Organizing Update

110 Utility Locating Workers Join CWA

In an NLRB mail-in election, 110 employees of USIC have chosen to have a voice in the workplace by joining CWA Local 1101.

USIC – the contractor that does underground utility location work for Con Ed, Verizon, NYSEG and other employers – fought bitterly to keep the workers from exercising their right to form a union. The local did a great job building relationships with workers in this group as well as fending off the employer's anti-union campaign. Chief Stewards Keith Hogarty and Joseph O'Donnell worked on the campaign.

Hoboken Cabbies Demand Mayor Subject Uber to Same Standards

Dozens of taxi and limousine owners and drivers marched from the cab stand outside the Hoboken Terminal to the steps of City Hall on Tuesday to demand that Mayor Dawn Zimmer hold Uber and other apps to a city ordinance requiring cars for hire to carry fire extinguishers, have commercial insurance and be inspected twice a year, and that their drivers have commercial licenses, undergo background checks, and submit to annual drug testing.

With the help of CWA, taxi drivers have been trying to organize themselves into a union.

"Nobody's afraid of competition, but it has to be on a level playing field," CWA Local 1039 President Lionel Leach told the Newark Star-Ledger after the march.