By Robert Heustess

As workers across the United States breathe a sigh of relief at the prospect of another three-day weekend, many of America’s workers are struggling this Labor Day. Forced to work for low pay with little or no control over their schedules, some 57 million American workers say they would join a union if they could. But too often, they nearly always face employer harassment, intimidation and even job loss.

The nation’s labor laws regulating the process to form a union require a lengthy ballot procedure easily corrupted by employers. The current laws, amended in the 1950s to benefit Big Business, do not adequately protect workers who seek to join a union and instead, enable employers to carry out a war against workers. In fact, 92 percent of private-sector employers—when faced with employees who want to join a union—force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda.

Robert Heustess has experienced the employer war against workers first hand. As a parts assembler at Freightliner’s Gastonia, N.C., plant, he first sought to form a union with the UAW in 1997. But because of employer harassment and the lengthy National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process—which enables employers to challenge workers’ vote for a union and delay union recognition for years—it took until 2003 before Heustess and his co-workers were officially recognized as union members.

The difference, says Heustess, came after the UAW negotiated a majority sign-up (card-check) recognition with Freightliner, which enabled workers to make up their minds about whether to join a union without fear of being fired. Under majority sign-up, an employer agrees to recognize the union when a majority of workers signs authorization cards. Since the agreement, thousands of workers at Freightliner plants have signed up with the UAW.

The anti-worker National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation tried—unsuccessfully—to challenge workers’ vote in favor of UAW representation at Freightliner’s Thomas Built Buses plant in High Point, N.C. The foundation challenged a card-check at Thomas Bus, saying the pro-union vote didn’t really represent a majority of workers. But when an NLRB settlement led to a new, secret ballot election, the result was the same: A majority voted in favor of forming their own union. The UAW has been recognized at High Point and bargaining is now underway.

Heustess, who is on temporary leave to help organize the Gaffney and America La France plants, says majority sign-up makes a huge difference. Without it, workers can be “scared to death” of the union.

Heustess discusses workers’ fears of their employers in the following excerpt from an AFL-CIO interview in August 2005.

“In 1997, we went through the NLRB election. The company did not remain neutral. We were told repetitively over and over that if we form a union they’d close the plant down and we’ll start at zero with our pay. They would pretty much tell us directly at our plant that our jobs were going out the door. They actually, at the very beginning, gave us a $1 an hour raise just to keep the union away—and as soon as the union organizers did go away, the dollar got taken away. The 1997 campaign basically crashed and fell apart.

“We voted again. We actually had an NLRB election. I believe it was in 1999 or 2000—and again the company used scare tactics and again they held mandatory meetings. The corporate CEOs came down and held a mass meeting and they actually had Uncle Sam looking at you. Uncle Sam was on the wall: Freightliner wants you. Probably about two days before the election.

“At that time, there was about 900 employees. We actually lost the election because the company challenged votes. I think we had like 23 challenged votes. That would have been enough for us to win, but the company challenged laid-off employees who had recall rights. Charges were filed, the NLRB was doing an investigation of it, and in the meantime the UAW and Freightliner worked out what they call a card-check so we wouldn’t have to go down that road.

“If we pursued these charges, we could probably win, but then the company would challenge it and then we’d be in limbo-land for probably about three or four years. So hats off to the UAW for working out a card-check. At that time, they probably had laid off some employees and we were down to about 700 employees. Now, since we’ve ratified a contract and won a vote, we’ve actually increased the plant to 1,300 employees.

“Card-check went rather smooth. People could actually go up and talk to a union organizer and ask their own questions without being intimidated by the company. The company would tell them that it’s okay to talk to these people here in the facility: ‘Take your time, make your decision, we will respect your decision regardless of which way you go.’

“The impact of not having card-check is the scare tactics that companies put on employees. You’ve got managers walking around telling their employees they’ll shut the plant down. If they find out you’re a supporter of the union and you’re on a temporary service, you don’t get hired. The fear of joining a union without a card-check is just—it’s unexplainable. Workers are scared to voice their opinions because of the fact that management is watching. They’re really scared to death of us.

“It’s just a shame the National Labor Board allows this type of behavior to go on. Yes, there are penalties and yes, there are fines that companies have to pay, but they are minor.

“There is so much difference between a card-check and an NLRB election. It’s just unreal. In an NLRB election, you’re showing up at their house, you’re calling on their phones. With card-check they’re able to do this in their own working environment. They don’t necessarily have to be bothered at home. The company stays out of the way.

“My wife asked me why do I do what I’m doing—she supports me. I want people to grow up, and it won’t be in my generation, but maybe in the state of North Carolina and South Carolina, it’s okay to be union. I’d like the kids to grow up that do not have this fear tactic we’ve been brought up on.

“That’s my main goal—if I can make a little bit of an impact and help other people. I would think it would be really neat to look 20 or 30 years down the road and say ‘wow, people aren’t afraid to join a union.’ ”