DuPont Guilty of Blocking Teamsters

In a September ruling, the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found the DuPont Corporation guilty of six counts of unfair labor practices in connection with an unsuccessful 1979 attempt by the Teamsters Union to organize nylon fiber workers at a Chattanooga, Tennessee plant.

The NLRB charged DuPont with "repeatedly interfering with employee rights" both before and after the election. Teamsters Union Local 515 last May filed charges against DuPont for unlawfully restricting employee solicitation for the union, promising benefits such as salary increases and promotions for employees who voted against the union, interrogating union activist employees, stating that unionization would be futile, threatening to fire or deny promotion to employees engaged in union activity or wearing union insignia, and firing three pro-union activists three weeks after the election.

The NLRB ordered DuPont to cease and desist from its unfair labor practices and added that DuPont "is shown to have a proclivity for violating the National Labor' Relations Act and has engaged in widespread misconduct, demonstrating a general disregard for employee statutory rights." DuPont denied "every knowingly or willingly violating the National Labor Relations Act or that DuPont supervisors willfully harassed employees for their union activities," said Buddy Arnold, Chief DuPont Supervisor of the Chattanooga plant. The company, in "disagreement with important elements of the decision," plans to appeal the Board's ruling, Arnold added.

- Cynthia Abramson