Organizing Roundup: Dona Ana County Sheriffs Lead Parade of New CWAers

Nearly 400 new members came to CWA in recent weeks, including police, nurses, teachers, attorneys and broadcast technicians.

CWA defeated the Fraternal Order of Police, 54-51, on Jan. 19, as 104 deputies and sergeants in the Dona Ana County, N.M., Sheriff's Department chose the union that would represent their bargaining unit of 110. Six officers were ineligible to vote because they had not yet attained permanent status on the job.
"This election victory is very important for our local and will give us the momentum to pick up other public safety groups throughout New Mexico," said CWA Local 7911 President Steve Harvey.

The victory brings the total of public safety employees represented by the local to about 400. All in New Mexico, they include the Rio Rancho Public Safety Department, Farmington Police, Santa Fe County Deputies, Otero County Deputies, Alamagordo Public Safety and Socorro County Deputies.

John Burpo, director of the National Coalition of Public Safety Officers-CWA, said the campaign took about 18 months because of local boards taking time to implement procedures for compliance with New Mexico's new collective bargaining law and because of confusion over which labor board - state or county - would hold jurisdiction in the election.

Also, Burpo said, the FOP tried unsuccessfully to dilute CWA's strength by petitioning to add lieutenants, civilian managers and dispatchers to the unit.

Local part-time organizer Sean Bergen and Deputy James Lee played key roles in a campaign built upon raising wages and improving working conditions.

Victories Elsewhere:

• Seventy-two St. John's Community Services workers who care for developmentally disabled persons in group homes joined Local 1037 in January despite company threats to institutionalize their charges if employees voted to go union. The workers voted 33-19 for CWA.
  
  District 1 Organizing Coordinator Erin Bowie reported the results of their National Labor Relations Board election that took place at five different sites throughout New Jersey over the two days.
  
  The support specialists work on different shifts at group homes in five New Jersey counties: Mercer, Monmouth, Union, Essex and Ocean. Balloting took place in Seven Oaks, Lawrenceville, Rahway, Long Branch and Farmingdale, N.J., on Thursday, but management requested it not be completed at Seven Oaks until Saturday. "Then they cancelled all Saturday activities there, hoping the workers would not come in and vote," said Local 1037 Organizer Heidi Thomas.
  
  Management also conducted captive audience meetings and even served workers an expensive shrimp meal, attempting to dissuade them from voting for the union. Local staff Organizer Anne Luck-Soyak and volunteers Sherl Williams and Vivian Hemmingway also worked on the campaign.
  
  
• Local 1122 in Buffalo, N.Y., reached agreement with the Northwest Buffalo Community Center to accrete about 60 new part-time employees into a larger unit it represents there.
  
  "The community center received a state and federal grant of about $275,000 for after-school programs, and they went to the Buffalo teachers looking for certified teachers to work as tutors," said Organizing Chair John Mudie. "Then the employer came to us and said, 'We'd like these people to be in the union.'"
  
  Local area Vice President Jim Wagner and Mudie worked out the accretion agreement, getting the OK on Jan. 14, and local organizer Dawn Kuznik talked with the workers.
  
  "They'll come under the existing contract," Mudie said. "We just need to sit down and work out a wage scale and progression."
  
  The local also picked up four licensed practical nurses in a National Labor Relations Board election on Jan. 15. The Visiting Nurses Association in Cheektowaga had just added the LPN title and four nurses to its approximately 300 registered nurses and support staff.
  
  
• Also in Buffalo, the Legal Aid Bureau Attorneys Union of 35 public defense attorneys voted for representation by Local 1168 after considering three other unions. "An interesting note is that the chairman of the board for the agency is one of the partners for Bond, Shoeneck and King, a familiar union-busting law firm," District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau said.
  
  Local 1168 Organizers Helen Cyrulik and Jeff Lacher won over the attorneys' confidence.
  
  
• In New York City, NABET-CWA Local 51011 has announced a voluntary recognition for about 19 employees at Quantum Technology Inc. who perform broadcast and industrial integration work at facilities across the United States. "We are obviously very pleased that Quantum Technology agreed to voluntarily recognize the unit," said Gene Garnes, Local 51011 secretary and director of organizing. "Not only will the employees benefit by this positive relationship, but by forming a working partnership, it will help to formulate a genuine and long-lasting relationship between the union and the company."
  
  
• City workers in Port Richey, Fla., voted 18-1 to bring their unit of 21 workers into CWA Local 3179.
  
  "These public employees have been very courageous in standing up for their right to join a union against threats and intimidation by some city commissioners," local President Stephen Sarnoff said.
  
  Not only did the workers put up with threats and intimidation from city commissioners prior to their election, but also a budget proposal put forth at a public meeting earmarked $20,000 for an attorney to oppose the workers in bargaining.
  
  After one commissioner complained about the cost of fighting the union, Sarnoff addressed the meeting, pointing out that, "We did not require a fight and we did not require them to hire an attorney at $315 an hour."
  
  The mayor and city manager have since expressed in a newspaper article that they believe a reasonable agreement can be reached.
  
  District 3 Organizing Coordinator Liz Roberson worked on the campaign.