Organized labor militancy on the rise throughout America

DETROIT, Mich. — In the wake of a campaign of terror waged against Abex Friction Product employees, a group of ten workers filed suit today against the United Auto Workers (UAW) union for targeting them with a massive campaign of violence, intimidation, and death threats.

As part of the violence campaign, union militants dumped a severed, bloody cow’s head on the hood of a worker’s car and another in a worker’s backyard.
The legal action filed in circuit court in Winchester, Virginia, names UAW Local 149 and the UAW international union as responsible for a brutal terror campaign against employees who worked during a four-week strike in Winchester.

The suit charges UAW union militants with making death threats, shooting out windows, sending obscene mail, and harassing workers on the job to coerce them into quitting their jobs.
“This case shows the rising militancy of organized labor across the country,” said Reed Larson, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which is providing free legal representation to the victimized Abex employees. “The UAW gangsters who used bloody cows’ heads and shootings to intimidate these workers must answer for their actions.”

Earlier this year, Foundation attorneys introduced evidence to a special grand jury which ultimately found that union operatives met at the union hall to organize the violent crimes and distributed newsletters that directly encouraged acts of retaliation by union militants against non-striking workers. Additionally, the General District Court has already found several of the militants guilty of multiple counts of harassment and violence.

The union terror campaign targeted, among others, Shucheng Huang, a mother of four who continued to report to work during the UAW walkout. During the strike, union assailants vandalized her car with paint and smashed her windows. Union toughs also placed the severed, bloody head of a cow on the hood of her car.
After the strike was over, union militants shot out Mrs. Huang’s car window as she was driving onto the Abex parking lot. Winchester police arrested the culprits in connection with the attack.
When a newspaper printed pictures of both Mrs. Huang and the severed cow’s head on her car, UAW militants posted her picture on the bulletin boards at Abex under the caption “Wanted Dead or Alive.”
A few days later, Mrs. Huang received an anonymous letter. Enclosed was the photo of the cow’s head on her vehicle with her face superimposed over it.

“Seeking to enjoy freedom and the fruits of labor in America, Mrs. Huang and her family fled the tyranny of the communist regime in Vietnam and became hard-working American citizens,” said Larson. “It’s an embarrassment that this is what America offered in return.”
Other Abex employees who worked during the strike were targeted with slashed tires, theft of property, harassing phone calls, pornographic mail, and acts of stalking.
The civil suit filed today seeks compensatory and punitive damages from those union members actually involved in the terrorism as well as UAW Local 149 and the UAW international union (affiliates of the AFL-CIO union) for having authorized, ratified, and condoned the acts of violence.

“Earlier this month, AFL-CIO top dog John Sweeney vowed that Big Labor will be doing even more in 1997 than it did in 1996,” said Larson. “If that means more cows’ heads, more shot-out windows, and more death threats, then that prospect is absolutely terrifying — just ask workers like Mrs. Huang.”

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, is representing thousands of employees in over 400 cases nationwide.
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The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.

Posted on Dec 30, 1996 in News Releases