After a six-year battle, GCIU members who were forced into an unfair labor practices strike by American Signature at plants in Georgia and Nebraska – later bought by Quebecor Printing (USA) Corp. – are sharing nearly $2.8 million in backpay.

The settlement with Heller International, former owner of the American Signature plants, resolves the major portion of the GCIU's unfair labor practice charges against the company, which had been upheld by the National Labor Relations Board and an administrative law judge.

GCIU and NLRB charges against Heller and Quebecor concerning subsequent unfair labor practices are still pending before the full NLRB in Washington, D.C.

GCIU Pres. James J. Norton said he is pleased that members of Atlanta locals 8M and 96B and Lincoln locals 221M and 543M are finally getting long overdue justice with the backpay settlement. "But that this settlement took so many years to come about demonstrates how severely U.S. labor law is stacked against workers," he said.

Local 8M Pres. Hal Landis said "the members I've talked to are happy about the settlement. I'm relieved and glad I got to see it through. It got depressing because people keep asking when it's going to end, and I have to tell them the labor board is holding them up. This thing should have been settled two years ago."

Landis said he hopes Quebecor, which closed the Atlanta plant last December claiming poor management by the previous owner, "would settle up and we could finalize this thing."

Landis thanked Norton "for all his support during the strike" and praised the local's attorney, Thomas D. Allison, "for doing a great job."

The beginnings of the labor dispute stemmed from the 1990 purchase of the former Foote and Davies plants by ASG Acquisition Corp. or American Signature. The financing was provided by Heller Financial Inc., a Chicago-based financial services company and a subsidiary of the giant Fuji Bank of Japan.

When American Signature defaulted on its payments, Heller took over the plants in November 1992. Heller forced union workers at the Atlanta plant to reapply for their former jobs and then refused to hire a number of long-time employees because of their active support for Locals 8M and 96B. Heller also unilaterally implemented new terms and conditions at the Atlanta and Lincoln plants that were below the existing GCIU contracts.

The four GCIU locals in Atlanta and Lincoln struck the plants in April 1993. Locals 221M and 543M in Lincoln ended their strike in May 1993 and signed new collective bargaining agreements. Members of locals 8M and 96B in Atlanta remained on strike until Nov. 23, 1996, when they made an unconditional offer to return to work.

The GCIU's unfair labor practices charges against the company were upheld by the NLRB's general counsel, and, in December 1996, Administrative Law Judge Howard Grossman upheld the charges.

Grossman ruled that the strikes were caused by the company's unfair labor practices, including its illegal discrimination against the union activists in Atlanta and its refusal to bargain in good faith, to provide information necessary for bargaining, and to reinstate the unfair labor practice strikers in Lincoln to their pre-strike jobs. The judge found the company guilty of "such egregious or widespread misconduct as to demonstrate a general disregard for employees' statutory rights."

Attorney Allison of the Chicago law firm of Allison, Slutsky and Kennedy said the settlement provides full backpay for the GCIU members.

Allison said about $1.5 million of the backpay is going to 19 workers American Signature discriminated against following Heller's ownership of the plant by refusing to rehire them for union activities.

The 436 former strikers in Lincoln who were not reinstated to their jobs are receiving $625,000. Another $517,592 is going to 100 members of Atlanta locals 8M and 96B for backpay between the end of their strike in November 1996 and the purchase of the Atlanta plant by Quebecor in January 1997.

The International received $100,000 for partial reimbursement of strike benefits and attorneys' fees to fight the company's illegal actions.

The second round of unfair labor practice charges against Heller and Quebecor stem from Nov. 23, 1996, when Atlanta locals made their unconditional offer to return to work. In the midst of negotiations for the sale to Quebecor, Heller refused to reinstate the strikers, and the GCIU filed new unfair labor practices charges.

In January 1997, American Signature issued bogus offers of "reinstatement" to the former Atlanta strikers, offering to return them to jobs which would no longer exist after the sale to Quebecor, Allison said.

The NLRB's general counsel again found merit in the GCIU's charges and filed a second complaint. On March 19, 1999, Administrative Law Judge Lawrence Cullen ruled in favor of the GCIU and the general counsel.

Cullen found that American Signature acted illegally by refusing to immediately reinstate the Atlanta strikers to their pre-strike jobs. He agreed that American Signature's pre-sale offers of reinstatement were a fraud. He ruled that Quebecor was a successor to American Signature's obligation to reinstate Atlanta strikers and acted illegally by laying off bargaining unit employees after it purchased the Atlanta plant.

Quebecor and Heller appealed Cullen's ruling to the full NLRB.

Allison said the "multimillion dollar settlement represents a substantial victory for the GCIU members who were the victims of American Signature's illegal actions."

Allison added: "The GCIU's long fight against American Signature's unlawful conduct has brought some measure of justice to the Atlanta and Lincoln strikers. We look forward to an equally successful resolution of the GCIU's unfair labor practice charges against Quebecor."