The UAW’s agreement with Johnson Controls also allows the union to organize workers by having them sign union cards rather than through holding an election. Four of the company’s plants that supply parts for Japanese carmakers are not included in the agreement.

The victory registered a gain for the UAW, whose membership has fallen by 50 percent over the past two decades.

Within hours the walkout succeeded in disrupting production at the General Motors and DaimlerChrysler facilities that use JCI parts. The strike shut down the first and second shifts at Chrysler’s Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, and its St. Louis South facility. A GM spokesman said the auto giant ran out of parts at its plants in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and in Shreveport, Louisiana, where the second shift was told not to report to work.

According to a union press release, the coordinated strike was organized to protest a "pattern of anti-union and unfair labor practices" that included "unilaterally changing work rules, job rotations, attendance policy, overtime, insurance packages, and shift-operating times."

Workers at Johnson Controls plants in Shreveport, Oklahoma City, and Earth City, Missouri, won contracts for the first time. In Northwood, Ohio, where UAW officials said 85 percent of the workforce has already signed union representation cards, JCI agreed to recognize the union, a move it had refused to take prior to the walkout.

"We have a solid majority at our plant and JCI knows it," said Troy Redhawk, a worker at the Ohio plant. "But since they won’t recognize our union, we have no choice but to use our economic power to enforce our legal rights."

Another union member, Greg Hill of UAW Local 2297 in Shreveport, added, "We have the legal right to a union, but JCI undermines that right at every opportunity."

The new contract signed in Shreveport, Oklahoma City, and Earth City includes a $1,500 signing bonus, a pay increase of at least $3 an hour, and a company-paid health-care plan. A pension program was also established for the first time.

The strike came days after a UAW convention in Las Vegas where Ron Gettelfinger become the president of the auto workers union.  
 
 
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