Organizing Updates
Union organizing isn’t about signing cards — it’s about empowering people and changing lives.
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.
Volvo Cars of Walnut Creek – Union Yes!
On September 25, in a vote of 10-2, the techs and parts people at Volvo Cars of Walnut Creek (formerly Lawrence Volvo) voted for union representation.
This shop had been unionized up until it sold about eight years ago. In August, they contacted Area Director Jesse Juarez to get themselves re-organized.
“We had unanimous support going into the campaign,” Juarez notes. “But the company called in the anti-union law firm Littler Mendelsen to campaign against us, and two workers ended up voting no.”
The driving issue is that the current medical plan is terrible, with high deductibles. “One tech spent $1,800 just for an MRI.” Juarez adds that the shop hasn’t kept up with wages or retirement, “but they can afford lawyers to try to stop the union.”
The next phase will be to negotiate a first contract. Stay tuned!
Striking in Solidarity at GP Gypsum
Sixteen members of Local 1584 went on strike at GP Gypsum in Antioch on September 16 in solidarity with the 85 ILWU members who voted to strike. The IAM members work as electricians and/or do plant maintenance at the wallboard and building materials factory.
“We were working on a contract extension that required a 10-day notice,” explains Area Director Steve Older. “When the ILWU voted to strike, I immediately canceled the extension because our guys refused to cross their co-workers’ picket line.” Older reports that the ILWU demanded a 15% wage increase each year; the company was taking a hard line at 2%. After five days of talks, Local 1584 had only gotten a mediocre offer that they were unlikely to settle for.
As Antioch Mayor Lamar Harnandez-Thorpe said at a rally, “Koch industries,” which owns Georgia Pacific, “made $166 billion in profits and they’re fighting their workers for $5. It’s just wrong.”
At press time, talks have not yet re-started, but the members of both unions are standing strong.
“We’re here to support our ILWU brothers. We work side by side and didn’t want to cross their picket line. We’ve seen this before; the company waits until the contract is close to expiring to start talks, and then expects us to take what we can get. This time, we said NO!”
“We’re out here in support of the production union because of their wages, and our wages, too—they’re all too low. It’s not easy being on strike. Everything, from food to PG&E, keeps going up. But we need to fight for better wages. We’ll make it work.”