Yesterday: Whirlpool Threatens Workers Who Protest Plant Closing,
I thought that was the end of it, but whoa, what’s this? Whirlpool Threatens Workers: Protesting Plant Closure Risks ‘Future Jobs’
A major corporation planning to shut down a factory in Indiana has warned its union workers that they’ll endanger their future job prospects if they protest the plant’s closing.
. . . Activists planned a high-profile protest for this Friday, with AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka visiting the plant for the first time. But Whirlpool says the effort is futile — they are fully committed to shutting the plant down. The company, however, still seems quite wary of the potential for bad publicity. In a memo sent to its employees and passed along to the Huffington Post, Paul Coburn, division vice president for Whirlpool’s Evansville Division, offers a fairly explicit warning to his workers: If they join Trumka’s protest they would seriously risk future employment opportunity.
Threatening workers who show up at the protest that they risk future employment? Click through to read the entire report and to see Whirlpool’s letter.
And take action: Tell Whirlpool: Keep It Made in America and Save Our Jobs.
Today I received a message: “After a legal review, the Local 808 today has filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB.” I received a PDF of the complaint filed against Whirlpool by IUE-CWA Local 84-808, which reads:
The above named employer, by its officers, agents and representatives has interfered with, restrained and coerced employees from the exercise of their rights under Section 7 of the Act by threatening employees if they participate in a union rally.
