Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 4, 1995 TAG: 9507050094
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Its significance is a larger base of strength for both organizations," said Eddie Lowery, international servicing representative for the steelworkers' Roanoke subdistrict.
The merger was narrowly approved by 67 percent of delegates at a special rubber workers convention Saturday in Pittsburgh. A two-thirds vote was needed to ratify the agreement.
The Roanoke subdistrict office enforces contracts for more than 6,000 workers at 45 companies - from a foundry to a florist - in the southern one-third of the state, except in Newport News. Of those, 4,000 belong to the steelworkers union, with the largest area employer of steelworkers being Intermet Corp., the Atlanta parent of the Radford Shell Plant - formerly Lynchburg Foundry - and the New River Casting facility also in Radford.
The Roanoke Valley also is home of Local 1023 of the former rubber workers union in Salem, whose members represent a large share of the 1,000 employees at Yokohama Tire Corp. in Salem.
The merger clears the way for the formerly separate unions to collaborate more extensively.
The locals can send pickets to each other's strikes, increasing their impact, said Mike Stanley, administrative vice president of steelworkers in Akron, Ohio, and the former vice president of the rubber workers union international organization.
"We'll be there with them helping them. They will be standing beside us helping us," Stanley said.
The assistance also could take the form of cash, food and moral support during job actions, he said.
The first such joint activity locally was an informational picket on June 14, when steelworkers stood alongside rubber workers at Firestone Tire and Service's Roanoke store. The action was to support a URW-called boycott against the store's owner, Bridgestone/Firestone of Nashville, Tenn.
Local 1023 of the rubber workers will take the steelworkers' name but remain an autonomous organization, keeping its officers for the time being.
Although many unions have consolidated in recent years, this pact is "one of the most visible union mergers in the last decade, given the historical significance of the steel industry and the tire industry," said Dane Partridge, a Roanoker who teaches labor relations as an assistant professor of management at the University of Southern Indiana.
The two unions merged in part because of declining membership and influence during the past 10 to 15 years, Partridge said. The merger enabled each union to grow faster than it could have by holding organizing drives at nonunion workplaces, he said.
The steelworkers' organization was, by far, the larger union, numbering 565,000 members before adding the rubber workers' 98,000 members. It has a $166-million strike fund, contrasted to the rubber workers' fund, which was severely drawn down by a 10-month strike against Bridgestone/Firestone, Partridge said.
George Becker, the steelworkers' national president, has vowed the steelworkers will try to step up pressure on the corporation, while following up the merger with other moves to increase membership.
Partridge said nonunion tire companies can expect the steelworkers to use their greater resources to wage intensive organizing campaigns, perhaps favoring door-to-door visits over distribution of leaflets at plants or through the mail to get the message out.
Partridge said companies such as Yokohama that must bargain with the steelworkers for the first time may regret the union's added bargaining power created by its greater size. But, he said, they may take some comfort in knowing that the steelworkers have for years shown a willingness to reach what Partridge called "win-win outcomes" at the negotiating table.
Officials at the Yokohama plant in Salem, which is closed for vacation this week, could not be reached for comment.
by CNB