FIRST REPORT 11/8
Beginning tonight, workers at Fuyao Glass America in Moraine will begin voting on whether to form a collective bargaining unit represented by the United Auto Workers.
Voting will take place from 8 p.m. to midnight, resuming at 6 a.m. Thursday in a first-floor break room at the company’s West Stroop Road plant. Voting is expected to be complete by 5 p.m. Thursday, when National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) staff will start counting votes, under the watchful eye of representatives from both management and the UAW.
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Fuyao is Ohio’s largest Chinese-owned manufacturing operation, anchored in the shell of a former General Motors plant, and the company itself is barely three years old. The plant makes automotive and safety glass, with the capacity to make glass sets for one of every four vehicles on North American roads.
Plenty of industry observers will be watching.
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Already, in the less than two weeks since the vote has been scheduled, the election has exposed political fault lines, with Democrats generally encouraging the company to heed worker concerns and Republicans generally expressing wariness about the formation of a new union in one of the Dayton area’s fastest growing manufacturers.
Through it all, leaders of both the UAW and Fuyao have said they are confident the vote will go their way.
As part of the NLRB agreement scheduling the election, both sides are acknowledging that the exact make-up of a new collective bargaining unit has not been decided.
RELATED: Some ballots already ID'ed for challenge in Fuyao-UAW vote
So ballots cast by quality engineers, translators, and coordinators/team leaders and possibly others could be challenged, according to the NLRB notice scheduling the election.
In the case of a close vote, those ballots may become crucial, and deciding which ones are counted, and which aren’t, could take some time, delaying an eventual election certification.
RELATED: Union vote set for Fuyao Glass America workers
On the other hand, if all goes smoothly, Matthew Denholm, assistant regional director for the NLRB’s Cincinnati office, said a result may be known as early as 7 to 7:30 p.m.
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