncle Tom" and "dog woman." Not only that, Mr. Brown testified that envelopes filled with cash had often been sent to his home. He said he had no idea who had sent them. "I don't look a gift horse in the mouth," he said.

Across the South companies have long used bare-knuckled tactics to fight unions. But now a surprisingly detailed roadmap to such tactics has emerged from an unusual court battle between EnerSys and its law firm over whose wrongdoing - the company's or its lawyers' - led to a $7.75 million settlement that EnerSys entered into after federal officials accused it of 120 labor law violations in its seven-year effort to eliminate the union.

The company has accused the firm, Jackson Lewis, of malpractice and of advising it to engage in illegal behavior. The law firm says that EnerSys ignored its sound advice and that the company is trying to avoid paying its legal bill.

The litigation also highlights a little known but thriving business in which law firms and consultants work with corporations to beat back unionization efforts. Jackson Lewis, a national law firm based in New York, describes itself as "committed to the practice of preventive labor relations."...


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/national/14union.html?pagewanted=all&position=

[Bozita]

1. I only wish that both sides could lose this lawsuit

Makes me wonder about the old, "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" riddle.

Good post!

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jose Diablo]

2. The reply to a company like this can only be to close all its doors

until it complies with labor law. I would suggest shutting its transportation down.

To shut its transportation requires the 'sympathy' strikes. Last I heard this type of labor response is not considered legal, however the government has not upheld its obligation to enforce compliance by corporations of labor law. If the government decides to become lawless with the corporations I see no remedy except lawlessness by labor.

If EnerSys doesn't play by the rules, shut that sucker down, completely. when profit dries-up, Enersys will play ball.

It will get very bad, but focusing on denying infrastructure, market access and disallowing 'capital' to move elsewhere to follow 'cheap labor' is the only way labor has to fight corporations.

EnerSys should be the model for a new type of labor response to the 'new' corporations. "Don't play ball in SC? Then you don't play ball anyplace". Find the enemies weakness: Communication, transportation or raw material (upstream/downstream) and close its whole operation to enforce compliance of all its parts. Think of it as denying air by placing your hands around a fighters throat, it doesn't take long and the opponent sees the error of their ways.

If EnerSys is a subsidiary of a larger corporation, take the larger down too, right up the line. This is called solidarity, with Labor sticking together. Do not fight battles in isolation.

Shut it down, completely.

[dogman]

3. Too bad there's not a sharp SC lawyer to represent the union.

Probably all to busy making money or seeking political power.

[WildClarySage]

9. There are good liberal lawyers in SC.

Unfortunately, they're both so overwhelmed with immigration cases that they can't do any more pro-bono work now.

[scbluevoter]

11. Maybe there are 3 of us in SC. . .

I'm one and I don't handle immigration matters. Criminal Defense baby!!

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Hello, S.C. -- welcome to DU!

[WildClarySage]

13. My mom used to work for a law firm in Greenville

and she used to talk about this one liberal lawyer there and how overwhelmed she would get with taking on cases that needed someone but there was nobody else to do them- many were immigration cases. Some of the stories she shared with me were heartbreaking.

[countryjake]

4. They should have compiled statistics from some Unions, too.

Another snip from the NYTimes article:

"According to N.L.R.B. statistics, companies illegally retaliate against 20,000 workers a year for supporting a union. And according to a study by Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University, half the companies that face unionization campaigns threaten to close their plants and one fourth fire at least one union supporter to derail the campaigns."


Those statistics don't account for all the cases that never get as far as this plant did...the ones who didn't have the wherewithal or gumption to get the NLRB involved when their attempts to organize were immediately busted by the company. I'll bet if the UE, IBEW, or IAM were asked for their yearly figures or just each failed campaign they've had in the past thirty years, the number of workers would probably be in the millions.

It's always an uphill struggle when you try & start to petition for union recognition & by now, I'm sure most companies have honed their tactics to a tee, immediately weeding out the "troublemakers" or "pinko commies", as they used to say, the instant they make any mistake on the job. If there is just cause for the firing & if it's only a portion who actually are convinced they need a union, that case will never see any NLRB arbitration, thus no statistics, & the petitioning union moves on, leaving those workers defeated & even less likely to organize for some kind of representation.

