ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
LACK OF COMMUNICATION led his employees to seek union representation, says the president. The employees say differently.
Faced with the possibility of most of his employees forming a union, Virginia Transformer Corp. president Prabhat Jain said now he can see a shortcoming in his organization's management style that probably led some workers to seek outside help.
"We just don't talk enough," Jain said. "It is our failing."
The realization is what the Roanoke company's leader described Wednesday as the good part of the union drive, which was begun in January by the International Union of Electronic Workers and culminates with a May 9 vote by up to 105 of the company's 175 local employees.
The bad part, he said, is that a union is unnecessary. As the maker of electrical products has prospered, it has improved compensation to the greatest extent possible, he said. Jain leaves the impression there is no more money for a union to seek in order to raise wages and benefits.
"We believe we have done everything that we can do with the resources available to us and also continue the growth of the company so people can expect a more secure future," he said.
The election was scheduled at the request of the electronic workers union, according to the National Labor Relations Board office in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Chuck Van Dellen, secretary and treasurer of the union's seven-state regional office that serves Virginia, described the campaign as the result of a different sort of tension from that Jain described.
The workers, he said, "are being mistreated" and subject to "total disregard for seniority." The level of wages is a secondary, but still significant concern, he said.
Jain conceded there is room for management to communicate more with workers. They rightly have wondered, he said, how a plant expansion starting in a few weeks will affect them.
The hourly production employees who will vote whether to form a collective bargaining unit receive an average hourly wage of $8.50 and yearly raises of 5 percent to 7 percent, Jain said. The company pays the cost of health, life, disability and dental insurance, contributes to a retirement plan and gave bonuses of 4 percent last year, he said.
The company has posted 18 percent annual growth in sales for some time and expects to do $25 million to $30 million worth of business this year.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB