Locked out ADT workers in Winston-Salem hold first picket

ADT's illegal lockout makes news

On Saint Patrick's Day, about a dozen community members and workers, who have been locked out of their jobs since February by ADT Security Alarm Company in Winston-Salem, NC, walked an information picket line for four hours at the busiest intersection in town to raise awareness of the company's illegal behavior.

See pictures and watch video from the picket line.

Chad Nance with Winston-Salem's local online news publication, Camel City Dispatch, covered the action and the lockout:

The step to lock out Winston-Salem’s workers in an unprecedented one. In no other city in America that ADT has negotiated with unionized or non-unionized workers have they used such a draconian tactic. David Haynes, a lead organizer for the IBEW in North Carolina and South Carolina, told CCD that the IBEW has filed an injunction to try to get their people back to work at ADT while negotiations go on. In the mean-time ADT is using outside contractors (several of them are not even North Carolina contractors) in an effort to keep installing new systems. “There is nothing different about this negation that we've seen anywhere else except for the lockout.” Haynes said. “I just think that ADT is trying to make some kind of example out of these people.”

[...] Daniel, another IBEW brother and ADT employee (9 years on), told CCD “We never asked for increased pay. We just told them that we wanted a voice.”

“They're just trying to starve you into something less,” Daniel said. “You just do what you can to keep everyone fed and keep the power on.”

Read and SHARE the rest of the story, ADT Security Locks Out Camel City Workers.

ADT is no stranger to violations of U.S. Labor Law, reports Labor Notes:

This isn’t the first time ADT has been accused of violating workers’ rights. The IBEW has filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the company.

In 2012 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered ADT to reinstate its collective bargaining agreement in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after it tried to shut down the union facility and shift jobs to nonunion employees.

Despite its efforts to squeeze wages in North Carolina, ADT’s top officers are paid handsomely. Together they're received more than $31 million in total compensation since the company was spun off from its Swiss-based parent, Tyco International Ltd., in 2012.

CEO Naren Gursahaney alone got $17.5 million over the last three years.

“This is a profitable operation in Winston-Salem,” said [IBEW Business Agent, Alvin] Warwick. “Locking out their workers is absolute corporate greed.”

Help locked out ADT workers in Winston-Salem stand one day longer, one day stronger

You can help these workers survive their involuntary unemployment and stand strong one day longer than ADT is willing to continue its illegal lockout by making a donation in any amount to IBEW's ADT Employee Relief Fund.