UAW: Labor Board Orders SPX to Re-Hire Laid-Off Workers

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., April 24 The following was released by the International Union, UAW:

    In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the National Labor
Relations Board has ordered the Muskegon, Michigan-based SPX Corporation, an
auto industry supplier, to re-hire workers laid off at the company's
SPX-Contech division in Dowagiac, Michigan in the fall of 1996.  The Labor
Board order, issued on April 9, affirms an earlier ruling by an NLRB
Administrative Law Judge.  It requires the company to pay back wages, health
benefits, pension payments, and other compensation to 120 workers affected by
the layoff, starting from the date they were laid off.

    The NLRB decision, which is subject to appeal in Federal court, creates an
undetermined liability for SPX.  The total award, including interest, could
reach millions of dollars, depending on the circumstances of individual
workers affected.  The company's liability will continue to mount until
workers are made whole or a settlement is reached.

    "This is great news for our members," said Danny Truelove, Vice President
of UAW Local 3136, which represents workers at SPX-Contech in Dowagiac.  "This
company has spent a lot of years telling us we didn't have any rights and they
didn't have to talk to us.  We stuck to our guns, because we know we have a
right to form a union and bargain."

    "The NLRB has told SPX in no uncertain terms:  corporate crime does not
pay," said George Andros, regional director of UAW Region 1D in western
Michigan.  "This company has an obligation to respect the rights of its
workers, and to bargain in good faith.  Defying that obligation in the face of
repeated court rulings is a costly mistake for SPX, its workers, its
shareholders, and the communities in which it does business."

    The 1996 layoffs occurred shortly after a majority of workers at SPX voted
to form their own union and join the International Union, UAW.  Union
representatives filed an information request and asked the company to bargain
over the effects of the proposed layoffs.  In plain violation of U.S. labor
law, the company refused to meet with the union, refused to bargain, and
refused to provide any information.

    The company refused to bargain over the layoffs because it refused to
recognize the results of the 1996 NLRB election.  Company executives spent
several years in court trying to overturn the results of the election.  The
effort failed after the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the
election in 1998, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case the
following year.

    Members of UAW Local 3136 at SPX-Contech and UAW representatives have been
working to bargain a contract with SPX since January of last year, Andros
said.  "Unfortunately," he said, "after more than 45 bargaining sessions
without reaching a contract, I'm forced to conclude that SPX executives are
more interested in delay and denial than they are in reaching a fair and
equitable agreement."

    "Their continued refusal to bargain isn't going to fly," said Andros.
"The Labor Board won't let them get away with it, and our members won't let
them get away with it.  The best course for this company is to reach a rapid
settlement with the workers illegally laid off in 1996, and with current
employees.  Our members and our union are ready to work with the company and
do whatever is necessary to get the job done."