ORGANIZING

Vol. 8, No. 2
April, 1999



	ORGANIZING SEIU Wins Labor's Biggest Victory in 50 Years The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has won the right to represent 74,000 Los Angeles County home-care workers, in the largest successful organizing campaign since 1937, when the United Auto Workers organized 112,000 General Motors employees. In the mailed ballot election, an overwhelming 90 percent of the workers voted for the union. SEIU negotiators are now preparing to bargain for these workers, mostly women and minorities, who earn $5.75 an hour for feeding, bathing and taking care of the elderly and disabled in their homes. It was no easy feat, even for an aggressive, savvy union like SEIU, which spent 11 years and more than a million dollars to achieve its goal. Back in 1987, state courts had ruled that home-care workers were independent contractors who dealt with their clients and therefore were ineligible to form or join a union. Through the pressure efforts of the union, the California legislature approved a law in 1992 that permitted counties to establish authorities that would administer home-care programs and serve as the workers' employers. In 1997, when Los Angeles County set up the legally permitted authority, the Personal Assistance Services Council, SEIU's organizing campaign went into high gear. SEIU's string of victories disproves the idea long held by many labor leaders that low-paid workers are not organizable. Studies have turned up surprising evidence that women and people of color are more likely to join unions than white males. SEIU's emphasis on low-paid workers adds a moral dimension to its organizing efforts that has a strong appeal to religious and civil rights groups. Says Andrew Stern, SEIU's feisty, 49-year-old president: "A decade ago people thought we were crazy to try to organize California's 180,000 home-care workers once the courts said they were independent contractors We said: 'If we can't organize the fastest growing occupation in America, then what does that say about the labor movement?'" Rx for Doctors: Join the Union Realizing that their once independent and financially-secure status has been rapidly eroding and frustrated by the increasing HMO control over their practices, the nation's doctors, in growing numbers, are doing what a couple of decades ago was unthinkable: joining trade unions. Nationwide, it is estimated that between 38,000 and 45,000 doctors belong to unions, up from 25,000 only two years ago. While this represents only a fraction of the nation's 600,000 physicians, the number is expected to grow rapidly. Groups representing 15,000 doctors have joined together in a new National Doctors Alliance, which will be affiliated with the SEIU. The union is expected to spend $1 million over the next year to recruit more doctors and dentists. Many doctors are no longer independent. Working for hospitals and health maintenance organizations, they do not have the rights they once enjoyed. They're in the same box as most employees who work for a boss. Large numbers of unionized doctors are interns and residents who work full-time for hospitals and HMOs. Their contracts cover wages and working conditions, much like a standard union contract. About half of the nation's doctors now work as salaried employees and this will be true of an estimated 80 percent of the graduates of medical colleges who will be looking for employment. SEIU and HERE Agree on Turf To end pointless jurisdictional conflicts, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) signed an agreement not to invade each other's jurisdiction. Thus, the service employees will refrain from organizing hotels and restaurants, while HERE will stay out of the health-care field. The bilateral agreement highlights an important jurisdictional principle: where a union has established itself as a dominant force in the industry, other unions should not encroach on its organizing domain. Unfortunately, this principle has been violated in recent years by a number of unions seeking to reverse their shrinkage in membership by organizing "anything that moves." Even though SEIU, with 600,000 members in health-care, is clearly the union with the greatest economic strength and leverage in that industry, several international unions, including the United Mine Workers and the Food and Commercial Workers, are spending money and resources to organize hospitals and nursing homes. "Catch-all" unionism has become endemic in the labor movement. Why, for example, has the United Auto Workers organized college teachers on both coasts? Shouldn't they belong to the American Federation of Teachers? And aren't there enough non-union auto workers to organize? Nurses have been organized by five or six unions, including the Laborers' International Union, where they are a distinct minority whose economic and professional needs get little attention. Should the United Steelworkers be organizing supermarkets? The issue of overlapping jurisdiction was discussed in February by the AFL-CIO Executive Council, but no decision was reached. Some unions that have organized workers outside their field are reluctant to turn them over to another union. They argue that it's better to organize workers in whatever manner than have them remain non-union. While it may be expedient for unions to organize workers wherever they can, there can be serious consequences if the trend continues. The solidarity of workers in the same occupation is often compromised if they split into different unions. UFW's New Strawberry Campaign The United Farm Workers won an important victory when an administrative law judge, Thomas Sobel, rejected the results of a union representation election won by a rival group at California's largest strawberry grower, Coastal Berry. In overturning the election. Judge Sobel was influenced by the fact that 162 Coastal Berry employees in Oxnard were not notified about the election and did not participate in the voting, even though they were considered part of the bargaining unit by California's Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB). The judge did not rule on the legitimacy of the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee, which the UFW had charged was a company union and which had conducted a campaign of violence and intimidation prior to its ALRB victory. Some 523 of the 933 voters favored the "committee." The UFW has been trying to organize workers at Coastal Berry and other growers for the past two years. With 20 full-time organizers and the financial backing of the AFL-CIO, the union held off on petitioning for an ALRB election for fear that they didn't have the votes to win. UFW leaders felt that the climate of violence and physical attacks on its supporters made a fair election impossible. UFW leaders believe that the Oxnard workers hold the key to their future victory at Coastal Berry. They now plan to step up their organizing campaign in Oxnard's strawberry fields where the season starts three months earlier than in the north. The peak season runs from February through June. Meanwhile, the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee has appealed Judge Sobel's decision. The UFW believes the committee's main function is not to make demands on the employer, but to block the UFW if a new representation election is held this year. Survey: How Bosses Get Union Losses Employers will go to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and defeat union organizing campaigns, a Cornell University survey shows. It lists various methods designed to intimidate pro-union workers and defeat a unionization drive, sometimes even before it gets started. The National Labor Relations Act, Section 8(c), grants employers the right of "free speech," which they can use to frighten workers with all sorts of dire consequences if they join a union. The survey describes a series of anti-union actions by employers and how frequently they are used: • 32% discharged active pro-union employees. • 50% threatened to shut down or relocate elsewhere if their employees formed a union. • 80% hired lawyers and professional consultants with anti-union credentials to stop an organizing campaign. • 80% provided extensive training to their supervisors on how to pressure their workers to shun the union. • 77% used anti-union literature, including letters to the homes of their employees, to dissuade them from joining the union. Most of these employer actions are obviously in violation of both the letter and spirit of the National Labor Relations Act, which Congress passed in 1935 expressly to give workers the right to join a union and to balance the bargaining strength of employers and unions. CWA Wins at Bell Atlantic Graphics The Communications Workers of America (CWA) was able to win recognition as bargaining agent for the 240 workers at Bell Atlantic Graphics, not through an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, but by means of a card check, showing that it represented a majority of the company's work force in the bargaining unit. Bell Atlantic agreed to the use of card-check organizing in its contract with CWA, in which it permitted union organizers to solicit authorization cards for 60 days at the worksite of any Bell Atlantic subsidiary whose market capitalization value was more than $3 billion. The company also agreed to recognize the union if a card check showed that a majority of workers in the bargaining unit wanted to be represented by CWA. In the card-check tally, which was conducted by the Honest Ballot Association, more than 70 percent of the cards favored the union. Employees are now responding to a survey of their priority demands, which CWA negotiators will use when they meet with company representatives early in April. Bell Atlantic Graphics employees work on production of the company's telephone directories.

