Diamond-Star Grants UAW Recognition

In a major victory for the United Auto Workers, Diamond-Star Motors, the Illinois joint venture between Chrysler and Mitsubishi of Japan, agreed to recognize the union Wednesday as the bargaining representative for the plant’s assembly line workers.

The victory means that the UAW will represent workers at three of the seven Japanese “transplant” plants--Japanese-owned or managed auto assembly facilities--operating or under construction in the United States.

Organizing the rapidly expanding Japanese auto operations in the United States has been given top priority by the UAW. Those plants are taking an ever-growing share of domestic car production away from Detroit, and the union must represent their workers if it hopes to maintain its power and influence in the auto industry.

Besides Diamond-Star, which is just outside Bloomington, Ill., the union has already organized workers at Mazda’s plant in Michigan and the General Motors-Toyota joint venture in Fremont, Calif.

But the UAW has so far been unable to organize Honda’s assembly operations in Ohio, Nissan’s in Tennessee or Toyota’s newly opened Kentucky factory.

An Indiana joint venture between Isuzu and Subaru, the seventh “transplant,” will open next fall. So far, it has not reached any agreement with the UAW.

The UAW’s victory at Diamond-Star came after a brief organizing campaign that began in August, just as the plant was about to start car production.

Nearly 70% of the 872 production employees signed union cards, the union said in a statement. “We are delighted to welcome the Diamond-Star Motors workers into the UAW family,” said UAW President Owen Bieber. “We look forward to negotiating our first contract.”

Battle Avoided

Diamond-Star and the UAW expect to meet in January to set a timetable for negotiating their first labor agreement, company spokeswoman Robin Skiles said.

Unlike Honda and Nissan, which have fought hard to keep the UAW out of their plants, Diamond-Star gave in relatively easily. That may be because Chrysler, one of Diamond-Star’s two parents, apparently wanted to avoid a bloody battle because it must deal with the UAW every day in its own plants.

Diamond-Star, for instance, proclaimed that it was “neutral” during the union’s organizing drive and extended recognition without demanding a vote by the workers. Skiles said the firm wanted to avoid the “disruptions” in the plant that might result from a union election.

So, after the signed union cards were validated by a private arbitrator Wednesday in Chicago, the company recognized the union.

“As we have said all along, the question of unionization was to be decided upon by our employees,” said Katshukio Kawasoe, Diamond-Star’s executive vice president for human resources, in a prepared statement. “Now they have made their decision . . . . We are confident the harmonious environment present here will not change, and labor cooperation will continue.”

Diamond-Star, which began production in September of the sporty Mitsubishi Eclipse and Plymouth Laser, plans to expand dramatically over the coming years, bringing far more members into the UAW fold. At peak production of 240,000 cars a year, the plant will employ a total of 2,900 workers, including 2,300 production employees eligible to join the union.