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1,000 New Members: Organizing Heat Wave Sweeps Nation: Organizing Roundup
It’s been a busy summer for CWA organizers and workers fighting for union representation. Recent victories at AT&T Broadband in Pennsylvania and California, Delphi-GM parts supplier Jamestown Moraine Inc. in Ohio, Verizon Directory Compilation in Virginia and WJET-TV in Pennsylvania have brought CWA more than 1,000 new members.
AT&T Broadband workers in Pittsburgh, Pa., voted 239-158 to join CWA, in an expedited neutrality and consent election June 20. The Corliss Street unit of 436 technical and technical support workers who install cable TV and Internet service becomes the largest organized AT&T Broadband group in the country.
“This happens once in a great while, to have so many people work so hard,” said Marge Krueger, administrative assistant to District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano. Krueger, with Local 13000 Organizer Dave Hoskowicz, coordinated the campaign.
Numerous volunteers from the local assisted, Krueger said, including newly organized workers at AT&T Broadband’s South Hills and New Kensington, Pa., locations, who made phone calls and visits to workers’ homes. She said a 27-member inside committee built solidarity to put the election over the top.
Brian Malobisky, technician and inside committee leader, told delegates at the union’s convention why workers chose CWA.
“The decision was brought on by workload and hours that are abusive,” Malobisky said. “It doesn’t seem to matter to (management) that people have been getting hurt, having accidents in their vans and accidents in the field because they are exhausted.”
He told of technicians required to work as many as 11 straight days, up to 16 hours a day. The last straw, he said, was the company’s decision to implement a paid time off policy that effectively wiped out accumulated sick leave.
Pacific Broadband
On the West Coast, a unit of 160 AT&T Broadband workers in Fresno and Visalia, Calif., also chose CWA, voting 96-42 for the union, with 19 challenged ballots, District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler reported.
“This great victory is attributed to a very strong inside committee led by AT&T field techs Paul Dupras, Ingacio Chavez and Louis Guzman, and dispatcher Chris Gainey, with hard work by literally dozens of others,” said District 9 Organizing Coordinator Libby Sayre.
CWA notified AT&T of its intention to organize on June 19, just a few days after the neutrality and consent agreement took effect at the two former Media One facilities. Sayre said the committee collected the cards in just 3.5 days.
Local 9408 President Nadine Cox, Executive Vice President Georgia Johnston and Vice President Rojelio Granados answered workers’ questions at committee meetings, and Joel Lopez, an AT&T Broadband system technician and Local 9415 member, spent three days talking to Fresno workers.
“Joel helped shape a vision of what the union has meant to Broadband workers in Oakland over the years and what working under a union contract would mean to them and their families,” Sayre said.
Supply and Demand
IUE-CWA’s first full-time local organizer, Cheryl Baker, won her first victory, with Local 768 gaining card check recognition for 252 employees at Jamestown Moraine Inc. in Dayton, Ohio.
“The company verbally agreed to card check earlier this year and the local quickly signed up a majority,” said Seth Rosen, administrative assistant to CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach. “But management refused to honor its promise and demanded the local go through the National Labor Relations Board process.”
After a series of meetings with IUE-CWA District 7 President Mike Bindas, the company on May 10 finally signed a card check and neutrality agreement, said Bill King, Bindas’ assistant. But, for the local, it meant organizing the plant twice.
Some months ago, Jamestown bid against IUE-represented CTI to supply parts to GM, but Local 798’s Dan Poffenberger, shop chairman at GM, persuaded GM to keep work at the union plant, King said.
When the dust settled, IUE District 7 Assistant Organizing Director Jim Hall met with the owner of Jamestown and informed him that had his plant been union he would have had a good chance of getting GM’s business. That led to the verbal card check agreement.
The local organized a majority of the workers, but the company reneged. With newly hired Baker on board, they went at it again with a signed card check agreement.
Local President Gil Woods and Baker led meetings for workers and committee members. Some were discouraged that their first card check victory didn’t count but, said Woods, “Myrlin Humphrey, Ray Jones and Tennille Knox and others stuck with the second campaign throughout, getting cards signed, getting people to meetings and keeping them informed.”
Verizon Directory Win
Local 2201 won a neutrality and consent election June 21 for a unit of 100 workers in the Verizon Directory Compilation group in Richmond, Va. The vote was 53-39 for CWA. The local built upon its earlier victory March 7 for 80 technical employees at the former GTE property.
Full-time local Organizer Laurie RaBorg, assisted by Donna Webber of the local’s organizing committee, coordinated the campaign. But RaBorg gave most of the credit to an 11-member inside committee that distributed fliers and kept co-workers motivated. Leaders included Teresa Burnette, Starr Smith, Lizzy Sydnor and Audrey Wright.