Interesting that whole lawfirms are now dedicated to keeping workers down. Thanks for the enlightenment!

[DeepModem Mom]

5. This adds another dimension to the story of diminished union power...

The term "union busting" is used, and this old tactic is apparently alive and well-financed.

[ikojo]

6. The sad thing is that a maintenance man who probably

does not make a lot of money sided with the rich and powerful corporation in keeping himsefl and his fellow employees down.

[countryjake]

7. And here's how you drive them out of the country...

Our prez totally has the NLRB in his pocket, & in the next four years, I'm afraid we'll see the end come to organized Labor, as we know it. He's stood in the way of both Unions & private manufacturers as they tried to go after China for dumping cheaper products into our market & employing miserable working conditions overseas. He threw out a suggested regulation this year that directly addressed our Unions' demands that China improve it's own worker's conditions. The WTO doesn't know or care two figs about "fair labor practices", only that if major profit is achieved, that's good for trade.

There's some group that's strictly union-busters, can't remember the exact name, something like National Right-to-Work org, (NOT to be confused with American Rights at Work, which is pro-labor) who are nothing but trained scabs who move in the instant there's a whiff of dissenting workers, to do the dirty work for the likes of that law firm in the NYTimes article. If the Times would have investigated a little further, I'd guess they'd have found that Jackson Lewis was in cahoots with this large & powerful & wealthy bunch of union busters.

Anyway, now the NLRB is trying to take away the entire petition method of gaining union recognition, which most unions resorted to after one-too-many rigged NLRB election, with really nasty tactics used against any union sympathizers, to scare workers from even voting, & if they did vote one in, the plant owners contest it & then the NLRB lets it waste away for months before they get to making a judgement. It all revolves around having someone represent you & the longer they stall that right, the less workers are left actually working, to be a member of the union they needed badly, in the first place.

LABOR BOARD RULING THREATENS UNION RECRUITING

LITANY OF NLRB DECISIONS STRIP WORKERS OF PROTECTION IN UNION ORGANIZING

UNIONS, MANUFACTURER WIN CHINA TRADE DISPUTE

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Thanks for the additional links, and info, cj!

[nedbal]

10. The company, then called Yuasa,

EnerSys
ENS EnerSys NYSE Electronic Instruments & Controls
2366 Bernville Road
Reading, PA 19605
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Web Site: http://www.enersysinc.com/

OFFICERS
Pay Exercised
John Craig, 53
Chairman, Pres, Chief Exec. Officer $ 5.17M N/A
Michael Philion, 52
Chief Financial Officer, Exec. VP-Fin. $ 2.13M N/A
Raymond Kubis, 50
Pres - Europe $ 1.10M N/A
Charles McManus, 57
Exec. VP - North America Reserve Power and Worldwide Marketing N/A N/A
John Shea, 41
Exec. VP - Motive Power Americas

Employees (last reported count): 6,500

I have used their batteries before for both personal use and business. I will avoid buying them again thanks

[DeepModem Mom]

14. Whoa -- thanks, nedbal!

[nedbal]

15. Demopedia

this is the kind of info that should have a page cross linked to unions batteries etc. I don't have time right now to start a page. I barley played with one page I started under "paying taxes"

Their line of products in this field is extensive and difficult to avoid buying for business and industries that use industrial batteries

[Supersedeas]

17. likely to be a blip on the Network radar....maybe a blip on Liberal Judges

who enforce archaic laws designed to protect working people.

[cpamomfromtexas]

18. Unions strengthen middle class

I've always thought it odd that it's fine to have lawyers and negotiators negotiate on your behalf if you can dribble a BASKETBALL.

Why is it bad if you're a WORKING person?

[DeepModem Mom]

19. Good point, cpamom -- welcome to DU!

[Omaha Steve]

20. I've been there

I was fired for union organizing in 1979. It took over 3 years to get a settlement that included me waving my right to go back to the job. It was either that or continue the legal fight without a settlement. Unions are not perfect. They are much better than no unions or rights.

[chuckrocks]

21. WORD

i was "let go" by a Herman Miller subsidy in 2000. the VP told me informally that "he knew what we were up to" and he was going to nip it. well, he did. some said i was messing things up. "we get a ham for christmas, a turkey for thanksgiving, and an annual party. why mess that up?"