Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991                   TAG: 9104050428
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Medium

UNION FILES UNFAIR PRACTICE CHARGES AGAINST VOLVO

The charges, filed Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board in Winston-Salem, N.C., say that the company has "bargained in bad faith by repeatedly bypassing and excluding the International UAW in negotiations. . . ."

"We feel they have no merit," Bill Brubaker, production manager at the Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp. plant, said of the charges Thursday.

"We're asking the NRLB to move quickly to review the allegations, and we fully expect them to be dismissed," Brubaker said.

NRLB spokesman Ronald Yost said the charges would be assigned to an investigator. "If they resolve the strike, that could resolve the whole thing," he said.

Representatives with the International will be at the Local 2069 union hall near the plant in Dublin today for the 2 p.m. membership vote, said the UAW's Detroit spokesman, Karl Mantyla.

Mantyla would not elaborate on the charges.

Joe Parah, local union president, said he was unaware of the charges until after they'd been filed.

"Do I support it? No, I don't think so," Parah said. "I think they [the International] had plenty ample time to get down here with us and go in with us."

Parah said the charges stem from a meeting Tuesday between the local union and plant managers when the tentative agreement was reached. Neither the International nor Volvo corporate executives attended.

Parah said he believes the agreement is legal, despite earlier warnings from the UAW that it wouldn't sanction settlements in which it had not participated.

"The International should have no problem," Parah said.

"We're not taking away from no other locals. It's their duty to go along with what the membership says is good for them."

Brubaker would not comment on whether replacements would be hired if the members turn down the contract.

"We're working on the premise that it will be ratified," he said.

Volvo headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., mailed a letter to employees Tuesday - before the settlement - stating that if they didn't return to work, the company would start hiring replacement workers.

About 1,000 union members - including 380 workers laid off from Volvo in the past several months - went on strike March 9, primarily over health benefits and job security issues.

All union members in good standing are eligible to vote.