State Rep. Gilliard of Charleston: Don’t believe anti-union rhetoric (stands up to Gov. Boeing vote)

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State Rep. Wendell Gilliard is a former local president for a union. He also has led union organizing campaigns. FILE/STAFF

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150413/PC05/150419764/1177/state-rep-gilliard-of-charleston-don-x2019-t-believe-anti-union-rhetoric

David Wren Apr 13 2015 11:16 am

June 17, 1991, will live with Wendell Gilliard for the rest of his life.

That’s the day, just before noon, when an explosion at the Albright & Wilson chemical plant in the Charleston Neck area killed nine people and injured 30 more in one of the city’s worst industrial disasters.

“That’s the day I lost my best friend,” said Gilliard, who worked at the plant for 28 years, all as a member of the United Steelworkers union. Gilliard, now a Democrat legislator in the S.C. House of Representatives, was president of the local union at that time. He also led union organizing campaigns in South Carolina and other states before his political career



In 2012, Boeing South Carolina employees and others celebrated the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner to be assembled in North Charleston. Some of those workers will be voting April 22 on whether to join a union.


It was in the aftermath of that tragedy that Gilliard said he learned the most about how positive the relationship between a union and employer can be.

FULL story at link.