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

DATE: SUNDAY, September 25, 1994                   TAG: 9409260050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

UNION VOTE SOUGHT AT DUPONT

Hundreds of DuPont workers say they want to vote on bringing in the United Mine Workers to represent them at the Martinsville nylon factory.

The union filed a petition late last week with the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election at the plant.

"A very clear, outstanding majority" of the eligible workers signed the petition, said Clinton Jennings, president of the Martinsville Nylon Employees Council, a local union. He said it will take several weeks for the board to rule on the election.

The council has not had a labor contract since 1987, when the work force numbered in the thousands. But a change in management last year and a downsizing to about 900 workers prompted the local union leaders to seek help from the UMW.

"We're not nowhere near as strong as them," Jennings said. "We have what I think is a very militant management ... They've taken away and taken away."

One of the local union's complaints is that DuPont has stopped payroll deduction of union fees. Jennings said the move is equivalent to "union busting," because union leaders have to spend more time collecting dues, and membership often slides.

Harold Slate, industrial relations manager for the DuPont plant, said the international corporation started a new payroll system. All payroll deductions were dropped in order to streamline the process and save money, he said.

"We went through some very painful changes in the last couple of years," including a downsizing that will take the plant from about 2,000 workers last year to 630 by the end of November, he said.

Under the company's new management style, DuPont managers think workers wouldn't need a union - especially the UMW, he said.

"From everything you read, the UMW will strike at a heartbeat," Slate said. The union has a history of violence and, as an outside group, would not care about the impact of a strike on the local community, he said.

The Martinsville DuPont workers have had a union since 1944, Jennings said. "We're not going to go without a union." He said a movement in the past couple of weeks by some workers to decertify, or disband, the Martinsville Nylon Employees Council has lost steam.

If the labor board approves an election, the vote could be held before the end of the year.

by CNB