In Morton, Illinois, at a welding shop for trucking company G&D Integrated, welders worked in fear that one small mistake could end up killing someone. The way that the shop floor was arranged, roughly 2,500 pound truck decks could drop on someone if a chain snapped.
The company came down hard on the union drive, amassing a mountain of union-busting charges in the process. Now, nearly six months later, there are only two workers left in the shop. Throughout the union-busting campaign, some workers were either fired or quit; then, on March 1, management told most of the remaining 10 or so workers that they were to pack their belongings and leave.
Timing was constantly an issue for Campbell, workers said, even though the welders working in the shop last year were so efficient that they had cut manufacturing time for some products in half. Campbell would often stand on the mezzanine, where he could see over the shop floor, to time how quickly tasks were completed and to pit workers against each other.
At one point, before the union drive, managers had put off Hanley’s annual review too long, preventing him from receiving his annual 80 cent an hour raise. While other workers whose reviews were delayed would get back pay for the time that they missed, managers decided after a few months that Hanley’s review had been delayed too long and that he simply wouldn’t get his raise for that year.
Di Donato says that the company’s union busting is the “prime example” for the reinstatement of the Joy Silk doctrine.