One worker after another, on foot or bicycle, heads for the gate and to their cars, shuttle vans, or buses. On November 2 the newly merged company, now named Litton Avondale Industries, announced it had come to an agreement on neutrality towards the union-organizing campaign by the Metal Trades Council of New Orleans. The agreement gave the union the right to sign up workers. If a majority of the 4,000 eligible workers join, the company is supposed to immediately recognize the union and begin contract bargaining. Litton Avondale Industries is the state's biggest employer and the largest nonunion shipyard in the country.
Workers there are at rock bottom in pay scales compared to other shipbuilders.
Elated by the prospect of getting the union into the shipyard, Davis said her main concern is safety, although she could certainly use a raise. Conditions such as these have led to many attempts to organize a union over the last 50 years. Jones, who is proud of his Creole background, has been a supporter of the union for a long time. Meanwhile, workers got the news November 12 that the National Labor Relations Board ordered Avondale Industries to reinstate more than two dozen workers fired for union activity related to the 1993 union election. At that time a majority of workers voted to be represented by the Metal Trades Council of New Orleans.