In April 2005, more than 250 workers walked off their jobs at Johnson Refrigerated Truck Bodies in Chetek, Wisconsin. Unhappy with the way the strike was going after seven months, a number of workers returned to their jobs. A vote was subsequently taken and the Teamsters local was decertified. Nearly two-thirds of the workers had voted against the Teamsters, for they no longer wanted the union to negotiate with management on their behalf.
That was truly a momentous event, for Johnson had been unionized for more than 40 years.
Those who had refused to return to work prior to the vote are now out of work along with their union reps.
While organized labor hopes to unionize millions of workers with the Democratically sponsored Employee Free Choice Act, which will permit card checks to replace secret ballot elections, many commonsensical workers have come to realize that unions are frequently ineffective and have become an anachronistic element within a highly competitive global economy.
