Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 3, 1991                   TAG: 9104030527
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: George Kegley
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BLUE RIDGE UNION VOTE TO BE REVIEWED

Ronald Morgan, acting director of the Winston-Salem NLRB office, said in August that the decertification petition came as unfair labor practice charges were pending against the company.

Morgan dismissed the petition because, he said, the charges could affect the Teamsters' status. Those charges were settled later. Blue Ridge asked the full NLRB for a review of Morgan's action.

Two of the three members of an NLRB panel acting on the review request said the trucking company "raises substantial issues warranting review" of the case.

However, granting a review of the dismissal "doesn't mean they are going to hold an election" to decertify the union, said John Axelrod, a union lawyer. He said he has filed a brief opposing the review.

About 200 Teamsters members in Roanoke, Martinsville, Galax and Pulaski would be eligible to vote if a decertification election were held, according to Bayard Harris, a company lawyer.

A petition for decertification requires the signatures of at least 30 percent of the union employees, the same number required to hold a representation election.

Meanwhile, arbitration of a Teamsters-Blue Ridge Transfer dispute over recall of strike replacements early in 1990 is to start later this month. Federal Judge James Turk ordered the arbitration, a decision appealed by the company to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The union contended that warehouse workers on layoff should have been recalled instead of replacement workers after a Christmas 1989 layoff at Blue Ridge.