member minute
Charlene Nash has worked since 1983 at Land O'Lakes in Canton, Ohio, where they make butter, margarine and other spreads. She's been an active member of UAW Local 70 – plant chair for nine years, and sergeant at arms, trustee and vice president for three-year terms. A Detroit native and a former model, she met her husband, Jim, on the job. He is retired from Land O'Lakes and General Tire, and they live in Akron.
Land O'Lakes was not a union plant when you went to work there.
No, it wasn't. I started in January 1983, and we got the union in somewhere around 1988. I had worked at Timken, a roller bearing company, in Canton for 10 years, and I was a union representative there for the Steelworkers. I helped encourage people at Land O'Lakes. Some people were very young, and we were treated well.
If workers are treated well, why do you need a union?
Because you never know. Management changes, and you never know what you'll get in the future. Many workers, like me, had worked with plants that were unionized, and we realized the importance of being organized.
How are labor relations there?
Very good. The union works closely with the company to get different products in and to conform to new safety regulations, like the ones that started Aug. 1. For example, I work in distribution. Our jobs entail going outside a lot, and it's going to be required we wear some type of bootie over our safety shoes. When you come back in from the outside, you have to walk through sanitizing foam. You can't even wear a wedding band.
For more on what Nash's Region 2B brothers and sisters are doing, see "What we do,"
