Contact: Joe Smydo, jsmydo@usw.org, 412-562-2281
A hearing officer with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recommended certifying Kumho Tire workers’ organizing victory with the United Steelworkers (USW) and dismissing the company’s objections “in their entirety.”
After workers at the Macon, Ga., plant last year overcame Kumho’s oppressive anti-union campaign and voted to join the USW, the company filed several groundless objections in an effort to overturn the election.
The NLRB Regional Director dismissed some of those objections months ago, citing the lack of evidence.
In a report issued Nov. 10, NLRB Hearing Officer Brenna C. Schertz discredited the remaining objections. She determined that one company witness fabricated testimony and scolded Kumho for presenting “nonsensical” evidence and making allegations that were “wholly without merit.”
Schertz recommended overruling all of Kumho’s objections and certifying the workers’ election. The decision now rests with the NLRB Regional Director.
“Since the start of the organizing campaign, Kumho has employed every underhanded tactic possible to thwart the election, break the will of its workers and silence them,” said USW District 9 Director Daniel Flippo, who represents thousands of USW members in seven southern states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“It’s time for the company to face facts,” he said. “Workers voted to unionize so they could obtain decent wages and safe working conditions. Kumho must now come to the negotiating table and bargain in good faith for the fair contract their workers earned.”
The USW represents 850,000 men and women employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations.