was necessary. The reply: and I quote from court testimony: "Well you should have signed a contract with us; this wouldn't have happened." - I repeat this statement simply to illustrate the mentality of the type of people we were dealing with. And deal with them, we did. Our turn came several months later in September - when two carloads of ironworkers from Local 16 descended upon three of our workers erecting a fence at a site on Pennington Avenue in Baltimore city. - Carrying pipes and hammers, the ironworkers formed a semicircle around the Fritz employees and laid the weapons very conspicuously on the ground. At that point, the leader of the ironworkers, one Bill Shaffer a business agent went nose-to-nose with our crew leader and said, "I'm Shaffer from 16; stop working now and have your boss call me." - - Frightened, my men left the job and refused to return without me accompanying them This I did the following day -- and the day after that. It was on the second day that I got a personal taste of the lengths to which the militants of 16 would go to intimidate us from doing the job. Around lunchtime, one of the militants, who was in the gang that had accosted my men two days earlier, appeared on the scene and came storming at me in an apparent rage, grabbed me by the throat, and started screaming, "My union shot five people and I'm going to kill you and bust your head in." My attacker, a large, powerful man later identified as Kenneth Deetz, threw me to the ground, whereupon he strangled and kicked me. Fortunately, I finally managed to escape and flee to my car. Although the local police responded and took Deetz into custody, he was released several days later with no verdict. The presiding judge remarked of the incident -- quote "Oh, just another labor dispute case. To add insult to injury, the day after I was beaten, the job site and our company warehouse sustained considerable vandalism. I'd had enough. Being a feisty fellow myself, and deciding that this sort of conduct was not what I served two tours of active duty in the Navy to defend, I sued. The end result, after four years and a grueling, emotionally draining trial, was a $110,000 federal jury judgement against Local 16 of the Ironworkers Union. But all the money in the world will never make up for all the pain and trauma that I, my workers, and my family had to endure just to earn a living. No amount of money will ever answer for me the question of why such conditions have to exist in a country we tell everyone is the freest in the world. When, I would like to know, are the people who make the laws going to make laws that will protect people like me and my employees from the threatening and violent tactics of union radicals? Just what is it that Congress is waiting for? Are they waiting for innocent people to be killed before enacting legislation that will make planned and calculated violence on a construction site a federal crime? STATEMENT BY ANITA DI LUZIO OF GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS I thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony in support of S. 613. I hope my statement will help other workers, like myself, who are the victims of labor union violence. My story begins on November 1, 1979, the day I returned to work at Wesco Electrical Company in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Previously, I had been an employee at Wesco for 21/2 years. And now I wanted to leave my current employer and return to Wesco. To go back, however, I had to cross the picket line of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). A number of other people crossed the picket line, too. At the time, I had no idea of the violence the pickets were capable of. They soon taught me. I was singled out by the picketers as someone to make an example of. The first day after work about 40 strikers came to my home, shouting threats and using foul language. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of what my family and me were put through by the union. Each day a truck would park out on the street directly in front of my house. I recognized two of the men who came in the truck. Both were union members. They would stand out at the curb talking and drinking. I guess they were trying to frighten me. Needless to say, it worked. I never went outside while they were parked in front of my house. On January 10, 1980, I was attacked in my car while trying to maneuver through the picket line. The rear car window was shattered. I then drove to the local police station to report the incident. The officer behind the front desk told me to go away and come back later. They were all busy. But I stayed until someone helped me. My friend, Shirley, brought me home from the police station and we found my house a wreck. Windows were broken; holes were punched in the door; rocks, bottles and broken glass were laying everywhere. But when my daughter came around from behind the house crying frightened to death I realized the worst thing that happened wasn't vandalism. One She and a friend had been sitting on the front steps waiting for me when the picketers arrived, shouting, screaming, and throwing rocks, sticks, and bottles at her. rock hit her. Shirley called the police for me. But I had to call them two more times before a patrol car finally pulled up. Later, as a result of my complaint for smashing my rear car window, I took two union members to court. My witnesses to the picket-line incident, the police, didn't bother to show up in court. I don't know if the officers were afraid of the union or if they simply didn't feel my case was worth taking the trouble to testify. My Needless to say, these were bad times for my family. People came from other towns to join the strikers. They set fires, broke windows, threw paint, and made crank phone calls. Both my girls were afraid to answer the phone. daughter Paula's car was smashed while parked in our own driveway. And she was warned not to turn her back when walking up town. I was called names when walking up town. My fifteen-year-old daughter, Cathy, was called a slut. And after I filed suit against the union in July, 1980, I was threatened by phone. The caller said they were going to burn us out. No matter what the strikers did, they were protected by their powerful union. They were free to make my town a battle zone because no one had the power to stop them. I hope the members at this subcommittee do whatever is necessary to make everyone in this country equal under the law, to keep what happened to me and my family from happening to someone else. STATEMENT OF MIKE MATTHEWS, PRESIDENT OF ELECTRO-HARMONIX, NEW YORK, NEW YORK I am pleased to submit this written testimony to the record, Mr. Chairman. However, I wish the time constraints imposed on these hearings allowed me to speak before the subcommittee face-to-face. In my view, one of the most important functions of government is to uphold the law and insure the public safety. My employees at Electro-Harmonix and I know from painful, personal experience how terrifying life can be when government fails in its responsibility to protect its citizens from violent hooligans. That's why I have traveled from New York City to attend these hearings today. I want to contribute in every way possible to the passage of S. 613. It is vitally important that this legislation gets the attention it deserves. Three years ago, the ILGWU launched an organization drive at Electro-Harmonix. At that time, there were some threats made to members of the company and two of our members were slapped and kicked. Workers quickly rejected this attempt to unionize Electro-Harmonix. Before they withdrew, a man identifying himself (and I absolutely believe and know in my heart that this was the man) as Sam Isenberg, President of Local 132 of the ILGWU, called me up and told me, "Mike, why don't you let me show you how we can work this out. It won't cost you a dime. In fact, I'll show you how you can save money on this.... I terminated this discussion and mentioned what he had said to our workers. Around this " time, the union withdrew their organization attempt. On August 3, 1981, at approximately 12 noon, the ILGWU began another organization drive. Two of the organizers involved had been involved in the previous organization attempt. At this time, they were passing out cards to our people on the street and behaving in what seemed at the time to be a legal and legitimate manner. During that week, some members of Electro-Harmonix were threatened and told that if they didn't join, "when they [the union] got in, they were going out." After calling my lawyer and being refreshed on the labor laws, I went out and talked to my production people. I knew that the overwhelming majority did not want to join the union. I On Monday, August 10, I came to work at 8:00 AM (we officially begin at 8:30 AM) and upon arriving saw some one hundred people milling around the entrance to the building. These individuals were not members of Electro-Harmonix. quickly came in the front door to catcalls and curses, went upstairs and called my attorney. I then called the police as per his instructions. After this, at approximately 8:15 AM, I went downstairs. Over the next ten minutes, this large crowd split into two groups. Half milled in force about the front entrance and half surrounded arriving workers trying to get into the building to report for work. The union organizers told me I had no business downstairs and to get back upstairs. At approximately 8:25 AM, eight people jumped me two from behind pulling my hair, one punching me from the front, and the others attacking from the sides. One of these individuals was Leo Suarez, the person in charge of organizing on the street. I still stayed at the entrance as I fended off my attackers and noticed many of our people were being pushed, surrounded, and yelled at. One of the first people to actually make it into the building, Nilda, had her hair pulled violently. At this time, the police arrived upon the scene and told me to get upstairs. I suggested that I stay and tell the workers they had the right to come in, but the police wanted me upstairs until they could set up barricades. During the day, members were beaten with sticks, and almost everyone who made it into the building was beaten or in some way restrained. Workers (who have given subsequent testimony) were surrounded and physically forced to sign cards and some members were paid sums of money on the spot to sign (testimony regarding the latter also given). Our lawyer immediately contacted the National Labor Relations Board and informed them of the violent nature of the union's actions, and, in fact, telephoned them on a daily basis. It was not until Thursday, August 13 at 3:00 PM, that a member of the board came to take testimony. Approximately thirty members of Electro-Harmonix wanted to testify to the National Labor Relations Board, but over the next three days, they took testimony from only about nine people and said there was no reason to take more as this was enough to file a complaint, although I protested this. During the entire period between August 10 and August 19, there was daily and continuous violence to members coming and going to work. People were attacked and struck with sticks, one member had his eye severely injured, workers were pelted with eggs, one was attacked by six individuals and a bottle was broken over his head, another was jumped in the subway by four men and four women, employees were attacked and punched from behind to mention just a few of the incidents. - At 10:00 AM on Monday, August 10, I called NBC News. They informed me that what was occurring sounded like news, and that they might come down, but could not tell me if they would for sure, or when. On the morning of Wednesday, August 12, workers informed me that they had been threatened with knives and told that if they did not leave work at 1:00 PM, they would "get it" at 5:00 PM when leaving to go home. |