Posted on 12/10/2005 3:47:37 PM PST by Kieri
TRW employees lose access to cash Thursday, December 08, 2005 By Paul Overeiner povereiner@citpat.com -- 768-4917
Hit with the announcement months ago that their jobs will be gone by June, about 340 hourly workers at TRW Automotive's Jackson plant received a second punch this week from the unlikeliest quarter -- their own union.
United Steelworkers of America, the parent organization of United Steelworkers Local 2-00670 in Jackson, has frozen the local's assets and replaced nearly all of the elected leadership here with its own appointees.
Troubles within the brotherhood apparently began after local members voted to increase their regular Thanksgiving Day gift certificate, drawn from the local's funds, from $25 to $100 per employee.
Steward Bill Ong said the local followed bylaws and that the local's "six-figure" account was accumulated over decades. Local 2-00670 members are still paying their monthly dues of $28, which is automatically deducted from their paychecks.
But USW International Representative Phillip Bischoff said the $100 gift was exorbitant -- another $100 Christmas gift was planned -- and that the local's executive board erred in allowing a vote on disbursing the funds.
"The international has no reason to come in and say we can't have our money," said Monica Anderson, an inspector and TRW worker since 1996.
"People are really upset," Anderson said. "Not only are we losing our jobs, we've got to fight for something that's ours."
"The money is not theirs," Bischoff said.
Under the union's constitution, funds in local accounts revert to the international organization when represented plants close, Bischoff said. Seizing the funds and removing elected officers is standard procedure in decertifying the local, he said.
Company officials have said product lines will be phased out by the end of June, but Ong says he believes production at some level could continue into 2007.
Ong said union stewards are now the only elected union leaders left and he's sure they are next on the international's replacement list.
"Our local is now being run by a dictatorship," Ong said. "It's just been a hostile takeover."
Ong said he is working to bring the National Labor Relations Board into the fray and he has hired an attorney to fight what he sees as an abuse of power. Bischoff confirmed that attorneys for both sides are now engaged and said the matter could well end up in court before it's resolved.
"There's so many issues we're trying to deal with right now," Ong said. "That's bad enough. And now we have to deal with these guys."
"Our local is now being run by a dictatorship"
No kidding. Marx and Engels must be rolling over in their graves.
I can feel the love from here!
The first thing the commies do upon taking power is to abolish the private labor unions.
What a gold plated a-hole... They pay in $28 bucks a month and are losing their jobs anyway. Who was it that said the tax cuts were chump change and only would allow the average person enough money to buy a new muffler?
"The international has no reason to come in and say we can't have our money"
I'd say they have every reason, since the bylaws permit seizing local funds, as well as removing elected officials, as a prelude to decertifying the local. They want the money ... duh. They've always wanted the money.
Communists abolish the private unions and create one mega union in it's place;)
This won't surprise anyone familiar with union tactics.""
Who remembers when the Unions assessed every member an extra dollar a month to pay Jimmy Hoffa's legal fees when he was standing trial for stealing our pension funds in the first place???
I sure do and I sure was pi$$ed.
I hope these folks have learned a valuable lesson...that being...unions are not your friend, and won't be there for you when needed!! Just keep sending in your money though, and they will take it!!
Reality must really suck for Joe Union Sixpack.
But, they sure can't say no one tried to warn them.
The coffee's old and cold, but they're welcome to it.
bump
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