Belabored

A Littony of woes

Litton Industries (1982 sales: $4.9 billion) now has the dubious honor of succeeding J.P. Stevens, the textile firm, as organized labor's favorite target. Last week representatives of six unions told a meeting of the House Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations that the giant high-tech conglomerate and defense contractor had repeatedly thwarted their efforts to organize workers. They claimed that the company closed plants before unions could get in, refused to negotiate contracts after employees had voted for a union, and even booted out organized labor once it had won the right to represent workers.

William Bywater, president of the International Union of Electrical Workers, told the subcommittee that at Litton's Triad-Utrad division in Huntington, Ind., the company had squelched five organizing campaigns by four different unions between 1964 and 1982. During an organizing drive in 1980, charged Bywater, Litton once again started a "massive campaign of fear and intimidation" to stop workers from supporting the union.

Craig Darby, chief steward for Local 1180 of the United Electrical Workers, charged, "It has been open season on workers who support the union" since organizing efforts began in 1978 at Litton's transplanted (from Minneapolis) microwave-oven plant in Sioux Falls, S. Dak. After workers voted in the union, Darby charged, Litton canceled a February pay raise, took away a dozen paid sick days and began a harsh new absentee policy that led to dozens of firings. "I don't understand," said Darby, "why a Litton can just laugh at the law."

Other officials claimed that the company would fire workers sympathetic to unions, then rehire them much later with back wages and promise to take no further action when unfair labor charges were pressed before the National Labor Relations Board. During the process, which can take months or years, any effective organizing effort was demoralized and derailed.

Litton insists that it is not anti-union or systematically trying to keep unions out of its plants. One-fifth of the firm's 65,000 workers in the U.S. are members of more than two dozen different labor organizations. Said Mathias Diederich, Litton's director of industrial relations: "There were no mass firings, and there has never been a case where it has been determined that a plant has been closed due to union activity."

The major union demand last week was that Litton be treated as a single employer, rather than a series of independent companies, in terms of labor-law violations. Such action could have wide-ranging implications for American conglomerates. Says Charles Craypo, a Cornell professor who has studied Litton's union relations: "Conglomerate structure gives the employer an institutional advantage over unions that can be exercised effectively." If Litton is ruled a single employer, the whole company, under proposed legislation, could be listed as a repeat violator of labor laws and lose all its Government contracts. Last year Litton Industries was awarded defense contracts worth $1.3 billion. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.