Autos Damaged At Struck Plant
Autos Damaged
At Struck Plant
Ann Arbor police are inves-
ating 16 instances of mali-
cious destruction of property
involving cars at the struck
Argus Optics plant, 2601 S.
State St.
Officers said the car dam-
age occurred when workers
not on strike drove their vehi-
cles across a picket line set
up at the Argus entrance this
morning. Non-striking work-
ers said their cars were
scratched, pounded and
kicked by the picketers who
congregated at the main
driveway of the plant. No one
was hurt and no arrests were
made, police said. Officers
said an investigation of the in-
cident is occurring.
The strike is not over eco-
nomic demands but is a dis-
pute over what a United
Automobile Workers (UAW)
official said were unfair labor
practices. Approximately 90
persons are involved.
Kenneth Koeppen, an inter-
national representative for the
UAW, said there are two un-
fair labor practices: the com-
pany refusing to bargain with
a union which has been certi-
fied by the National Labor Re-
lations Board (NLRB); and
the firing of the chief union
steward for what UAW offi-
cials said was alleged union
activity.
Donald Hochgreve, general
manager of the division here,
said the company has refused
to bargain with the union be-
cause of the way the union
certification election was con-
ducted. He charged that the
UAW used unfair labor prac-
tices in the election cam-
paign.
"We filed objections to the
NLRB but the board ruled
against us. The UAW has filed
with the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals. We have told em-
ployes we will abide by the
court decision." Hochgreve
said that court decision might
not be expected for some
time, as much as a year or
two. .,
Koeppen said the union was
not asking for a wage in-
crease. "The company says it
is poor. All that we are asking
is that they sit down and
negotiate."
The company is disputing
the results of the election. In
the meantime, Hochgreve said
company attorneys will reach
a decision this week about
whether there should be one
or two shifts and whether peo-
ple should be recruited to re-
place the striking workers.
The general manager said
that production ha" h^'" ham-
pered since the -'gan
Thursday. "We are satisfying
the customers we can."
Koeppen said the union will
maintain a picket line 24
hours a day. He said the num-
ber of pickets varies but
sometimes there are approx-
imately 30 persons. He said
approximately six persons eli-
gible for the union have
crossed the picket line. Hoch-
greve used a higher figure of
approximately 20 persons.