NORTH CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Unions are bad for your health. That was Boeing’s message to workers sitting down this week to eat in the cafeteria at the company’s North Charleston, South Carolina plant, reports the Post and Courier’s David Wren.
The company advertised its anti-union message with table-toppers, which restaurants often use to give drink and food specials. One table-topper had a picture of rotting fruit and said: “If you go on strike, you don’t get a paycheck, your benefits can stop and you cannot collect unemployment,” Wren reports.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) is trying to organize the plant’s more than 2,400 mechanics. Last week, the union filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to hold a union election in North Charleston.
Boeing and the IAM are both going all out to sway employees, Wren reports.
The IAM’s District Lodge 751 represents about 32,000 Boeing workers in metro Puget Sound and Portland. District 751 put out a statement supporting the organizing campaign.
“We are excited that these hard working, well-deserving workers in South Carolina will have the opportunity to choose whether or not they want representation with their employer,” Jon Holden, the district’s president, said in the statement.
Being able to bargain collectively has helped Machinists at Boeing improve working conditions and compensation, he said.
“We feel strongly that these workers will also benefit themselves and their communities once they have the right to bargain with their employer. We wish them well in gaining rights protected by federal law, which we at District 751 cherish so much,” he said.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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