[Excerpt] Luvernel Clark is shop steward of ACTWU Local 1742 in Knoxville, Tennessee and chairperson of the Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network\u27s Maquiladora Committee which participated in a worker exchange to Mexico in the summer of 1991. She works at Allied Signal, in a plant that had 3000 employees in 1971, but today has less than 400, The jobs were sent by Allied first to a non-union  greenfield  location in Greenville, Alabama in 1982, and from there to Agua Prieta, Mexico. Fran Ansley, associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and member of the TIRN delegation, interviewed Clark for Labor Research Review

Ansley, Fran

English

[Excerpt] Luvernel Clark is shop steward of ACTWU Local 1742 in Knoxville, Tennessee and chairperson of the Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network's Maquiladora Committee which participated in a worker exchange to Mexico in the summer of 1991. She works at Allied Signal, in a plant that had 3000 employees in 1971, but today has less than 400, The jobs were sent by Allied first to a non-union "greenfield" location in Greenville, Alabama in 1982, and from there to Agua Prieta, Mexico. Fran Ansley, associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and member of the TIRN delegation, interviewed Clark for Labor Research Review.Issue_19____Article_21.pdf: 98 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

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LRR Focus: "We Need to Get Together More"

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Labor Research Review 
Volume 1 | Number 19 
Saving Manufacturing: Charting a New Course 
for our Unions and Communities 
Article 2 
1992 
LRR Focus: "We Need to Get Together More" 
Fran Ansley 
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© 1992 by Labor Research Review 
LRR Focus: "We Need to Get Together More" 
Abstract 
[Excerpt] Luvernel Clark is shop steward of ACTWU Local 1742 in Knoxville, Tennessee and chairperson of 
the Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network's Maquiladora Committee which participated in a worker 
exchange to Mexico in the summer of 1991. She works at Allied Signal, in a plant that had 3000 
employees in 1971, but today has less than 400, The jobs were sent by Allied first to a non-union 
"greenfield" location in Greenville, Alabama in 1982, and from there to Agua Prieta, Mexico. Fran Ansley, 
associate professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law and member of the TIRN delegation, 
interviewed Clark for Labor Research Review. 
Keywords 
Luvernel Clark, steward, ACTWU, Tennessee Industrial Renewal Network, union organizing 
This article is available in Labor Research Review: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/lrr/vol1/iss19/2 
LRR FOCUS: " W e Need to Get Together More' 
Luvernel Clark is shop steward of ACTWU Local 1742 in Knoxville, 
Tennessee and chairperson of the Tennessee Industrial Renewal 
Network's Maquiladora Committee which participated in a worker 
exchange to Mexico in the summer of 1991. She works at Allied Signal, 
in a plant that had 3000 employees in 1971, but today has less than 
400, The jobs were sent by Allied first to a non-union "greenfield" 
location in Greenville, Alabama in 1982, and from there to Agua 
Prieta, Mexico. Fran Ansley, associate professor at the University of 
Tennessee College of Law and member of the TIRN delegation, inter-
viewed Clark for Labor Research Review: 
When we met with the women from the CFO, I felt like they 
were strong people, to have to deal with what they have to deal 
with, and to get out and try to organize the people out there. 
They were really what a union ought to be—they were like 
grouped together. And they were pulling their strength from each 
other. A lot of times, I know we have our ups and downs where 
we all disagree, and I guess they do too, but it seemed to me that 
they were all working with one accord. Trying hard as they can 
to build these unions up in their shops. Really taking time and 
patience to listen to their workers, to the ones they were trying 
to help get organized. 
They were taking this a slow step at a time, which I understood 
why. And I thought that was good, if that's the way it has to be 
worked. And I think they were doing a good job at it. 
And listening to the workers, I don't know, it just felt like listen-
ing to us. 
One girl was standing up for the people that didn't know their 
rights, was trying to teach them what their rights were, and trying 
to tell them what the company was going to do to t h e m . . . . 
That whole meeting was just such a moving meeting, because they 
said it with so much feeling. I mean, you could tell it was coming 
from their hearts. 
They are grateful to have jobs. But they want to be treated like 
human beings. Like human beings, they want to make a decent 
wage where they can have a decent living. I think they are proud 
to have jobs. And I think they kind of fear, too, that we have the 
attitude that they're taking our jobs away. And I guess most 
Americans do! I'd say the majority of them, to be honest. The 
Mexican workers have that fear. But all in all, I think they'd like 
to unite and be a coalition, and do something about the standards. 
I think Teresa and Olga really enjoyed coming here and seeing 
what the factories and stuff were all about. And that gave them 
a bright idea on things that they could go back and tell the people 
in Mexico. 
I really think that they were, they could be, if they could get 
a lot more people involved, one of the strongest unions there is. 
Really. If they could get everyone taught. But you know, I never 
think that'll be possible. I really don't. Because of the way the 
government is, and these American companies. And then they hire 
these people like their supervisors and stuff to keep a threat over 
these people who need jobs so bad. And these people are so 
frightened of them, that things may never change. But I think it's 
our duty to try to help make that change. 
The main thing, I think, that I got out of this whole trip, is see-
ing what I fight for right here in the U.S. day after day after day, 
trying to make things better for my kids and my grandkids, or 
somebody's children that have to work in these factories. And then 
go down there and think that the U.S. thinks that those people 
are not human. That's what gets me. It's the gall, that the stuff 
we fight to get out of our plants, they put somewhere else! With 
no standards whatsoever. I fought a long time and testified at that 
Right-to-Know hearing. And then to see that they're taking this 
stuff across the border to these people that they think are not 
human the same as we are. And let them work in it. That's what 
galls me. 
The sight of where we went in Colonia Roma (a workers' 
neighborhood) will always stick in my head, if nothing else ever 
does. I see shacks, sitting in muddy water. No sewers. Trash. One 
person on our trip said that they should put up a sign in Colonia 
Roma which says "American Made." 
We need to try to get the Free Trade Agreement right, where 
it would help both sides. Because there is going to be some trade. 
We can just forget it to say that there will not be. Cause there will. 
But make sure that they have the same rights on both sides, their 
wages are with our wages. 
I mean, don't give the companies access to move here, yonder, 
and everywhere, because they hang the same threat over those 
Mexican worker's heads as they do our heads. "We're moving to 
Mexico." Well, they'll tell them they're moving somewhere else 
if they bring the union in, so it's just the same. There's no dif-
ference. There's not. 
We need a chance for people from the U.S. and Mexico to get 
together more. (Laughing) Well, not Bush and Salinas. But rank and 
file union members, I think they should have more, closer rela-
tionships. And that way our voice will be stronger on both sides. 
Another trip in the future where people who work for the same 
company, now that would be great. Because the worker exchange 
I think is going to be very important, that we keep this up. Because 
I believe if we let our guard down, then they'll just run away with 
it. They're going to anyway, if they can, but this way they know 
that we're right on top of them. 


LRR Focus:  We Need to Get Together More

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LRR Focus: We Need to Get Together More

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