Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 13, 1994 TAG: 9409140006
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Following a hearing, Circuit Judge G.O. Clemens said he was extending an injunction against the United Rubber Workers for 90 days.
Another judge issued the court order Sept.6 at Yokohama's request after demonstrations by large numbers of strikers at its plant gates led to arrests and property damage. The injunction was to expire Sunday night.
The union did not contest the injunction but argued against some parts of it. Clemens turned down the union's request to ease a prohibition against union gatherings within 500 yards of Yokohama's property. The plant borders on Indiana Street in Salem.
The judge said he recognized the need to draw the limitations on union activity as narrowly as possible but said the 500-yard limit was "as narrow as can reasonably be drawn," because of the layout of the plant and surrounding roads.
Clemens said he would rule later on a request from union attorney James Vegara of Hopewell to strike a clause from the injunction that orders the Salem chief of police and other local and state law-enforcement officers to enforce the injunction.
The provision was a "back-door way" to make police officers take sides in a civil dispute," Vegara said. "The police department is not to be made an arm of Yokohama Tire."
If Yokohama believes the injunction has been violated, it should gather its evidence and let the court decide, Vegara said. Police officers still can make an arrest if they see a law being broken, such as someone throwing a rock, he said.
At the union's request, Clemens agreed to allow union officials to visit the picket lines for short periods of time to bring strikers food or drive them to a restroom. The injunction limits the number of union pickets to four at each of the plant's three gates.
Clemens agreed with a union argument that posting a notice of the injunction on company vehicles was not a sufficient way to notify strikers. But he turned down a union request to reduce the "bushel basket" of defendants named in the injunction.
Vegara said the company had covered virtually all of the local's 800 members in its lawsuit but had not given all of them proper notice about Monday's hearing.
Clemens said the company had the right to name whomever it wanted as defendants; but, because all had not been told of the hearing, he said he was extending the injunction as a temporary rather than permanent order.
The union was requesting changes in the original injunction because it anticipated violating it in the future, argued Bayard Harris, an attorney representing Yokohama. The union wants to make the injunction as complicated as possible so it will be difficult to enforce, he said.
Harris called witnesses to prove that the union had attempted to intimidate employees still working at the plant.
William Jones, who manages plant security, showed Clemens a seven-minute videotape of mass demonstrations by strikers at the plant's gates on three days. The video footage, according to testimony, included a striker being arrested for scratching the paint on a temporary worker's car and union President Wayne Friend stomping on a World War II-era Japanese flag in front of Japanese workers entering the plant.
Harris complained after the hearing that Friend had not attended Monday's proceedings and suggested Vegara had advised him not to. Harris said he would have liked to have questioned Friend about the incident with the flag.
Vegara said Friend was busy with union business and there was no need to have him at the hearing.
Both sides appeared pleased with the outcome.
"The court did exactly what the public and the city of Salem needed in order to protect citizens," Harris said. "I don't think the citizens of Salem and the law-abiding employees of Yokohama lost anything."
Vegara said he was pleased Clemens had been receptive and willing to listen to the points the union had to make.
Richard Switzer, manager of the Salem plant, said he hoped the strike would be settled soon. It began at midnight July 23 when the union's contract with the company expired. He said no new contract talks have been scheduled.
The major issue in the strike is a company demand that more union workers be made eligible to work on weekends. Yokohama says it needs to go to a seven-day production schedule to compete with other tire makers. The company made what it called its final offer to the union two weeks ago.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***