Machinists stop raid at Johnson Controls

CANBY, OR -- Employees at Johnson Controls Inc., a battery manufacturing plant in Canby, voted to retain the Machinists Union in a National Labor Relations Board election held Jan. 6.

Workers at the plant have been represented by Machinists District Lodge 24 since 1960.

The vote was 125 for the Machinists, 29 for the independent Northwest Employee Association, and eight persons voted for no representation. There are 179 employees in the bargaining unit.

"Johnson Controls employees decisively rejected an attempted raid on the unit orchestrated by Robert Plympton, a former Boilermaker official who now operates Plympton & Associates Labor Consultants," said Dave Plant, directing business representative of District Lodge 24.

Plympton's firm recently was put on the Unfair List of the Oregon AFL-CIO. According to the Machinists, Plympton filed a petition seeking to represent Johnson Controls employees just as the bargaining unit's contract was set to expire.

Plympton currently represents employees of three subsidiaries of the Beall Corporation in Portland and Springfield who are members of three locals of the Pacific Northwest Employees Association, which Plympton created in 1991, Plant said.

Plant credited the in-plant "Employee Committee to Retain the Machinists Union" for the victory. The committee secured pledges of support from a majority of workers during the election campaign. Committee members also distributed informational fliers in the plant, assisted by Business Representative Broc Greif, District Organizer Bob Petroff and other District 24 staff.

Plant said negotiations on a new contract with the company began Dec. 17. "Now that the distractions caused by the election campaign are over, the negotiating committee can get back to the business of negotiating a good contract for the members." Negotiations resumed Jan. 15.

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