US union United Steelworkers (USW) warned at the weekend that recently unionised workers at the Maryland Siemens's plant have become targets for an anti-union campaign by the company's management.
The company has launched a full-blown union-busting campaign, hiring anti-union consultant Ken Cannon who advertises himself as having "40 years of experience supporting managements' efforts to remain union-free."
Paradoxically, Siemens signed a global framework agreement with its general works council, the German metalworkers' union IG Metall and the IndustriALL Global Union on July 25 in which the company pledged to respect workers' right to choose a union.
In that agreement Siemens committed itself to fundamental workers' rights such as equal opportunity, freedom of association and collective bargaining.
The agreement states that "members of employee organisations or unions will be neither advantaged nor disadvantaged on account of their membership."
General manager Isadore Hossler told workers: "If organised, we will lose customers in the south as they don't want to do business with a union facility."
“This is a classic union-busting operation,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard. “It is completely inconsistent with the company’s stated principles and with International Labor Organization Conventions as well as U.S. law.”
The USW represents about 850,000 workers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean in a wide variety of industries, ranging from glassmaking to mining, paper, steel, tire and rubber to the public sector, service and health care industries.
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