Ohio Foam-Factory Workers Seek to Join UAW

July 4, 2016 
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel

Dayton, Ohio – Workers at Creative Foam Corp. in the suburb of Harrison Township have asked the National Labor Relations Board to schedule a unionization election.

The United Auto Workers announced June 30 that a majority of the about 100 workers at the plant, which produces cushions for vehicles and medical equipment, had signed union cards. Workers start at $8.50 an hour and max out at $12.75, and many are categorized as temporary for up to eight months, the union said. “Creative Foam manufactures parts for billion-dollar companies like Ford, GM, Toyota and Mercedes, but I’m paid not much more than a McDonald’s cook or Walmart cashier,” Veronica Laster, a trimmer who makes $10.50, said in a UAW statement, while forklift operator Doug Thompson said he hardly ever gets to see his two teenage daughters because he has to work almost 70 hours a week to get by. The union says such low wages have become increasingly common in auto-parts plants, which now employ three out of every four workers in the industry. The workers requested that the election be held July 19.  Read more