Avis Workers Overcome Language Barrier, Threats to Join CWA

A unit of Avis rental car service agents at Denver International Airport overcame a language barrier and threats from management to organize with CWA this week. The vote in the NLRB election was 26-15, with all but five of the 46 workers voting. The ballot was printed in five languages.

Dignity, respect, equity, and decent working conditions are major issues for the group, most of whom are immigrants from Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East, according to District 7 Organizing Coordinator Al Kogler, who assisted in the campaign.

"They were routinely subjected to disrespectful and discriminatory treatment by managers," said Kogler. Management spread misinformation about unions, trying to take advantage of the workers' lack of familiarity with U.S. labor laws, but the workers' inside committee stayed united. Management from the company's Dallas office even got involved in the campaign.

Workers have charged that supervisors issued veiled threats to activists. "The victory is a testimony to the workers. Many are from Sudan and war-torn nations and are new to America, but they didn't give in," according to Kogler.

A key factor in the victory was support the workers received from IUE-CWA-represented Avis workers at Logan Airport some 2,000 miles away in Boston. The workers, represented by Local 81201, produced a handout welcoming the group into CWA and explaining the benefits of union representation.