Friday, April 6th, 2007...6:27 pm
Win Some, Lose Some
The Teamsters lost a vote to organize the Red Cross yesterday after a campaign where there were charges of threats against pro-union employees on the part of management. Boy, good they didn’t have the card check so the workers would be free of intimidation from union organizers.
But, the labor movement had a big victory this week when SEIU won a vote to represent county employees by a stunning margin. The vote was 1,163 to 70. That is a margin that would even make Alexander Lukashenko jealous. Organizers were confident of victory, but stunned by the margin.
Also good was the turnout. Workplaces this large typically have 10% turnout in such elections, my slide rule tells me that this turnout was 27%. Also, since SEIU only claims around 700 members, many people who haven’t yet joined the union voted “yes.”
Union members and organizers deserve a great deal of credit for accomplishing this, but a couple of kudos need to be handed out too: Richard Elías and the Board of Supervisors for voting to allow this election, also to Chuck Huckleberry, who despite his initial opposition, made it clear that this election was going to happen without any interference from management.
The story about the election made the front page of the Star this morning. I knock the Star pretty often, and they usually deserve it, but the editors deserve an awful lot of credit for giving this story the attention it deserves, especially when so much of the media doesn’t seem to care about labor stories.
1 Comment
May 1st, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Actually, the watered down ordinance that was passed allowed no exclusivity for SEIU, all unions that represent workers in Pima County, AFSCME, AZCOPS, Plummers and Pipefitters, and Fire still have the right to organize, represent workers in Pima County and meet on confer on behalf of their membership; so the election means nothing. Workers still have the right to join any union of their choosing and SEIU’s lies that Pima county workers did not have a right to join a union are just that, lies. SEIU spent so much of their dues money trying to steal a workers right to choose their own union, that they had to do something to show their bosses that the money was not totally wasted. The only thing the ordinance does, is if workers join SEIU, they will be locked into paying dues for the next five years, whether or not they want to stay with SEIU.. they will be stuck. I would caution workers to ask the hard questions, before they sign a SEIU card. Workers in Pima County need to know if SEIU “wins” the election, they still have a choice - for AFSCME, AZCOPS or any other union that represents those workers. I would hope that the press and others would finally acknowledge that AFSCME and other unions have been meeting and conferring in Pima County for years. Don’t buy the hype. My opinion is SEIU is the Walmart of the Labor movement.