High Point, North Carolina (July 6, 2005) – A group of Thomas Built Buses employees today filed a motion with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to overturn the results of a tainted union election that granted United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials monopoly bargaining power over roughly 1,200 Thomas Built employees.

In an extraordinary and illegal 11th hour intervention, Scott Evitt, Human Resources General Manager for Freightliner, issued a memo to all Thomas Built Buses employees in High Point on June 27, a day before the representation election, announcing that employees would have to pay higher health insurance premiums starting September 1, 2005. Evitt originally signed the illegal “neutrality agreement” between Freightliner and the UAW union and was embarrassed when federal officials filed a complaint and forced cancellation of the agreement. Mr. Evitt obviously had a strong interest in seeing that the union prevailed in the election.

Working in tandem, UAW union operatives circulated copies of the Evitt memo around the facility with “DID YOU SEE THIS» THE COST OF BEING NON-UNION JUST WENT UP!” written at the top.

Employees opposing unionization report that this last ditch intervention by the company swung a large number of votes in favor of the union. Such interventions are illegal, and the proper legal remedy is to set aside the election as tainted. The employees asked the National Right to Work Foundation for free legal assistance, and Foundation attorneys moved to intervene on their behalf.

“Mr. Evitt had egg on his face after the sweetheart deal he cut with the union brass to deliver employees into unionization blew up,” stated Stefan Gleason, Vice President of the National Right to Work Foundation. “Fearing the exercise of the free will of employees, Mr. Evitt sought to sway employee sentiment in favor of unionization in an unlawful last-minute scare tactic.”

Facing prosecution by the NLRB, the UAW union and Freightliner officials agreed earlier this year to cancel outright a company-wide sweetheart deal in which union officials had unlawfully bargained to limit workers’ wage demands and made other concessions in exchange for Freightliner’s assistance in coercing workers to unionize.

Based on evidence provided by Foundation attorneys, the NLRB’s General Counsel found that Freightliner officials at Thomas Built provided unlawful assistance to the union and held unlawful “captive audience” speeches jointly with union officials to coerce employees to sign union authorization cards that were treated as “votes” in favor of unionization.

Bowing to pressure brought by UAW union operatives, Freightliner-DaimlerChrysler signed a so-called “neutrality agreement” that prohibited the traditional and less-abusive secret ballot election process. The company instead agreed to recognize the union on the basis of a majority of employees signing union authorization cards. Under the agreement, union organizers were given access to company facilities to browbeat workers into signing the cards.

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 more than 250 cases nationwide per year.