BUSINESS BRIEF

Union effort moves forward at Piston

4/26/2014

An arbitrator has certified that a majority of workers at Piston Automotive LLC in Toledo support joining the United Auto Workers, union officials said Friday.

Ken Lortz, UAW Region 2B director, said the union will now be able to move forward with establishing a bargaining committee and beginning contract negotiations with Piston, which is based in Redford, Mich.

The UAW has been working for months to unionize the approximately 70 employees who work at the Alexis Road plant building chassis modules for the Jeep Cherokee.

Workers at the minority-owned firm went on strike last week over what union officials said was Piston’s continuing refusal to recognize union authorization cards.

The strike, which lasted about eight hours, ended when Piston agreed to bring in a neutral party to determine if the union had majority support.