ORGANIZING

SEIU Wins Labor's Biggest Victory in 50 Years

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has won the right to represent 74,000 Los Angeles County home-care workers, in the largest successful organizing campaign since 1937, when the United Auto Workers organized 112,000 General Motors employees. In the mailed ballot election, an overwhelming 90 percent of the workers voted for the union. SEIU negotiators are now preparing to bargain for these workers, mostly women and minorities, who earn $5.75 an hour for feeding, bathing and taking care of the elderly and disabled in their homes.

It was no easy feat, even for an aggressive, savvy union like SEIU, which spent 11 years and more than a million dollars to achieve its goal. Back in 1987, state courts had ruled that home-care workers were independent contractors who dealt with their clients and therefore were ineligible to form or join a union. Through the pressure efforts of the union, the California legislature approved a law in 1992 that permitted counties to establish authorities that would administer home-care programs and serve as the workers' employers. In 1997, when Los Angeles County set up the legally permitted authority, the Personal Assistance Services Council, SEIU's organizing campaign went into high gear.

SEIU's string of victories disproves the idea long held by many labor leaders that low-paid workers are not organizable. Studies have turned up surprising evidence that women and people of color are more likely to join unions than white males. SEIU's emphasis on low-paid workers adds a moral dimension to its organizing efforts that has a strong appeal to religious and civil rights groups.

Says Andrew Stern, SEIU's feisty, 49-year-old president: "A decade ago people thought we were crazy to try to organize California's 180,000 home-care workers once the courts said they were independent contractors We said: 'If we can't organize the fastest growing occupation in America, then what does that say about the labor movement?'"

Rx for Doctors: Join the Union

Realizing that their once independent and financially-secure status has been rapidly eroding and frustrated by the increasing HMO control over their practices, the nation's doctors, in growing numbers, are doing what a couple of decades ago was unthinkable: joining trade unions.

Nationwide, it is estimated that between 38,000 and 45,000 doctors belong to unions, up from 25,000 only two years ago. While this represents only a fraction of the nation's 600,000 physicians, the number is expected to grow rapidly.

Groups representing 15,000 doctors have joined together in a new National Doctors Alliance, which will be affiliated with the SEIU. The union is expected to spend $1 million over the next year to recruit more doctors and dentists.

Many doctors are no longer independent. Working for hospitals and health maintenance organizations, they do not have the rights they once enjoyed. They're in the same box as most employees who work for a boss.

