The late Brother Mike Fulbright was a very instrumental leader in keeping this hope alive. In his memory we thank him for all that he has done and what he has instilled in us. Brother Mike helped us to hold on when others and ourselves would have rather quit or become complacent. He left us with something  that no one can ever take away unless we give it to them and that is HOPE. Thank you Big Brother Mike. We love and miss you.

  UAW Local 5287 was first recognized as a charter of the United Auto Workers in April of 2004 and we had been meeting at the Days Inn in High Point, NC. We later move our meetings to the Trinity Grange in Trinity NC and from there to the Carl Chavis YMCA in High Point, NC. We thank them for giving us a home when we were wanders without a home.

  We fought through two card check procedures to get to the bargaining table with Freightliner and endured through a voluntary National Labor Relation Board election. On June 29th 2005 the workers at Thomas Built Bus in High Point NC voted 714 in favor of a union. It was a National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) held election and we won with 59 percent of the votes cast.

  We went back to the bargaining table determined to come back to the membership with a contract that they can vote on. The Bargaining Committee consisted of Stacey English, Chairperson, Dorothy "Dot" Walls, Tony Walters, Eugene "Gene" Nichols, Beth Pendleton, and Niels Chapman, President along with Dave Bortz, our UAW International Service Representative.

  Along the way we would of course like to thank UAW Regional 8 Director Gary Casteel, Assistant Director Donnie Bevis, the late Nate Gooden, our UAW brothers and sisters, and the labor family as a whole.