Arrests anticipated from UAW ranks

WINCHESTER, Va.—A specially-convened Virginia grand jury begins investigation today into bizarre violence after the severed head of a cow was dumped on a worker’s car during a recent United Auto Workers (UAW) union strike.

Attorneys with the Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation introduced testimony and photographic evidence to a standing grand jury last week, indicating that radical elements within the UAW engaged in a pattern of intimidation and terrorism against employees who worked during a four-week strike at Abex Friction Products in Winchester, Virginia.
After hearing the presentation by Foundation attorneys and testimony from one of the victims, the grand jury voted unanimously to ask Judge John E. Wetsel, Jr. to appoint a special grand jury. Judge Wetsel then impaneled a nine-member special grand jury to investigate harassment, intimidation and terrorist acts allegedly committed by union militants to coerce Abex employees who worked during the strike into quitting their jobs.

Judge Wetsel also asked the Commonwealth’s attorney to appoint a special counsel to assist the special grand jury, and directed Winchester police to assign an investigator.
Included in the evidence presented to the grand jury by Foundation attorneys were records of violence directed against Shucheng Huang, an Abex employee and mother of four who continued to do her
job during the UAW walkout. During the strike, unknown assailants vandalized her car with paint, and smashed her windows.Additionally, the severed head of a cow was dumped on the hood of her car.
After the strike was over, union militants fired a ball bearing at Mrs. Huang as she was driving onto the Abex parking lot. Winchester police have made an arrest in connection with the attack.
Local newspapers reported the incidents involving Mrs. Huang on June 28, and included photos of her and of the crime scene. Unknown persons then posted her picture the next day on bulletin boards throughout the Abex plant under the caption, “Wanted Dead or Alive.”

Also, a few days later, Mrs. Huang received an anonymous letter, with a photo of her face superimposed where the cow’s head had been on her vehicle.
Acts against other Abex employees who worked during the strike included slashed tires, theft of property, harassing phone calls, pornographic mail, and alleged cases of stalking.
Foundation attorneys also indicated that there was some evidence of involvement by the Ku Klux Klan. Klan paraphernalia was openly displayed inside the Abex plant by at least one employee.
After its investigation, the special grand jury will issue a report to Judge Wetsel, who can direct action to be taken against the perpetrators and planners of the violence, and thus bring the harassment to a halt.
Additional arrests are anticipated in this round of strike-related violence, and federal authorities may be called in.

“Once again, radical elements inside Big Labor have revealed their taste for violence when workers dare to assert their rights,” stated Rex Reed, executive vice president of the Foundation. “It is time for this ghoulish harassment to end.”

The National Institute for Labor Relations has recorded almost 10,000 media-reported incidents of union violence since 1975. Experts on labor- and strike-related violence estimate that unreported acts of harassment could swell that figure to 100,000 or more.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism. The Foundation is representing thousands of employees in nearly 400 cases nationwide, and can be reached at 1-800-336-3600.

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.

Posted on Jul 15, 1996 in News Releases