http://www.alternet.org/workplace/67740 /

By Richard Negri, Union Review.

A worker action turns ugly.

After hearing that nearly 700 nurses striking at Appalachian Regional Heath Care (ARH), who are represented by the Kentucky and West Virginia Nurses Associations/United American Nurses are being met with underhanded and violent measures brought against them … I thought it was time to raise even greater awareness of this situation.

I hold many discussions with nonunion workers who somewhere along the line will talk about the coercion they believe occurs with union workers organizing. I almost always reply with, “it happens on both sides;” this story is case-in-point.

The nurses began striking on October 1, since then ARH has heightened its intimidation of the striking workers with hired security guards on the picket lines who routinely harass the nurses. The company also has resorted to surveillance cameras taking shots of who walks the picket and when. And now, though it is not clarified yet that its their doing, the company appears to have orchestrated the burning of a car that belonged to one of the union staff who was on hand to assist the nurses.

According to a statement released by the union, a UAN representative left the picket line at the Beckley, WV ARK facility Sunday night. He drove a short distance before realizing he had a flat. He returned to the picket line for assistance, and when he and others returned to his car, they found it had been lit on fire with brush doused in flammable liquid.

FULL story at link.