[PEN-L:4393] UE appeal

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Appeal To Help Stop Unionbusting
Injustice At Glastic Plastics

Robin Alexander
UE Director of International Labor Affairs
One Gateway Center, Suite 1400
420 Fort Duquesne Blvd.
PGH., PA. 15222-1416
412-471-8919
412-471-8999 FAX

The United Electrical Workers' Union (UE) asks for your solidarity and immediate assistance in the fight to stop unionbusting by Kobe Steel, a giant Japanese multinational with plants in the U.S. Please join this fight for workers' rights by sending protest messages to corporate officials at the e-mail addresses below.

More than three months ago, the 120 workers at Kobe's Glastic plastics plant in Jefferson, Ohio, voted to unionize. However, Kobe, a billion dollar global giant, is intent on busting their newly formed union instead of negotiating a union contract. Kobe/Glastic representatives have brought nothing but arrogance and insults to the few bargaining sessions held to date. Recently, when local union leaders tried to expose these sham negotiations in reports to fellow workers in the plant cafeteria, management tried to silence them!

Issues the workers are seeking to resolve in negotiations include health and safety problems and a huge wage disparity between their plant and a Kobe/Glastic unionized facility in nearby Cleveland. At the Jefferson plant, an overwhelming number of production workers suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome, with many already having had surgery on both wrists. Wages in Jefferson are 25 - 50% less than in Cleveland. The members of newly organized UE Local 758 want respect from the company, democracy in their workplace, and a union contract to improve their wages and conditions.

Protest messages urging an end to union busting and a beginning of good faith negotiations should be sent to: Koshi Mizukoshi, Kobe Steel President and CEO at www-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and Glenn Grant, Glastic Corporation President and CEO at sales@ glastic.com

A sample e-mail protest message appears below. When you send your protest to company officials please copy your e-mail to UE at organize@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Additional solidarity messages may also be sent to UE Local 758 in care of the same e-mail address.

Sample E-Mail:

Mr. Koshi Mizukoshi, President and CEO, Kobe Steel-- Mr. Glenn Grant, Glastic Corp.President and CEO

I am outraged to hear of the abuse of workers' rights occurring at Kobe/Glastic's Jefferson, Ohio, location. I urge you to immediately begin negotiating regularly with union representatives there with the intention of signing a union contract within a few weeks. If your unionbusting continues, there is sure to be permanent damage to Kobe's public image in the U.S. and around the globe.

Please let me know once you have signed a contract with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), Local 758.

Sincerely;