UAW vote set at Ohio glassworks
FUYAO GLASS, America’s hotly-anticipated union vote, will take place Nov. 8 and 9, the National Labor Relations Board said last week.
The 1,500 workers in the Moraine, Ohio, plant will cast ballots for or against joining the United Auto Workers.
UAW is hoping for a decisive win to gain a little momentum after its disappointing loss this summer in Canton, Mississippi, where the union was trying to gain a toehold in a Nissan plant.
In a show of just how much the union wants this victory, it organized a rally of some 2,000 supporters last week outside the Moraine facility.
Fuyao Glass America, owned by a self-made Chinese billionaire, is actually located in a refurbished GM factory that shut down in 2008, taking thousands of jobs with it.
The arrival of Fuyao a few years later helped revive the moribund local economy — but the plant’s also had a series of safety mishaps that many workers cited as a factor in their decision to reach out to UAW.
“We’re not just union members, but we’re taxpayers and community members as well,” said Brian Martin, president of UAW Local 696 in Dayton.
“State and local taxpayers have invested over $20 million in subsidies to make this plant successful. In return, Fuyao has an obligation to provide our community with good, stable jobs,” he said at the rally last week.