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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1994                   TAG: 9403090084
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK FOLK LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: GREENSBORO, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGES FIND FIELDCREST GUILTY UNION LEADER CALLS IT A SLAM DUNK; COMPANY TO

Union officials and members celebrated a major legal victory over Fieldcrest Cannon Inc. on Tuesday. Company officials already were talking appeal.

In separate decisions, two federal administrative law judges found the Eden, N.C.-based bedding products and towel maker guilty of more than 150 counts of labor law violations dating to 1991.

Judge Howard Grossman declared results from the union's 1991 unsuccessful election in seven Fieldcrest plants in Cabarrus and Rowan counties invalid and ordered a new election.

Fieldcrest, which has a towel mill in Henry County, Va., also was ordered to pay 4,000 union workers more than $3 million in back pay and to reinstate 14 illegally fired workers.

"This is a slam-dunk decision in the company's face," said Ernest Bennett of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union.

Union officials and 33 Fieldcrest union members from Eden and Fieldale, Va., held a press conference Tuesday in Greensboro. The union represents about 1,500 workers at Fieldcrest's four Eden plants.

Fieldcrest officials said Tuesday they planned to appeal certain parts of the ruling to the full National Labor Relations Board in Washington.

"We don't agree with much or any of what is in these rulings," said Fieldcrest Vice President Osborne Raines.

If Fieldcrest appeals, it could take up to six months for the full board to consider the judges' decisions, according to the labor board's regional office in Winston-Salem.

One of the rulings that most likely will be appealed is the invalid election results that were found at the seven Cabarrus and Rowan plants. The union lost the 1991 election 3,233 to 3,034.

Grossman found that Fieldcrest had intimidated workers in an attempt to keep the union out and said 13 employees were illegally fired because they were union supporters.

Judge Robert Batson found that a 14th union member, Laverne Lambeth, was unjustly fired last May from Fieldcrest's decorative bedding plant in Eden because of her union activities. The firing led to one- and two-day strikes at the Eden and Fieldale plants.

by CNB