Bill Lawhorn
Fired from
Consolidated Biscuit Co.
McComb, Ohio
Despite Firing, Forming a Union "Was the Right Thing to Do"
It was the first promise the company kept.
The Consolidated Biscuit Company (CBC) promised Bill Lawhorn that he would be fired if the workers’ campaign for a union failed. The day after the election, Bill was fired. That was 2002. Since then, various levels of the labor board have held the company fired Bill because of his union activity, which is illegal. But it took six years and an order from a federal court for Bill to win reinstatement and back pay.
Bill wanted a union so that management at CBC would have to treat its workers with respect. He wanted a better life for himself and his co-workers and knew that they could get it by working together. Bill hoped that with a union, CBC might offer a good retirement plan. Out of 875 workers at the plant, 650 signed cards that said they wanted a union.
CBC responded to the workers’ campaign with threats, intimidation and harassment of key union supporters, and in Bill's case, by firing him. The company threatened workers with loss of benefits, plant closure and stricter discipline if they voted for the union. Fear spread like fire throughout the company as one by one, workers became afraid to speak up. The union lost the election: 286 votes to 485.
In the intervening years, Bill looked for a job every week and hauled trash to earn extra money. He relied on his wife’s job and his children, who have lent him money. He kept the hope that he would be reinstated at CBC and despite everything, Bill says that if he had the chance to do it all over again, he’d do everything exactly the same. “It was the right thing to do,” said Bill.
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