The challenge of organizing new workers into unions is not that the workers themselves are not interested in gaining union representation. Over the past six months, more than 100 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize. The first Amazon warehouse voted “union, yes!”. Area Director for Organizing Jesse Juarez reports that he hears from techs at car dealerships on a weekly basis who want to be in a union.

No, the challenge is that employers do everything they can to delay votes,muck up who should be in the bargaining unit, intimidate workers from voting for the union, and appeal rulings of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Most importantly, once the workers have stood up to all of that and voted for the union, employers refuse to honor the wishes of their employees to bargain in good faith.

Several organizing drives launched during the pandemic finally move ahead

Zum Transportation

Area Director for Organizing Jesse Juarez reports that the three mechanics at Zum Transportation in Oakland voted to join Local 1546 and bargaining has been progressing smoothly.

“This company transports kids for the Oakland Unified School District, and our members maintain the buses,” Juarez explains. “When I went with the members to demand union recognition, the company did not campaign against the union. In fact, they provided us the fastest election ever—just two weeks later. They respect workers’ rights and remained neutral.” Juarez adds that in just one month, the parties have already agreed to the non-economic parts of the agreement.

“It helps that Local 1414 already has a contract with this company, representing members in San Mateo County. Jerry Gutierrez is the servicing rep on that contract, and Pedro Mendez is the chief negotiator, so they can both remind the company of how smoothly things are going with the union in place.”

MV Transportation

Bargaining has commenced between Local 1546 and MV Transportation (WestCat) in Pinole. “They granted us recognition without a struggle,” says Juarez. “Pedro Mendez has established a relationship with MV in the San Mateo area, enabling him to foster considerable goodwill and significant progress.”

This unit has about 12 maintenance mechanics and service workers. Juarez says that the group was organized during the pandemic, but “when the contract opened up, the company made many promises if the group would decertify the union. Seeing the writing on the wall, the union gave up the unit. When management failed to fulfill their promises, the group asked to return to the union. We welcomed them back and look forward to continuing to represent them.”

Volvo Cars of Walnut Creek

The 12 techs at this dealership voted to join Local 1173 last September. Juarez says that it used to be a union shop but was sold to a non-union dealership. However, the non-union approach did not work for this group, and they voted to reinstate the union.

“We’ve had seven or eight meetings so far. A lawyer from the anti-union Littler Mendelson firm is leading the talks for management, and there’s not much good faith,” Juarez reports. “Our committee is demanding better benefits. This is an aggressive group; I expect things will become interesting.”