On Thursday, August 15, 47 workers at the Environmental Air Systems plant in High Point, North Carolina voted to unionize with United Association Local 421.
Workers at the EAS plant manufacture HVAC systems used in industrial and other development projects. The EAS workforce includes many welders, fitters, and other skilled workers. In their effort to win a union, workers raised a number of grievances, including low wages, inadequate benefits, problems with health and safety conditions, and other issues. During the current drive, the company hired a professional union buster and waged a brutal, scorched-earth campaign of intimidation and fear in an effort to divide and demoralize workers and prevent them from winning a union and a better life. Despite this, the EAS workers stuck together and stayed union strong. The final vote tally was 28 yes and 15 no in favor of unionization.
We at the Triad Workers Assembly (TWA) applaud the efforts of these courageous workers to organize a union and offer them our solidarity and support during their next struggle to win a first contract from the company in the coming months. The EAS union win follows in the wake of the victorious contract struggle waged earlier this year by thousands of UAW workers at Daimler Truck North America’s heavy truck and bus plants in North Carolina — a struggle which included workers at the big DTNA-owned Thomas Built Buses plant in High Point who are members of UAW Local 5287. We hope that the union victory at EAS will be the first of many new worker organizing triumphs in High Point and the Triad.
The working class of the South must build union power in order to win a better life for our class and advance the interests of workers everywhere. The South is currently experiencing a surge of capital investment in many segments of the manufacturing industry. Workers in this sector are strategically positioned to lead the way in the fight in opposition to exploitation by employers and the efforts of the ruling class to divide working people and pit us against one another.
It is in the interest of the entire working class when workers stand up and fight for justice, dignity, and a better life for working people.
Solidarity with UA Local 421 and EAS workers in High Point!
Union Yes!