[nfbmi-talk] picketers protest peckham

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Picketers protest alleged anti-union action at Peckham

 

Group claims a pattern of 'retaliatory layoffs'

 

10:23 PM, May. 11, 2012  |

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Brian Owens (left) and Michael Grau (right) who said they are recently laid off Peckham Industries employees, take part in an informational picket in favor

of union organization outside the nonprofit Friday. / Rod Sanford | Lansing State Journal

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Ken Palmer

 

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A handful of workers and union organizers worked a picket line at Peckham Vocational Industries on Friday to protest what they called anti-union activities

by the nonprofit company.

 

Mike Kolhoff, an organizer for United Peckham, an independent union formed in March, said the informational pickets are aimed at stemming what he called

a pattern of “retaliatory layoffs” at Peckham.

 

“They are laying off staff to intimidate people from joining the union,” said Kolhoff, of the Lansing Workers’ Center, a community group that advocates

for individual workers and groups of workers. “They are targeting groups of people who they believe would be most likely to support the union drive, while

other groups of people are being excluded.”

 

The company released a statement saying it respects citizens’ rights to hold informational sessions in public places.

 

Spokeswoman Bonnie Zimmerman said the company recently laid off about 70 clients who work in apparel manufacturing. More than 100 others were laid off before

that, she said.

 

“A lot of the work we do is for the military, and those production numbers are down,” she said.

 

“The volume of work orders is decreasing.”

 

Lansing-based Peckham provides job training for people with disabilities who work in manufacturing, warehousing, office cleaning, information technology

and other fields. The company is a major supplier of garments for the U.S. Army and other branches of the military.

 

About 200 clients have signed union pledge cards since the organizing drive began in March, Kolhoff said. The union has not been certified as a bargaining

agent for the workers. He and other union supporters said the layoffs began in April and now number 200 or more.

 

The union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, Kolhoff said.

 

On Friday afternoon, Brian Owens, who worked at Peckham for two years before being laid off last week, held signs in front of the company’s plant on Capital

City Boulevard, urging workers who were leaving the plant to sign a union pledge card.

 

“All of this started when we started getting a union in here,” Owens said, referring to the layoffs.

 

Workers are concerned about wages, working conditions and what he called disrespectful treatment of them by the company, he said.

 

“They are using and abusing people on a daily basis, and it just has to end,” Owens said. “It’s a glorified, modern-day sweatshop.”

 

Source:

 

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20120512/BUSINESS/305120028/Picketers-protest-alleged-anti-union-action-Peckham?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE