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Long Battle Ends with Job Corps Contract
John Doran, president of CWA Local 9413, Reno, Nev., doesn’t give up easily.
He’s been battling for nearly two years to win justice — and a union contract — for the 51 residential advisors at the Sierra Nevada Job Corps center near Reno.
His efforts finally paid off with a new CWA contract early this year.
Along the way, Doran forced a subcontractor at the Job Corps center to admit that it illegally spent $6,580 in federal money in a futile campaign to defeat CWA in its organizing efforts in the summer of 1996.
Prodded by Doran, the Department of Labor’s inspector general uncovered the illegal expenditure by Management and Training Corp., the subcontractor, and ordered MTC to repay the money.
“As a direct result of its efforts to deter its employees from unionizing, MTC had to defend itself on unfair labor practice charges. We . . . concluded these charges were a direct result of MTC’s anti-union campaign” at the center, the auditors reported.
Despite the virulent anti-union campaign, the workers chose CWA on a vote of 42-3 in the July 19, 1996 election. During the heated campaign, while hand billing, Local 9413 Vice President Barbara Welling came within a foot of getting hit by a Porsche driven by the assistant director at the center. As a result, the assistant director was eventually transferred to a Job Corps site at Peachtree Center, Ga.
Doran carried appeals against MTC’s anti-union shenanigans as high as former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich. In contacting Reich on Sept. 1, 1996, Doran submitted a formal grievance against both the University of Nevada at Reno, the prime contractor at the Job Corps center, and MTC, the subcontractor.
The new contract addresses a raft of complaints, including low wages, lack of arbitration and grievance procedures and no voice on the job.
He’s been battling for nearly two years to win justice — and a union contract — for the 51 residential advisors at the Sierra Nevada Job Corps center near Reno.
His efforts finally paid off with a new CWA contract early this year.
Along the way, Doran forced a subcontractor at the Job Corps center to admit that it illegally spent $6,580 in federal money in a futile campaign to defeat CWA in its organizing efforts in the summer of 1996.
Prodded by Doran, the Department of Labor’s inspector general uncovered the illegal expenditure by Management and Training Corp., the subcontractor, and ordered MTC to repay the money.
“As a direct result of its efforts to deter its employees from unionizing, MTC had to defend itself on unfair labor practice charges. We . . . concluded these charges were a direct result of MTC’s anti-union campaign” at the center, the auditors reported.
Despite the virulent anti-union campaign, the workers chose CWA on a vote of 42-3 in the July 19, 1996 election. During the heated campaign, while hand billing, Local 9413 Vice President Barbara Welling came within a foot of getting hit by a Porsche driven by the assistant director at the center. As a result, the assistant director was eventually transferred to a Job Corps site at Peachtree Center, Ga.
Doran carried appeals against MTC’s anti-union shenanigans as high as former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich. In contacting Reich on Sept. 1, 1996, Doran submitted a formal grievance against both the University of Nevada at Reno, the prime contractor at the Job Corps center, and MTC, the subcontractor.
The new contract addresses a raft of complaints, including low wages, lack of arbitration and grievance procedures and no voice on the job.