Large numbers of unionized doctors are interns and residents who work full-time for hospitals and HMOs. Their contracts cover wages and working conditions, much like a standard union contract. About half of the nation's doctors now work as salaried employees and this will be true of an estimated 80 percent of the graduates of medical colleges who will be looking for employment.

SEIU and HERE Agree on Turf

To end pointless jurisdictional conflicts, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) signed an agreement not to invade each other's jurisdiction. Thus, the service employees will refrain from organizing hotels and restaurants, while HERE will stay out of the health-care field.

The bilateral agreement highlights an important jurisdictional principle: where a union has established itself as a dominant force in the industry, other unions should not encroach on its organizing domain. Unfortunately, this principle has been violated in recent years by a number of unions seeking to reverse their shrinkage in membership by organizing "anything that moves."

Even though SEIU, with 600,000 members in health-care, is clearly the union with the greatest economic strength and leverage in that industry, several international unions, including the United Mine Workers and the Food and Commercial Workers, are spending money and resources to organize hospitals and nursing homes.

"Catch-all" unionism has become endemic in the labor movement. Why, for example, has the United Auto Workers organized college teachers on both coasts? Shouldn't they belong to the American Federation of Teachers? And aren't there enough non-union auto workers to organize?

Nurses have been organized by five or six unions, including the Laborers' International Union, where they are a distinct minority whose economic and professional needs get little attention. Should the United Steelworkers be organizing supermarkets?

The issue of overlapping jurisdiction was discussed in February by the AFL-CIO Executive Council, but no decision was reached. Some unions that have organized workers outside their field are reluctant to turn them over to another union. They argue that it's better to organize workers in whatever manner than have them remain non-union.

While it may be expedient for unions to organize workers wherever they can, there can be serious consequences if the trend continues. The solidarity of workers in the same occupation is often compromised if they split into different unions.

UFW's New Strawberry Campaign

The United Farm Workers won an important victory when an administrative law judge, Thomas Sobel, rejected the results of a union representation election won by a rival group at California's largest strawberry grower, Coastal Berry.

In overturning the election. Judge Sobel was influenced by the fact that 162 Coastal Berry employees in Oxnard were not notified about the election and did not participate in the voting, even though they were considered part of the bargaining unit by California's Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB).

The judge did not rule on the legitimacy of the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee, which the UFW had charged was a company union and which had conducted a campaign of violence and intimidation prior to its ALRB victory. Some 523 of the 933 voters favored the "committee."

The UFW has been trying to organize workers at Coastal Berry and other growers for the past two years. With 20 full-time organizers and the financial backing of the AFL-CIO, the union held off on petitioning for an ALRB election for fear that they didn't have the votes to win. UFW leaders felt that the climate of violence and physical attacks on its supporters made a fair election impossible.

UFW leaders believe that the Oxnard workers hold the key to their future victory at Coastal Berry. They now plan to step up their organizing campaign in Oxnard's strawberry fields where the season starts three months earlier than in the north. The peak season runs from February through June.

Meanwhile, the Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee has appealed Judge Sobel's decision. The UFW believes the committee's main function is not to make demands on the employer, but to block the UFW if a new representation election is held this year.

Survey: How Bosses Get Union Losses

Employers will go to extraordinary lengths to disrupt and defeat union organizing campaigns, a Cornell University survey shows. It lists various methods designed to intimidate pro-union workers and defeat a unionization drive, sometimes even before it gets started.

The National Labor Relations Act, Section 8(c), grants employers the right of "free speech," which they can use to frighten workers with all sorts of dire consequences if they join a union. The survey describes a series of anti-union actions by employers and how frequently they are used:

• 32% discharged active pro-union employees.

• 50% threatened to shut down or relocate elsewhere if their employees formed a union.

• 80% hired lawyers and professional consultants with anti-union credentials to stop an organizing campaign.

• 80% provided extensive training to their supervisors on how to pressure their workers to shun the union.

• 77% used anti-union literature, including letters to the homes of their employees, to dissuade them from joining the union.

Most of these employer actions are obviously in violation of both the letter and spirit of the National Labor Relations Act, which Congress passed in 1935 expressly to give workers the right to join a union and to balance the bargaining strength of employers and unions.

CWA Wins at Bell Atlantic Graphics

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) was able to win recognition as bargaining agent for the 240 workers at Bell Atlantic Graphics, not through an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, but by means of a card check, showing that it represented a majority of the company's work force in the bargaining unit.

Bell Atlantic agreed to the use of card-check organizing in its contract with CWA, in which it permitted union organizers to solicit authorization cards for 60 days at the worksite of any Bell Atlantic subsidiary whose market capitalization value was more than $3 billion. The company also agreed to recognize the union if a card check showed that a majority of workers in the bargaining unit wanted to be represented by CWA.

In the card-check tally, which was conducted by the Honest Ballot Association, more than 70 percent of the cards favored the union. Employees are now responding to a survey of their priority demands, which CWA negotiators will use when they meet with company representatives early in April.

Bell Atlantic Graphics employees work on production of the company's telephone directories.

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