We WIN [you SUCK, iamaw]

[cashflyer]

Union dispute brings posthumous victory

Monday, May 29, 2006
Francis B. Allgood, Managing Editor

Two years following his death, a Greenville small business owner’s name is finally cleared.

In June of 2003, Larry Riggs discovered he was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gerhig’s disease. At the same time, his company, StarCraft Aerospace Inc., was losing money. The business that repaired and rebuilt aircraft parts employed approximately 20 people.

“He came home one day and he had a hard time breathing,” recalls his wife, Patricia Riggs. That was Oct. 6, 2003. He never returned to work.

“They put him on a respirator and a feeding tube,” she says. “He couldn’t talk or walk.”

As the management team met with the couple at their home to discuss closing or selling the business, employees filed a petition for election to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.

Despite a hand-written letter in November from Larry Riggs stating he was “saddened” to hear of the petition, the majority of the workers voted for representation on Dec. 11, 2003. Following the election, the business closed.

On July 7, 2004, Administrative Law Judge John H. West found StarCraft guilty of discriminating against employees who take part in a union, failing to supply information to the union and interference with collective activity. Riggs never heard the verdict. He died May 7, 2004, at the age of 65.

However, his attorney, Melvin Hutson, pressed on.

On April 28 of this year, the National Labor Relations Board reversed the judge’s findings.

“It’s a very unusual decision because they reversed the creditability of the interpretations of the judge,” Hutson says. “That’s just never done.”


Originally a Navy man, Riggs worked for McDonnell-Douglas and Lockheed Martin Corp. before starting StarCraft. He and Patricia were married for 47 years.

“It’s a great relief in the end, I guess,” Patricia Riggs says. “I just hate Larry had to go through all that in the last year of his life. His mind was still clear and he knew what was going on.”

Hutson says at the heart of the matter are a host of NLRB interpretations for business closings. Closing before an election can be viewed as a threat, while closing after an election thwarts the union’s opportunity to bargain.

StarCraft was sitting on a seven-year, $12 million refueling probe contract it couldn’t support without additional capital. In November and December of that year, the business lost $33,000 and $46,000, respectively.

“It’s sort of an emotional thing in that this guy was dying and he truly felt like he had gone out of his way to help take care of these people in his last hours,” Hutson says.


A company’s right to close was debated in a 1965 case involving Milliken Co.’s closing of an outdated Darlington mill after a union election. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the textile company’s right to close regardless of anti-union motives.

However, the court also ruled against Milliken, stating one can’t close only a portion of one’s business.

“You can’t close part of the business because of union activity, it’s the equivalent of firing part of your work force,” Hutson explains.

Mike Carruth, a partner with Fisher & Phillips LLP in Columbia, tracks union activity. He says the NLRB reversal shows there was evidence the company was going to close regardless of the union activity.

So far this year, union activity in South Carolina is down.

Though it means nothing to many of you, I was one of the 4 on the "management team" mentioned.

[GDSOB]

Common sense prevails. Good to see that the labor/management balance becoming more equitable.

I was "management" during my last two corporate jobs as plant manager. Both were during ugly union strikes and negotiations. The unions resorted to intimidation against the membership to promote the agenda of a few. As a result, hundreds lost their jobs.

[cashflyer]

Originally posted by GDSOB
As a result, hundreds lost their jobs.

A lot of things about our situation bothered me, and some still affect me to this day. The real tragedy was that everyone went home unemployed. Oh, yeah... and that the founder saw 10 years of his efforts dashed, and went to he grave knowing that his family was left pennyless.