Friday, June 29, 2012
Phobe Novakovic, CEO of General Dynamics (photo: Stephanie Green, Bloomberg)
With the complicity of the U.S. Army, a defense contractor has forced its employees to attend anti-union meetings on a military base in Washington State.
About 120 civilian workers at Fort Lewis will vote today whether to join Local 286 of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE). For the past six months, however, the workers’ employer—General Dynamics—has required them to attend meetings on the base that hammer home the message: unions are bad.
Among the faults cited by the defense contractor is the claim that if the employees vote to unionize, General Dynamics will lose its Stryker combat vehicle deal with the Army. The company received $19 billion in government contracts last year.
According to a story by Mike Elk of In These Times, the Army offered no comment and “has not taken a position on these meetings nor the claims that the workers voting to join a union would make them less attractive to the Army.”
One worker, former Marine Jason Croic, who now works at Fort Lewis, said “it’s bullshit the way they [General Dynamics] are talking to us,” adding: “You think when it's prior military veterans who have done their part, they wouldn’t do this kind of thing to us.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
Veterans Forced to Attend Anti-Union Meetings on Army Base (by Mike Elk, In These Times)
Veterans Working for Government Contractor Forced to Attend Anti-Union Meetings at Fort Lewis (by Mike Andersen, Daily Kos)
28% of Federal Contract Funds Go to Just 10 Companies…All Make Weapons Systems (by Matt Bewig, AllGov)
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