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Minutes
from the August 21 to August 22, 2004 UE-Minority Union Conference
The
first UE-Minority Union Conference was held in Whitakers North Carolina and was
hosted by UE Local 150. In
attendance were UE members of CAMMWU-The Carolina Auto, Aerospace and Machine
Workers Union from the Consolidated Diesel plant and Vermont-American Bosch
plant .Many workers from Consolidated Diesel stopped by after work on Saturday. There
were also UE members from the Downtown Workers Union, Montpelier Vermont, from
PHB Inc. in Erie Pa. Also
in attendance were several members from the Communication Workers of America (CWA)
from the Auburn Maine General Electric plant. They are part of the CWA’s
“Worker’s at General Electric” (WAGE) program. UE
Staff members connected to other UE minority unions at Timken Aerospace in New
Hampshire, and Lakewood Engineering in Chicago also attended, along with UE
District 6 President John Lambiase and UE District 2 President Peter Knowlton.
UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley was in attendance along with CWA staff
members working on WAGE and the Alliance @ IBM. People
were welcomed by Carol Covington from CAAMWU and Saladin Muhammad, UE
International Rep. in North Carolina. UE
Director of Organization Bob Kingsley made brief remarks on “Why the labor
movement needs new organizing approaches.” Each
minority union then made a brief report on their activities. CAAMWU
began at Consolidated Diesel in 1990 over a struggle to get the company to
recognized Martin Luther Kings Birthday as a paid holiday. They have always been
self-funded and collect dues via deductions made through the credit union. There
have been many petition campaigns and other struggles. They won the right to
have union literature in “bins” in the break rooms. UE-Downtown
Workers in Montpelier Vermont began as an effort to organize retail workers in
the capital of Vermont. They are organized by having stewards that represent
sections of the downtown. Union stewards have confronted various bosses over
worker mistreatment. Workers pay dues via bank drafts or by hand. Auburn
Maine WAGE has been organizing for a year at the General Electric factory. GE
runs a sophisticated campaign of offering union negotiated benefits as
“gifts” from GE. Dues are optional but some workers pay monthly dues. PHB
in Erie Pa. started after an NLRB campaign stalled. A few workers pay a small
amount in dues each month, collected by hand and have won the right to post
union literature on bulletin boards. Lakewood
Engineering lost a close NLRB election and is maintaining their organization.
Dues are paid by bank draft or by hand every three months. Timken
Aerospace in Lebanon New Hampshire has been active for about 4 years. Workers
distribute newsletters inside the factory and won an NLRB charge when the
company tried to stop them from signing mass grievances using the companies
grievance system. Workers pay a onetime fee to join the union. At
Vermont-American Bosch the workers won a settlement with the employer forcing
the employer to recognize their right to have representation during disciplinary
hearings. With the NLRB eliminating Weingarten Rights, this will be tested. International
Representative David Cohen then led a discussion on the rights of workers to
engage in protected concerted activity using Section 7 of the NLRB, even before
a union is “legally recognized” by the employer. Section 7 of the NLRB allows workers to engage in struggle to
protect themselves from the employer and to bargain with the employer to improve
wages, hours and conditions of employment. Many of the minority unions present
had used various tactics that are allowed by Section 7, such as wearing buttons,
stickers, signing petitions, distributing literature, and making group demands
on bosses. Jim
Wrenn and Ethel Jones from CAAMWU lead a discussion on how to maintain an
organization before the union wins a contract.
Much of this discussion centered on the necessity of maintaining
communication with all the workers through the use of newsletters. These
newsletters analyze what is happening in the workplace; educate workers on
issues like pensions and health insurance and project different struggles, like
petition campaigns. There was much discussion on the need to win the right to
distribute literature, including the right to publicly display union literature
on bulletin boards or in holders. The need for some sort of dues structure was
also discussed. Paul
Bouchard from CWA-IUE then led a discussion on the need to fight to restore
Weingarten rights to workers in “non-union” workplaces. He reviewed the
NLRB’s reasoning for eliminating workers rights to representation (Weingarten
rights) and presented ways in which minority unions could craft a challenge to
the NLRB’s decision. UE contributed a review and analysis of the Weingarten
Rights issues which was prepared for the conference by UE General Counsel Polly
Halfkenney. A summary of her recommendations was distributed. Those
recommendations, some of which were also made by Bouchard, focused on the need
to make the minority union function like a regular union by, Having
regular meetings. A
constitution. Some
sort of dues. Officers
and Stewards. Stewards
training that is similar to stewards training in workplaces with union
contracts. Formal
notice given to the employer of the minority union presence. Community
allies that recognize and support the union. This
would overcome the NLRB reasoning that workers in non-union workplaces didn’t
have stewards that had any fiduciary responsibility to the workers, or adequate
training to handle a disciplinary hearing. John
Lambiase, UE District 6 President led a discussion on the concept that the
current NLRA allows for workers in a minority union situation to demand
bargaining rights for their members only, as opposed to bargaining for all
workers in a workplace. The eminent labor law authority Charles Morris has
advocated this strategy. There was
much discussion over how we could get to this position; the need for strength
and power in a workers organization before attempting this and the probable
obstacles the NLRB and Supreme Court would put in our way. Over all people
present thought it an exciting concept. Saturday
night the delegates were treated to a concert by the Petway Singers, a Gospel
quartet made up of members of CAAMWU. On
Sunday the discussion centered on what we should do in the future. Bob Kingsley
led the discussion, which centered on the topics of: Communications, trying new
forms of struggle, legal strategies and continuation of this work. Communications:
Each minority union designated one email address for communication purposes. An
email list serve will be started and maintained by workers from the Downtown
Montpelier project. Each minority union will submit a quarterly report on
activities that will then be distributed to all.
Copies of these reports will also be posted on the CAAMWU website. http://www.caamwu.org
If any minority union wishes to send out “emergency” notices it will be
their responsibility to send it to the whole list. New
England WAGE -
Pbouchard@local201iuecwa.org Downtown
Montpelier journal@workerscenter.org Lakewood
Engineering Leticiamarquez2000@yahoo.com CAAMWU
- webmaster@cammwu.org Timken
- davidjc@comcast.net UE
National Union organize@ranknfile-ue.org People
will begin reports in October. New
Forms of Struggle:
Some of these have been tried at some workplaces but it was felt that all
minority unions should set their sights higher. Trying
to make the employer actually bargain with the union over issues. Probably this
will be “informal” bargaining at first but we should try to move towards
formal bargaining over issues. Challenging
the employers no solicitation rules, even where we have won the right to
distribute literature we should force employers to change their handbooks. Winning
the right to post union literature on bulletin boards, or winning the right to
set-up union literature bins in employee rest areas. Testing
the concept of using internal email for concerted activity purposes. UE legal
staff will look at this idea. Every
minority union should have a newsletter. Every
minority union should try to increase dues paying membership by 10% during the
next year. Legal
Strategies:
All the minority union will work together to plan one or several tests to
the NLRB’s Weingarten ruling. That
means each minority union should work to satisfy the points raised in the
Weingarten discussion concerning making the minority union similar to majority
unions. In looking for a test case
we should find a “good” case where an employees bad behavior won’t give
the NLRB an excuse to deny workers their rights.
When a potential test case arises notice should be sent via the list
serve. Continuation:
CWA-WAGE will convene a New England minority Union conference in late
fall of 2004. In
the summer of 2005 there will be another national minority union conference. Within
UE there will be discussions of each UE local adopting a non-union workplace and
encouraging the building of a union there. |
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