Dana workers threaten to strike Local union joins 14 others ready to walk

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070428/NEWS01/704280332/1002

Dana workers threaten to strike
Local union joins 14 others ready to walk
BY SEAN F. DRISCOLL
sdriscol@marion.gannett.com

Union officials at Marion's Dana Corp. plant say they'll strike if a federal bankruptcy judge allows the company to void labor contracts with its employees.

Willie Campbell, president of United Steel Workers Local 7-113, said union members overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to authorize a strike if the contracts are voided.

"The decisions that were made (that caused the bankruptcy) were not made at the local level," he said. "It was not management, union or non-union members that were involved. It's not our fault, yet they want us to pay for them. (The local members) are not happy."

Campbell said the vote was 98 percent in favor of a strike, with 82 percent of the union's 340 members casting a ballot.

The Marion local will join 14 other unions in striking if the contracts are voided, he said, adding that union leaders are meeting Monday in Detroit.

Dana has asked a federal bankruptcy court in New York to allow the company to void its labor contracts. The request was argued in March, two weeks after Dana said it reached an agreement to end health care benefits for 9,700 nonunion retirees, according to court documents.

FULL story at link.

striking. Assume the same process would hold here.

And that is where an increasing number of American workers are now days, despairate with their backs against teh wall.