Auto Worker’s ‘No Thanks’ to Non-Union Car Pays Off

Because of the car she wouldn’t take, Pamela Richards has just picked up one free set of wheels and is about to get another.

The 39-year-old auto-parts worker and member of the United Auto Workers became a hero of the union movement earlier this month for turning down a $17,600 Honda Accord on a game show because it was made at a non-union factory.

The remark was deleted when the taped Ohio Lottery program aired a night later, but word got around.

“The phone just keeps on ringing. I’ve had hundreds of people call me, telling me that they didn’t have the right to delete the reason why I didn’t accept the Honda,” she said from her home about 30 miles from Toledo.

The 23-year employee of Toledo Precision Machining, a Chrysler Corp. subsidiary, also got a letter from Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca commending her.

And a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership flew Richards and a daughter to Huntington, W. Va.--where they stayed at the home of a company vice president--to pick up a 1990 Chrysler Imperial to use for a year.

“She stood her ground and refused to accept that Honda. That takes a lot of character,” said Frank Horney, president of Huntington Chrysler-Plymouth Inc. He said he first offered her a Plymouth Acclaim, valued at up to $14,000, but then thought about what she did and decided she “deserves the best.”

Later this week, she will get another vehicle, from the AFL-CIO.