A more perfect union? 81 years after violent strike, Gaston unions, company officials negotiate peac

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.gastongazette.com/news/years-45867-strike-negotiate.html

April 12, 2010 8:35 AM
Daniel Jackson

As contract negotiations approached last week’s deadline, union workers at Freightliner plants in Gaston County prepared for a possible strike, but they never worried about the violence that left a police chief and a union organizer dead during the historic strike at Loray Mill 81 years ago.

In advertisements in The Gastonia Daily Gazette after Loray workers struck on April 1, 1929, mill owners accused workers of plots to destroy religion, the family, private property and the U.S. government, not to mention mix races and “kill, kill, kill.” At that time, some labor organizers were affiliated with the Communist Party, which is not true of union leaders in Gaston County now.

Today negotiations between unions and company management are much more civil than they were in 1929. And the rhetoric in favor of and against organized labor is not as inflammatory, but a tension still exists.

The modern business community is still overwhelmingly opposed to organized labor, accusing unions of lowering productivity and reducing competitiveness. And rank and file employees still organize to bargain for better wages and to create a voice loud enough to be heard by big business.

Most agree that the labor movement made meaningful contributions over the past century toward improving safety, equality, wages and benefits for American workers. Some argue that unions have little value in today’s regulated workplace and may have outlived their usefulness. Yet, others point to last Monday’s deadly mine explosion in West Virginia to illustrate why unions are still relevant, helping to ensure that rules and regulations are enforced.

“One only needs look as far as the recent coal mine disaster in West Virginia — where at least (25) miners died in a non-union mine that was cited for 458 violations in 2009 — to understand why unions are still needed,” said author David McMullen, a former Lincolnton resident who once taught writing at Gaston College.

FULL story at link.