After workers at the Macon plant last year overcame Kumho’s oppressive anti-union campaign and voted to join the USW, the company filed several groundless objections in an effort to overturn the election.

The NLRB regional director dismissed some of those objections months ago, citing the lack of evidence.

In a report issued November 10, NLRB Hearing Officer Brenna C. Schertz discredited the remaining objections. She determined that one company witness fabricated testimony and scolded Kumho for presenting “nonsensical” evidence and making allegations that were “wholly without merit.”

Schertz recommended overruling all of Kumho’s objections and certifying the workers’ election. The decision now rests with the NLRB regional director.

“Since the start of the organizing campaign, Kumho has employed every underhanded tactic possible to thwart the election, break the will of its workers and silence them,” said USW District 9 Director Daniel Flippo.

#MaconGA #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelworkersUSW #KumhoTire

On August 11 the National Labor Relations Board declared the union drive victorious after processing the final 13 ballots from an election last fall.

Workers sought USW representation to fight low wages, hazardous working conditions and abusive treatment at Kumho, which ruthlessly harassed and bullied union supporters in an attempt to derail the organizing campaign.

“These workers voted to unionize even though Kumho tried every underhanded, despicable stunt it possibly could to violate their rights and poison the election results,” noted USW District 9 Director Daniel Flippo.

In 2017, Kumho workers narrowly lost an initial election on the heels of Kumho’s vicious union-busting campaign, which included threats against USW supporters. Kumho’s conduct was so egregious that Administrative Law Judge Arthur J. Amchan not only ordered a new election but took the extraordinary step of ordering the company to read workers a list of its numerous labor law violations.

While awaiting the final results of last fall’s election, conditions at Kumho only got worse. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the company failed to implement commonsense safety measures.

“In forming a union and holding Kumho to account,” Flippo said, “these workers will help set stronger pay and workplace standards for the whole industry.”

#MaconGA #unions #UnitedSteelworkersUSW #KumhoTire #unionbusting

On August 11 the National Labor Relations Board declared the union drive victorious after processing the final 13 ballots from an election last fall.

Workers sought USW representation to fight low wages, hazardous working conditions and abusive treatment at Kumho, which ruthlessly harassed and bullied union supporters in an attempt to derail the organizing campaign.

“These workers voted to unionize even though Kumho tried every underhanded, despicable stunt it possibly could to violate their rights and poison the election results,” noted USW District 9 Director Daniel Flippo.

In 2017, Kumho workers narrowly lost an initial election on the heels of Kumho’s vicious union-busting campaign, which included threats against USW supporters. Kumho’s conduct was so egregious that Administrative Law Judge Arthur J. Amchan not only ordered a new election but took the extraordinary step of ordering the company to read workers a list of its numerous labor law violations.

While awaiting the final results of last fall’s election, conditions at Kumho only got worse. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the company failed to implement commonsense safety measures.

“In forming a union and holding Kumho to account,” Flippo said, “these workers will help set stronger pay and workplace standards for the whole industry.”

#MaconGA #unions #UnitedSteelworkersUSW #KumhoTire #unionbusting

The workers, who voted to join the United Steelworkers (USW) despite Kumho’s repeated efforts to thwart the election, expressed both the fear that they are unprotected from contracting the coronavirus at the tire plant and their concern that the lack of precautions could put the wider community at risk.

They addressed the Macon-Bibb County Board of Health during a public meeting conducted by telephone because of the pandemic.

The workers said Kumho failed to adequately distribute face masks, supply sanitizer or take other common-sense steps to prevent an outbreak of the virus. Now, as COVID-19 sweeps through the plant, company officials refuse to implement consistent social distancing or provide sufficient paid sick leave for workers forced into quarantine.

“The only thing important to them is the tires,” said one worker, who brings his own mask and sanitizer to the plant yet still fears catching the virus because he has close contact with colleagues on every shift.

While expecting workers to risk COVID-19 without proper safeguards, he said, managers “won’t come out on the floor anymore because they don’t want to get it and take it home to their families.”

Other workers reported that Kumho still refuses to regularly and thoroughly disinfect the factory, consistently limit the use of common areas or give details about the rash of COVID-19 cases, such as the number of colleagues infected.

In 2017, workers narrowly lost a unionization vote after Kumho waged an illegal campaign of harassment and intimidation. An administrative law judge found the company’s misconduct so egregious that he not only ordered a new election but directed the company to read a list of its violations.

During the second election, held last fall, workers voted 141 to 137 for USW representation, with 13 additional challenged ballots. Kumho dragged out the appeals process, but the National Labor Relations Board last week ordered the remaining ballots counted. No date has been set for the count.

“Workers voted to unionize because Kumho refused to treat them fairly,” District 9 Staff Representative Alex Perkins said. “The company’s callous failure to protect them from COVID-19 shows just how urgently they need union protections.”

#MaconGA #PeoplesStruggles #KumhoTirePlant

While some legal challenges remain before the election results are official, the initial vote count showed 141 votes for the union and 137 against, with 13 challenged ballots still to be resolved at an upcoming hearing.

About 325 workers would be in the USW bargaining unit at Kumho.

An administrative law judge issued an order in May for a new vote at the Kumho factory after finding that company officials violated workers’ rights during the first election in October 2017.

After that initial vote, which resulted in a narrow defeat for the union, the USW filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the company of illegal conduct in its effort to suppress the union.

In his ruling, Administrative Law Judge Arthur J. Amchan wrote that the company’s illegal conduct was “pervasive” and that it warranted not only a new election, but the “extraordinary” remedy of requiring company officials to read a notice to employees outlining all of the violations.

Kumho’s violations, Amchan said, included illegally interrogating employees, threatening to fire union supporters, threatening plant closure, and creating an impression of surveillance, among other threats to workers.

#MaconGA #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedSteelworkersUSW #KumhoTirePlant