Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994 TAG: 9406300062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Chuck Davies backed away from a statement he made last week that the company - which reported losses of $4.9 million in the first quarter of this year - might accept union representation in Martinsville rather than go through a distracting election.
``Business is a struggle right now and to be faced with this at this time is very disturbing,'' he said at a news conference Monday at the company's distribution center. ``We weren't sure we were in the position to go forward with an election as we have in the past. Over the weekend, however, we have been getting a lot of feedback from our employees, our shareholders and the community asking us to please hold an election.''
Supporters of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union criticized Davies for changing his mind and said they have collected signatures from more than half of that operation's workers.
``This just goes to show that Mr. Davies is not a man of his word,'' said Clifford Broady, a 15-year veteran at Tultex and a union supporter.
With more than 2,000 workers, Tultex is one of Martinsville's largest employers. Union official Patricia Westwater said the union has collected cards with 1,311 signatures from employees at the plant.
The National Labor Relations board requires that 30 percent of the plant's eligible workers support a union before it will authorize an election.
Though the union says it has well over that amount, only about 100 workers showed up for a union pep rally Monday afternoon.
O\rganizers said that was because most supporters were working. The rally was held at 5 p.m. after the day shift ended.
``I don't know what I've been told, Tultex thinks they're mighty bold,'' the workers at the rally chanted like soldiers. ``We don't care what they say, all we want is our fair pay.''
Westwater said that union representatives delivered a letter to Chief Executive Officer John Franck at 3 p.m. Monday announcing that they had obtained the required number of signatures for an election. Davies said at his 4 p.m. news conference that he hadn't seen the letter. The textile union has failed in four attempts to form at Martinsville - in 1979, 1981, 1989 and 1990.
Monday's events likely set the stage for a fifth election. Davies said he thought a majority of workers still didn't want to unionize.
``We believe that a union will be very bad for the employees,'' he said.
A rallying point for union supporters has been that Tultex has cut pay and benefits over the past 18 months.
Melissa Thompson, a Franklin County native who works at the plant, said she voted against the union in 1990, but will support it this time.
The 25-year-old seamstress said her take-home pay has dropped about $40 in a year.
``You try to work with the company, but enough is enough,'' she said.
Davies and Tultex Chairman John Franck defended the pay and benefits cuts, saying the alternative was job losses.
The company president said unionized companies have cut jobs, not just wages.
``Who were the first workers to go to Mexico,'' he said. ``Autoworkers. Just look at the history.''
Davies said the company will make its position on the union clear to employees, but would remain focused on its customers.
Tultex has cut nearly 100 supervisory positions and cut back hourly workers' schedules in the last year because fleece orders from some of its major customers have been down.
Davies said the company will announce a second-quarter loss in July, but he wouldn't speculate on how much it would be.
Employees at Tultex's Roanoke plant are not included in the Martinsville union effort because the National Labor Relations Board considers it a separate unit.
by CNB