Apparently, it takes the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 1990 five decertification elections before they might condescend to accept that the workers at the Hamilton NTN-Bower do not in fact want them around.

Workers at the NTB-Bower manufacturing plant in Hamilton, Alabama have now voted five times to kick out the union in the last eighteen months. This latest vote taken was taken on May 19^th, and the union lost 74-52.

The local has been refusing to accept the fact the workers in Hamilton do not want or need their representation. This has resulted in some dirty tricks being played at the plant.

After the fourth vote in February, in which workers had once again voted to get rid of the union, the local filed a complaint with National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing management of interfering in the election. The NLRB responded by ordering the fifth decertification election. 

The unions did score one narrow win in the decertification in January, but the results were dismissed as someone had stuffed the ballot box to grant the unions that victory. 139 workers voted, but 148 votes were counted.

Legal assistance to the workers who are leading the charge to get rid of the union has been provided by the National Right to Work (NRTW) Legal Defense Fund. The spokesman from the NRTW, Patrick Semmens, told the Washington Free Beacon that:

“Unfortunately, it has taken these workers five elections in less than two years to rid themselves of one stubborn union. Employees shouldn’t have to clear this many hurdles to remove an unwanted union.”

Union support in the plant has been waning for a long time.  Alabama has been a right-to-work state since 1953 and the numbers of workers in the union, which first arrived in 1976, has been dropping for years. Hopefully, the UAW will finally take the hint now that no means no.