NLRB Orders 5th Vote At Fieldcrest Cannon

BY MATTHEW WINTER
SALISBURY POST

Fieldcrest Cannon workers will vote once again on a union - the fifth time since 1974.

The National Labor Relations Board ordered the vote in a decision critical of the company's "surveillance" of union organizers during a 1997 election campaign.

In a decision dated Oct. 30, the board set aside the Aug. 12-13 employee vote that defeated the union 2,563 to 2,194. The vote was the fourth time Fieldcrest workers have rejected a union, most recently the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE).

In ordering another election, as yet unscheduled, the board confirmed a hearing officer's opinion that Fieldcrest Cannon's "|Ôunexplained and unusual supervisory presence outside the door to the (union) meetings, especially in greater numbers than are required for the starting, timing and stopping of the meetings,' conveyed an impression of surveillance," the board stated in its report.

A hearing officer was assigned to review the election after UNITE officials questioned election results and recommended that the board order a new election. UNITE Vice President Bruce Raynor claimed after the election that Fieldcrest Cannon "thumbed its nose" at the Labor Relations Board during the weeks leading up to the union vote.

The federal labor board had ordered the company to provide union representatives unprecedented access to Cabarrus and Rowan county plants and workers.

Pillowtex, the Dallas-based textile corporation that bought Fieldcrest Cannon in December, appealed the hearing officer's recommendation and findings.

Among these findings, the hearing officer reported to the board that Fieldcrest Cannon "|Ôengaged in a pervasive and purposeful program of surveillance of its employees while they attended the union response meetings ordered by the Board and the court' and that the Employer's conduct Ôinhibited employee attendance at the response meetings, thus affecting the results of the election to a significant degree,'|" the report states.

Reached in Texas this morning, Pillowtex CEO Chuck Hanson said: "I'm not going to try and second guess the board. We've stated what our position is, and I will not take issue with what the board says. We will follow to the letter whatever the board order is."

Hanson's organization tried to appeal the hearing officer's recommendations. "We did not agree with the decision rendered," he said. "We have made it very clear from the beginning and in the interim that the best interests of our associates are served by the relationship that exists presently between employees and management. We do not believe that our people need organized representation to properly represent their best interests."

Hanson said he had no idea when the next vote will take place.

He also would not speculate on what a union at Fieldcrest Cannon would mean for his company.

Pillowtex announced it was buying Fieldcrest Cannon shortly after the 1997 union election. And even before Pillowtex decided to appeal the hearing officer's recommendation, union officials announced that 55 percent of eligible Fieldcrest employees had signed cards endorsing a union.

Michael Zucker, UNITE spokesman, said the board's decision confirms what "we've said throughout this whole process - that the company broke the law, and the election is going to have to be rerun."

It is not unusual for a company's workers to hold a number of votes before approving a union, Zucker said.

"What is unusual is that a company would break the law as often and as vigorously as Fieldcrest has over the years...," Zucker said. "Workers often vote numerous times before they get their union in when faced with this type of illegal activity.

"We believe that if a company doesn't break the law and illegally monitor its employees, they'll vote for a collective bargaining and have their wages and benefits put in writing with a labor contract."

Approximately 300,000 workers nationwide have joined UNITE, Zucker said.

Staff writer Susan Dickerson contributed to this article.