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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992                   TAG: 9203310103
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANNAPOLIS, N.C.                                LENGTH: Short

FIELDCREST CANNON DISPUTE APPEARS NEAR SETTLEMENT

A National Labor Relations Board hearing on a dispute over a 1991 union election at Fieldcrest Cannon will reconvene today, when a settlement may be announced.

David Prouty, Southern regional counsel for the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, said he was hopeful a settlement was close. He declined to discuss specifics.

Company spokesman Ozzie Raines also would not discuss a possible settlement. "There are an awful lot of details to be worked," Raines said. "You need to be careful not to read too much into this."

At stake is union representation for about 7,000 workers in the seven former Cannon Mills plants. The company won the Aug. 20-21 election, 3,233 to 3,034. Of those, 538 ballots were challenged, 394 of them by the union.

The hearing, which began Monday, was to air the challenges and to hear testimony on unfair labor practice complaints filed by the NLRB. These complaints included the firing of 11 workers, allegedly for union activities.

When the hearing began, Howard Grossman, a federal administrative law judge from Atlanta, urged both sides to settle, saying it was in their best interests.

by CNB