Workers at Huntsville’s Navistar plant to vote on union membership

HUNTSVILLE — To unionize or not to unionize, that’s the question.

And employees at Huntsville’s Navistar plant will vote Thursday to answer that question.

Saying unions are “every bit as Alabama as football, sweet tea, and biscuits,” area labor representatives are urging workers at the engine plant to vote for unionizing.

Meanwhile, in a letter to the nearly 250 workers, International Motors/Navistar Huntsville said joining a union “is not necessary here in Huntsville.”

“At one time as many as one in four Alabama workers were in unions, and the workers of this state have a long, proud tradition of coming together around our common interests to win better lives,” Adam Keller, Worker Power Campaign Director at Alabama Arise. “Unions are every bit as Alabama as football, sweet tea, and biscuits.

“Navistar workers have an opportunity to add to this rich history by standing strong in solidarity and voting union yes.”

The Navistar plant, near Huntsville International Airport, manufactures powertrains for diesel trucks.

The Illinois-based company opposes the effort by the North Alabama Area Labor Council, labeling it “an outside organization” in the letter to workers.

The labor organization, however, said workers should also ignore the “anti-union propaganda from the Business Council of Alabama.”

“They say the BCA ‘represents the collective business interests of the entire Alabama business community [emphasis added],'” the council said in a news release about BCA ads. “So, the bosses can unionize and advocate for their collective interests, but they want individual workers to stay divided. That’s because, despite their rhetoric, they recognize reality: people are stronger together. It’s true for workers, and it’s apparently even true for multibillion-dollar international corporations.

“Workers should ignore what the BCA says, and pay attention to what they do.”