Nonmember Listing Did Not Start
at Local 848
From time to time, Local 848 activists make a point of gathering the
names of everybody who should have joined the union but has not done it. People
from other states often do not understand that in so-called “right to work”
states, unions are forced to represent employees who do not pay dues or support
the union in any way. Local 848 has often been criticized by non-members for
listing their names in the union newspaper, but our union didn’t start it.
In fact, we copied the idea from IBEW Local 69, who regularly ran a
“rats column” in the AFL-CIO paper in Dallas.
Long before that, the Rubberworkers’ union (now Steelworkers) in
Tyler put their names on billboards at the plant entrance.
John Nash, who was president of the Rubberworkers’ union explained
it to Local 848’s Gene Lantz during the January 26-27 AFL-CIO COPE Convention.
Nash said that he researched the legality of the project and was well prepared
for the storm of protest from non-members in the plant. The storm, of course,
did come, but Nash and his union’s consulting attorney laughed it off.
Originally, Nash said, there
were far too many non-members to put on billboards. Consequently, he started
putting their names up just one unit at a time. The howl was terrific, Nash
reports, but he was able to get the protesting nonmembers to join. Then, he
would move on to another unit and put the nonmembers’ names on the billboards
right outside the plant gate. This continued until there were thousands of
union members and only a handful of nonmembers plant-wide. Their names fit
nicely on the billboard at the plant gate!