Libro Shirt manager Leonard Springer was given an October 10 deadline to appeal the ruling, which has been extended into November. Sue Snyder, a sewer at the plant, told the Militant, “I hope he does the right thing, but he’s never done the right thing in the past.”

The 89 workers, who are members of UNITE Local 317-C, went on strike for nine weeks on January 7 after rejecting the company’s contract offer. Union members turned down the company’s proposed five-cent wage raise and its demand that the garment workers pay half of their health-care coverage premiums. The old contract expired Aug. 31, 2002.

The NLRB also ordered the company to pay back wages to the laid-off workers, and ruled that Local 317-C president Faye Shutt should be reinstated. She was fired after filing a grievance against Libro Shirt owner Levanthal Ltd., for subcontracting work to its plant in Jamestown, Tennessee. The union charges the company with sending “union-made” labels from Lykens to the nonunion Jamestown plant to be sewn onto the shirts there.

Levanthal was found in violation of federal law for declaring an impasse in contract negotiations when none existed, closing the plant and transferring work to Park Shirt in retaliation for the workers going on strike, and announcing the closing of the plant without prior notice to the union.

Shutt told the Pottsville Republican, “I was thrilled with the judge’s decision. I just can’t stand injustice. You have to do what you have to do.”

Janet Post is a member of UNITE at Hollander Home Fashions in Frackville, Pennsylvania.  
 
 
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