As Ford Authority reported back in May, 200 workers at one Webasto plant in Plymouth, Michigan voted to ratify their first contract with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union after 96 percent of workers voted yes. Workers at that particular Webasto plant produce a variety of convertible soft tops for Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, and also supply hard tops for the sixth-generation Ford Bronco. However, another nearby plant – Webasto-Detroit, which is located on Haggerty Road in Plymouth Township – has now officially voted against joining the UAW.
According to The Detroit Free Press, a tight result at this Webasto plant saw workers ultimately cast 251 votes in favor of joining the UAW versus 260 against, though both sides have five days to file any objections to those results. Webasto noted that 90 percent of the plant’s eligible workers voted in the election, and added that it expects that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will certify the results.
“This week, every eligible Webasto employee at our Detroit Plant had an opportunity to vote confidentially on this important issue. A majority of our colleagues decided that they prefer to continue to communicate openly and solve problems with us directly as in the past and without third-party intervention,” the supplier said in a statement. “At Webasto, we hold our culture and values in high regard, which includes fostering a direct and open dialogue with our colleagues and solving problems effectively as a unified team.”
As Ford Authority reported earlier this month, the UAW has accused Webasto of “union busting” activities at that same plant, however, which includes allegations that it distributed anti-union literature around the plant prior to this vote, as well as disciplining, intimidating, or terminating workers who showed support for the union, changing its bathroom policy to require workers to get permission to do so, requiting workers to attend captive audience meetings, using video cameras to monitor union activity, and maintaining a rulebook that’s reportedly unlawful.
“Workers at Webasto Detroit deserved to have been able to vote in an environment free from coercion,” the union said in a statement. “Executives from Webasto denied them of this right. We will pursue every legal avenue available to us to right this wrong and make sure that workers’ voices will always be respected.”
Comments
Early in my career I was a member of a union. Not by choice, simply by not living in a right-to-work state. I never saw any actions by the union stewards as benefitting the hard working folks. They spent all their time in the grievance reviews w mgmt. defending workers who should have been fired and who also made everyone else’s jobs more difficult.
The union stewards would also go out drinking on the member’s dime every Thursday night. Meanwhile, the union head got driven around in a limo, once again paid for by members.
Never again. It’s like communism; all the workers in a particular function get paid the same regardless of merit while the union bosses feed off the workers.
I was in a similar situation to the previous poster. I went on to a management position with Chrysler and experienced 1st hand the union salvaging individuals jobs who should have been fired. My opinion is that the union certainly brings the employees more income but this is at the detriment of adding to the increasing costs of all the related products and services. I never understood how the union, which was spawned from its parent company, achieved so much power. Shame on us for allowing this to happen.
Sixty years ago my university Labour Economics course mandated that I spend one week at the local union headquarters. Wow, talk about a bunch of men with bad attitudes. I could not understand why they hated the companies that they were dealing with.