Daily Kos: IA Workers' Victory Shows Need For Labor Law Reform

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/18/894154/-IA-Workers-Victory-Shows-Need-For-Labor-Law-Reform

by The Electrical Worker
Wed Aug 18, 2010 at 05:18:18 AM PDT

Crossposted at Bleeding Heartland.

Workers at Iowa's leading manufacturer of wind turbine towers successfully took on company intimidation and two union-busting firms to express their right to join a union.

* The Electrical Worker's diary :: ::
*

A group of more than 130 workers at Trinity Structural Towers voted to join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 347 August 13.

Workers at the plant decided to go union after a series of high-profile accidents due to company neglect. "We had one employee lose his finger last month, an accident that shouldn’t have happened," said IBEW Organizer Brian Heins.

The company also abused overtime procedures, forcing some employees to work 14-hour days without prior notification.

Iowa is the fourth-largest producer of wind power in the nation, with more than 1,000 wind turbines in use, so the announcement in 2008 that Trinity Structural Towers – a subsidiary of the Texas-based Trinity Industries, Inc. – was going to build a new wind turbines production facility in Newton was viewed as great news for Iowa workers.

But the failure of the company to develop good relationships with its workforce led employees to contact the IBEW.

"A union organizer is not called by satisfied employees," Heins told the Newton Daily News.

FULL story at link.

[Booster]

1. Good for them. Let's hope this starts a trend.