A majority of production and maintenance workers at R. J. Reynolds voted against representation by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. More than 1,200 workers voted against union representation, while 860 voted for union representation.
The two unions have combined forces and intend to challenge the results with the NLRB. Among the loser’s typical gripes are that the company used veiled threats and mis-information to the defeat the organizing effort and subsequent election.
Such an accusation might have more credibility if workers hadn’t rejected union representation a year ago by more than a 2 to 1 margin.
This is another example of how unions are out of touch with workers and how smart management-planning can create a strategy that permits companies to operate without the often crippling burdens of oppressive unionization.
