By Frank DeLoache
and Paris Goodnight
Salisbury Post
A federal judge has agreed to speed up a hearing for five former Freightliner employees who say they were improperly expelled from the local chapter of the United Auto Workers union.
The five workers filed suit in federal court in Winston-Salem Wednesday, challenging their expulsion from United Auto Workers Local 3520, which represents workers at the giant Freightliner plant in Cleveland.
The five former union officials, all former members of Local 3520’s bargaining committee, are Rowan County residents Grady Allen Bradley and Glenna Swinford, Iredell County resident Robert Whiteside, Stanly County resident David Crisco and Mecklenburg County resident Franklin Torrence.
They contend other leaders of Local 3520 removed them from the union “in retaliation for policy differences between (the) plaintiffs and other union leaders in violation of the UAW’s constitution and … plaintiff’s rights to free speech, free association, equal rights and due process.”
The suit also says that Local 3520 unfairly filed a criminal trespassing charge against Grady Bradley when he and the other four former union officials tried to attend a union meeting in Statesville on Feb. 16.Iredell County deputies who arrested Bradley listed the union local as the victim in the case. The lawsuits asks a judge to force the union to withdraw its complaint against Bradley.
The five plaintiffs’ attorney, M. Travis Payne of Raleigh, also asked the judge to immediately reinstate the workers as union members while they challenge their expulsion in the courts.
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Court Judge James A. Beaty Jr. refused to grant an order immediately reinstating the former union officials, but he agreed to expedite a more elaborate hearing to determine if the former workers are being irreparably harmed while they wait for their suit to be heard.
Payne and Seth Cohen, a Winston-Salem attorney representing UAW Local 3520, indicated the hearing will probably take place in early June.
At Friday’s hearing, Judge Beaty also granted the former union officials’ request to get documents from the union local immediately.
Payne said Monday that in the normal course of a federal lawsuit, his clients couldn’t expect begin getting documents for about three months.
But Payne wants to see the documents Local 3520 officials sent to United Auto Workers’ national headquarters justifying expelling the five workers from the union.
And the judge ordered the union local to comply with Payne’s request.
The former union members’ lawsuit doesn’t dispute that they supported a strike at the Freightliner plant in 2007.
But the strike lasted only a few days.
Freightliner workers initially rejected a new contract, one which the five plaintiffs acknowledge they opposed. But the workers took a second vote a short time after and approved the contract.
According to the lawsuit filed last week:
– Fifty-three union members then filed a complaint against the five union officials ó now referred to as the Freightliner Five ó accusing them of “unbecoming conduct.”
Union leaders in Detroit sent the charges back to Local 3520 for trial by a union committee. After hearing more than a dozen witnesses, the trial committee “rejected the charge against plaintiffs by a vote of 6-1.”- In February, Local 3520 leaders sent letters to the Freightliner Five, saying that they had not paid their dues in April and December 2007 and that they were no longer members of the union.
In their suit, the five former officials say they asked previously if they owed any dues and needed to take any steps to remain in good standing as union members. Until the letters in February, they say they were always assured that they were up to date.
In the lawsuit, the five former union members contend that Local 3520 leaders have violated not only their rights but also the rights of union members who elected the Freightliner Five to offices in the union.
Contact Frank DeLoache at 704-797-4245 or fdeloache@salisburypost.com and Paris Goodnight at 704-797-4255 or pgoodnight@salisburypost.com.