| NLRB complaint filed on Maremont Union. By News Sentinel staff May 8, 2007 The National Labor Relations Board has filed an unfair labor practices compliant against the union representing striking workers at the Maremont Exhaust Products plant in Loudon. The complaint — issued April 30 and made public by the company Monday — alleges that union members attempted "to intimidate and terrorize" Maremont employees, customers, vendors and others who crossed the picket line in an effort to force the plant to close. The intimidation began Feb. 5. when International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, local 2545, went on strike, the complaint says. A hearing on the complaint will be held July 30 in Loudon before an administrative law judge of the NLRB. The compliant alleges union members "or persons acting with them" have engaged in a pattern of intimidate that includes acts such as "firing a cannon like device in the vicinity of the plant," scattering nails at the entrance to the plant, throwing rocks and publishing a list of Maremont workers who crossed the picket line. Maremont, which is owned by International Muffler Co. of Schulenberg, Texas, made many of the same accusations in a federal racketeering lawsuit it filed against the union last month in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. The union has denied the allegations in the complaint. The Loudon plant produces automotive exhaust components, including heavy-duty mufflers and catalytic converters. "We are continuing to follow every legal avenue available to help stop the criminal violence, acts of terrorism and public harassment our community has been experiencing at the hands of the strikers" Maremont owner Kenneth Banks said in a prepared statement. |