“This could not have been done without their diligent work and desire to have a union,” RaBorg said.
AT&T Broadband workers in Pittsburgh, Pa., voted 239-158 to join CWA, in an expedited neutrality and consent election June 20. The Corliss Street unit of 436 technical and technical support workers who install cable TV and Internet service becomes the largest organized AT&T Broadband group in the country.
“This happens once in a great while, to have so many people work so hard,” said Marge Krueger, administrative assistant to District 13 Vice President Vince Maisano. Krueger, with Local 13000 Organizer Dave Hoskowicz, coordinated the campaign.
Numerous volunteers from the local assisted, Krueger said, including newly organized workers at AT&T Broadband’s South Hills and New Kensington, Pa., locations, who made phone calls and visits to workers’ homes. She said a 27-member inside committee built solidarity to put the election over the top.
Brian Malobisky, technician and inside committee leader, told delegates at the union’s convention why workers chose CWA.
“The decision was brought on by workload and hours that are abusive,” Malobisky said. “It doesn’t seem to matter to (management) that people have been getting hurt, having accidents in their vans and accidents in the field because they are exhausted.”
He told of technicians required to work as many as 11 straight days, up to 16 hours a day. The last straw, he said, was the company’s decision to implement a paid time off policy that effectively wiped out accumulated sick leave.
Pacific Broadband
On the West Coast, a unit of 160 AT&T Broadband workers in Fresno and Visalia, Calif., also chose CWA, voting 96-42 for the union, with 19 challenged ballots, District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler reported.
“This great victory is attributed to a very strong inside committee led by AT&T field techs Paul Dupras, Ingacio Chavez and Louis Guzman, and dispatcher Chris Gainey, with hard work by literally dozens of others,” said District 9 Organizing Coordinator Libby Sayre.
CWA notified AT&T of its intention to organize on June 19, just a few days after the neutrality and consent agreement took effect at the two former Media One facilities. Sayre said the committee collected the cards in just 3.5 days.
Local 9408 President Nadine Cox, Executive Vice President Georgia Johnston and Vice President Rojelio Granados answered workers’ questions at committee meetings, and Joel Lopez, an AT&T Broadband system technician and Local 9415 member, spent three days talking to Fresno workers.
“Joel helped shape a vision of what the union has meant to Broadband workers in Oakland over the years and what working under a union contract would mean to them and their families,” Sayre said.
Supply and Demand
IUE-CWA’s first full-time local organizer, Cheryl Baker, won her first victory, with Local 768 gaining card check recognition for 252 employees at Jamestown Moraine Inc. in Dayton, Ohio.
“The company verbally agreed to card check earlier this year and the local quickly signed up a majority,” said Seth Rosen, administrative assistant to CWA District 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenbach. “But management refused to honor its promise and demanded the local go through the National Labor Relations Board process.”
After a series of meetings with IUE-CWA District 7 President Mike Bindas, the company on May 10 finally signed a card check and neutrality agreement, said Bill King, Bindas’ assistant. But, for the local, it meant organizing the plant twice.
Some months ago, Jamestown bid against IUE-represented CTI to supply parts to GM, but Local 798’s Dan Poffenberger, shop chairman at GM, persuaded GM to keep work at the union plant, King said.
When the dust settled, IUE District 7 Assistant Organizing Director Jim Hall met with the owner of Jamestown and informed him that had his plant been union he would have had a good chance of getting GM’s business. That led to the verbal card check agreement.
The local organized a majority of the workers, but the company reneged. With newly hired Baker on board, they went at it again with a signed card check agreement.
Local President Gil Woods and Baker led meetings for workers and committee members. Some were discouraged that their first card check victory didn’t count but, said Woods, “Myrlin Humphrey, Ray Jones and Tennille Knox and others stuck with the second campaign throughout, getting cards signed, getting people to meetings and keeping them informed.”
Verizon Directory Win
Local 2201 won a neutrality and consent election June 21 for a unit of 100 workers in the Verizon Directory Compilation group in Richmond, Va. The vote was 53-39 for CWA. The local built upon its earlier victory March 7 for 80 technical employees at the former GTE property.
Full-time local Organizer Laurie RaBorg, assisted by Donna Webber of the local’s organizing committee, coordinated the campaign. But RaBorg gave most of the credit to an 11-member inside committee that distributed fliers and kept co-workers motivated. Leaders included Teresa Burnette, Starr Smith, Lizzy Sydnor and Audrey Wright.
“This could not have been done without their diligent work and desire to have a union,” RaBorg said.