Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408220074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Pro-union workers and Tultex Corp. executives had the right words for each other Friday in the wake of an election that won employees representation by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
They said they want to cooperate to make money by manufacturing fleecewear in Martinsville.
"We believe we can produce sweat shirts cost-effectively in the United States," said Tultex President Charles W. Davies Jr. when asked if the union win might force Tultex to move more operations outside the United States.
The success of the company from "now on will depend upon how well we can work in the new environment," he said.
No problem, said several veteran employees at the union office Friday.
"We're the same people who have been working there all the time," said Maceo Sneed, a Henry County resident and a 22-year production employee. "We can work together, and I think we can make this a successful company."
Sneed didn't hide her joy, though, at the union win.
"It was my fifth time. I kept trying," she said in reference to the number of elections that have been held at the plant in recent years.
The final vote was 1,321 in favor of a union and 710 opposed.
Workers at a Tultex plant in Roanoke were not involved in the election.
Davies, a Roanoke native and Virginia Tech graduate who has been president since August 1990, was smiling Friday, but more low key than Sneed in his reaction. He said the plant appeared to be back to normal, and everyone "seemed friendly."
"It's always a relief when a campaign is over," he said.
He would not say when the company will be ready to negotiate a contract with the union, however, but he did say that it won't happen before the election is certified by the National Labor Relations Board.
A spokesman in the board's Winston-Salem, N.C., office said a seven-day waiting period is required before certification can take place.
The union campaign, which played up workers' concerns about cuts in bonuses, piecework rates and other benefits, was bitter and personal.
The union and the company played "he said, she said" in advertisements on local Cable 6 television.
Ads from one side or the other aired every 10 minutes all day since mid-July, said Cable 6 owner Charles Roark.
In one union ad, the Smith Mountain Lake home of Chairman John Franck was contrasted with the home of a worker who couldn't pay her rent.
Alienation between workers and management was a continuing message, and some of that remained among employees at a union news conference Friday.
Clifford Broady, who works in knitting, said the cutback in jobs that came after the unsuccessful 1990 union election was viewed by the workers as betrayal. Broady said employees thought the jobs would be kept if they rejected the union.
Workers said supervisors' lack of appreciation for line workers' efforts helped tip the sentiment in favor of a union.
Just a thank-you for "showing up on snow days" would have helped, said Julia Lampkins, a 24-year Tultex employee.
Lampkins said she is ready to cooperate with the company, however.
"We'll do anything we can to keep Tultex here," she said.
Davies said the cuts that were made at Tultex were done for the good of all.
"I sleep well at night knowing that I did the right thing to protect people's jobs," he said.
The fact that business is looking better could help ease tension, Davies said. In fourth quarter 1993, several large customers such as Wal-Mart and Kmart canceled their orders, leaving Tultex holding a higher-than-usual inventory.
The company has been able to lower its inventories this year by as much as 15 percent, Davies said. Plus, business appears to be up at retail stores, he said.
He noted that 50 percent of the fleecewear is sold in the fourth quarter, however, so no one knows yet how the year will turn out.
by CNB