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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 30, 1995                   TAG: 9503300065
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                  LENGTH: Medium

UNION VOTE TODAY AT INLAND MOTORS

Approximately 230 hourly production and maintenance workers at Inland Motor vote today on whether they want to be represented by the United Auto Workers union. Voting is set for 1 to 3 p.m. and 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the company's First Street plant.

The National Labor Relations Board will conduct the certification election, which the union requested in a Feb. 16 petition.

NLRB spokesman Ron Yost in the board's Winston-Salem, N.C., office said Wednesday a union generally must demonstrate a "showing of interest representing 30 percent of employees in the prospective bargaining unit" before the board agrees to hold a certification election.

"If they have that, we are satisfied it's worth our time" to hold a vote, he said.

A union representative, in the New River Valley for the certification election, was not available to comment.

Mike DeNicola, Inland Motor's vice president and general manager, said Wednesday that his company views the election as part of a continuing effort by the UAW to make up for dramatic membership losses in the last 10 years.

"It is certainly our hope and expectation that the Inland Motor employees will reject the union," he said.

DeNicola said the fact that Inland Motor does little work for the automotive industry ironically makes it an ideal UAW target. He said the union also has been trying to organize workers at other small industrial operations in the New River Valley for at least a year, and a certification election already is set for another Radford business.

Even if the vote goes the union's way, it does not guarantee a union shop at Inland Motor, which designs and manufactures specialty electric motors and motor controls for industry and defense-related applications. If certified, the new bargaining unit still must successfully negotiate a work agreement with the company.

An NLRB representative will count the votes. DeNicola said he expects to know the outcome by 6 p.m. today.

About a year ago, Inland Motor laid off 35 workers, citing "a drop in our market" as the reason. Most of those let go were wage employees. The plant employs approximately 325 people.

Inland Motor is an independent division of Kollmorgen Corp. of Waltham, Mass., which also operates Industrial Drives on Rock Road. Workers at that plant are not affected by today's election.

by CNB