United Auto Workers to Take Battle for Connecticut Workers to Germany

UAW regional director to confront parent company of Chef Solutions At June 18, 2003 Lufthansa Annual General Meeting

COLOGNE, Germany, June 17 -- UAW Region 9A Director Phil Wheeler will attend the Lufthansa Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, June 18 to fight for the right of 150 Connecticut manufacturing workers to form a union in an atmosphere free of threats and coercion.

"In my 35 years of organizing, I've never seen abuse as bad as the way this Lufthansa-subsidiary Chef Solutions has treated these workers, mostly immigrants, many of them women," said Wheeler. "The UAW is very seriously considering launching a boycott against a customer of Chef Solutions, to protect these workers' right to make a free choice as to whether or not they want to form a union."

Wheeler will represent approximately 486,100 shares of stock held by the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Fund, under State Treasurer Denise Nappier. The Lufthansa stock is worth more than $4,410,438, part of the state's $17 billion trust fund. Wheeler also will represent Alan Hevesi, Comptroller of the State of New York and the more than 60,000 shares of Lufthansa stock held by the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

Nappier has introduced two counter motions for the Annual General Meeting on the issues of executive pay, stating that the company has failed to disclose the individual compensation of its executives, and on labor and human rights violations.

Workers at Chef Solutions have been fighting for the right to organize a union with the UAW since fall 2001, out of concern for health and safety issues, fair wages and severe, pervasive sexual abuse within the plant. The National Labor Relations Board has issued a formal complaint charging the Lufthansa subsidiary with 29 labor law violations, including illegally firing two workers, threatening to close the plant, conducting coercive interrogations and physically assaulting one employee for supporting the union. Additional charges have been filed since the time of that complaint, including death threats against an NLRB witness. Independent sexual abuse charges are also pending in U.S. District Court against the Lufthansa subsidiary, Chef Solutions.

NOTE TO EDITORS: *An eight-minute, 20-second video is available documenting just a few of these workers' experiences. The video also includes statements from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.; Connecticut State Rep. Evelyn Mantilla, and national civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia. To request a copy of the video, contact Roger Kerson, UAW Public Relations, at +1-313-926-5291 or rkerson@uaw.net .