Asheboro, North Carolina (December 6, 2004)<\/b> – The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has filed a formal complaint \u2013 ordered by the NLRB\u2019s General Counsel \u2013 against Goodyear Tires and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) union for jointly coercing a majority of the company\u2019s workers to accept an unwanted union.<\/p>\n
Receiving free legal aid from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, three workers at Goodyear\u2019s Asheboro, North Carolina, facility filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB after USWA officials claimed that a majority of workers had signed union \u201cauthorization\u201d cards in mid-March. Goodyear subsequently installed the USWA union as the monopoly representative of roughly 340 workers at the plant.<\/p>\n
However, numerous workers submitted to Goodyear and the arbitrator who counted the cards letters revoking their previously signed cards. USWA officials, Goodyear, and the arbitrator unlawfully ignored the revocations. The workers\u2019 unfair labor practice charges simply asked the NLRB to recount the cards and recognize the letters from workers revoking previously signed cards.<\/p>\n
Bowing to pressure brought by USWA union operatives, Goodyear had signed a so-called \u201cneutrality agreement\u201d that prohibits a traditional and less-abusive secret ballot election process in favor of a coercive \u201ccard check\u201d campaign. Under the agreement, union organizers were given full access to employees\u2019 personal information and company facilities to browbeat workers into signing union authorization cards that were counted as \u201cvotes\u201d for unionization.<\/p>\n
In August, workers at the Asheboro facility also filed a petition with the NLRB for a decertification election that could strip the USWA union hierarchy of its newly granted monopoly representation power over the plant\u2019s workers. That election is on hold pending the unfair labor practice charges.<\/p>\n