Lawrenceburg, IN – Striking workers at Batesville Products Inc. (BPI) won a major victory through a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Region 9 on October 27. Workers at BPI have been on strike since May 11 after a supermajority signed authorization cards with Teamsters Local 135, and BPI management refused to recognize the union. The workers are now on strike alleging unfair labor practices by the company.

The union requested union recognition and then began a strike. After a month on strike, the union filed for an election at BPI through the NLRB election process. The Teamsters union seeks to represent roughly 18 machinists, polishers and shipping clerks at BPI's Lawrenceburg machine shop.

In responding to the filing, BPI management said that around 20 workers from its foundry in Aurora should be added to the vote. Those workers had no part in the union campaign, and adding them would turn the super majority of the workers who built the union into a minority in their own election. The company was unwilling to negotiate a stipulated election agreement without including the foundry workers, which forced an NLRB hearing over the matter on June 22, followed by months of waiting on a decision.

The NLRB regional director's decision dismantled the company's case. The foundry and the machine shop are indeed separate facilities with different supervisors, different jobs, and different working conditions. Casters and tooling technicians, who make up most of the Aurora workers, have no counterpart in Lawrenceburg. The company claimed that workers regularly moved between the two plants, but the decision found little evidence of it, noting the company produced no documentation to back up its witnesses.

The NLRB operates under a “single site presumption” in these types of cases, meaning the employer must show “significant interchange” with the site it intends to add, or else the single site should be awarded a vote without the extra workers included.

The regional director concluded that BPI failed to make its case and directed an election for the bargaining unit the union filed for in the first place.

The company's argument fell apart under scrutiny, yet it still bought BPI more than four months. In that time, the strikers held the line, now nearly six months into their strike, while the company waited for them to break.

In the United States, union elections are overseen by the NLRB, which frequently allows employers to throw up flimsy legal challenges and then takes months to rule on them. Even when workers win, the delay itself has done the boss' work for them and bought them months to bust the union. The BPI strikers refused to let it succeed this time, holding their picket line through tremendous adversity.

BPI management called the Lawrenceburg Police Department in to break the strike. One scab drove his car into a striker crossing the road, though police failed to gather any evidence when a police report was filed. The worker who was hit by the car pressed charges, but they were ultimately dismissed for lack of police cooperation with prosecutors.

When a belligerent anti-union goon showed up to harass strikers and flashed his gun at a strike leader, police declined to charge him. Strikers say that they are aware of ties between police and this individual who made terroristic threats against the picket line.

Lawrenceburg police also threatened strikers with arrest if they used amplified sound in any way. Strikers closely followed the city's noise ordinance for the duration of the labor dispute, which police even acknowledged, making clear that an attempt to shut down their action would be a violation of workers' First Amendment rights.

The NLRB ruling is a major win, but it is not the finish line. The election date and location have not yet been announced. After the vote comes the fight for a first contract that would address the conditions that started this organizing campaign. Those conditions include mandatory 60-hour weeks, low wages, high health insurance costs, and declining benefits.

“Today, we celebrate a massive victory,” said Teamsters Local 135 in a social media statement. “Tomorrow, we keep fighting.” The Teamsters at BPI have already proven they can outlast the company's stalling. As long as they hold the line together, they say they are well prepared to win union recognition when the vote occurs.

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Lawrenceburg, IN – Workers at Batesville Products Inc. (BPI) have been on strike since May 11 after voting unanimously to withhold their labor and demand recognition of their union, Teamsters Local 135.

The strike began after a supermajority of workers signed authorization cards seeking Teamsters representation and demanded voluntary recognition from the company. BPI management refused to recognize the union, prompting the filing of a representation petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Rather than allowing workers to move quickly toward an election, the company challenged which employees should be included in the proposed bargaining unit through the NLRB's pre-election hearing process. Workers and Teamster representatives contend the objections are a bogus attempt to delay the election and buy time for union-busting inside the facility.

The union's bargaining unit includes machinists, polishers and shipping and receiving employees working at the company's facility in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Management wants to include workers from another separate location in Aurora, in hopes of diluting the vote with unorganized workers who were not a part of the union campaign.

The strike comes as the NLRB faces significant staffing shortages and case backlogs nationwide. Delays in the union certification process give employers major advantages in their campaigns to break organizing drives before workers have the chance to vote.

BPI workers formed their union over unsafe and unfair workplace conditions, excessive overtime, low wages, high health insurance costs, and declining benefits. Employees say many workers have been required to work mandatory 60-hour weeks for extended periods.

Facing delays from the bureaucratic pre-election hearing process, Teamsters Local 135 held a strike authorization vote and the workers unanimously approved a recognition strike. Picketing began outside the facility on May 11 and has continued for more than a month.

“This is about workers standing together and demanding a voice in their workplace,” said Teamsters Local 135 President Dustin Roach on the day of the strike's commencement. “These workers built their majority themselves, they organized themselves, and now they are prepared to stand together on the picket line for as long as it takes to win the dignity, respect, and representation they deserve.”

The strike remains ongoing as workers continue to seek recognition of their union and the opportunity to negotiate a first collective bargaining agreement.

This is the second strike for recognition called by Teamsters Local 135 in the past year, with the first taking place at the Horseshoe Indianapolis casino in Shelbyville. The early U.S. labor movement made use of the strike for recognition in the period of time before the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 and for years after. In the modern era, the tactic was virtually extinct as unions came to rely more heavily on the NLRB for union certification.

As the NLRB becomes more dysfunctional and openly operates on behalf of employers, militants in the labor movement are beginning to rediscover this tactic – and in Teamsters Local 135, they are making use of it to counter employers' unchecked union-busting campaigns.

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