Oregon Bus Driver Risks Job, Health Coverage to Support Choice to Join a Union

by James Parks, Apr 18, 2007

Three bills now before the Oregon Legislature would give workers a real choice on whether to join a union. The bills seeks to prevent employers from harassing, intimidating and firing union supporters—practices that have become routine among employers. Anti-worker opponents of the bills say it’s unnecessary.

BlueOregon, a progressive blog in Oregon, profiles Bill Groesz, a Bend, Ore., bus driver who courageously risked his job and health insurance to tell his firsthand experience with an employer who tried to block his choice to join a union.

After the local newspaper editorialized against the legislation, Groesz wrote a column calling for an end to employer intimidation tactics and for a fairer way for workers to decide whether to have a union so they can bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. He says he and his co-workers were forced into anti-union meetings and denied the opportunity to hear both sides.

The company deluged us with anti-union memos. They communicated with us as much as they wanted to on the job site, but those of us who wanted to discuss union possibilities could do it only on our breaks—but only one employee is allowed a break at a time.

Worst of all, they threatened us with the possible loss of our jobs should we go union. Some pro-union workers saw their hours cut, and supervisors were shouting that “they’d all be fired and replaced.”

Groesz wrote that he hopes he doesn’t lose his job for writing his opinion piece.

Statistics show that across the country, one in five pro-union workers is fired during an organizing drive. That would make my chances 20 percent. No one has done a study of how many pro-union workers are fired after writing their story in the local newspaper.

That’s pretty scary, considering I’ve just undergone treatment for cancer and can’t afford to lose my health insurance.

Groesz is supporting three state bills, which would provide Oregon workers with some of the protections included in the Employee Free Choice Act, passed by the House in March and currently in the Senate. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers to choose a union by signing authorization cards. One of the Oregon bills, H.B. 2891, Majority Sign Up, would allow workers to have their union recognized after a majority signed cards saying they were choosing the union.

The other bills are:

• H.B. 2892, the State Financial Accountability Act, which would ensure that Oregon’s taxpayer dollars are used to pay for programs—like better bus service—instead of paying high-dollar consultants to wage a campaign against workers.
• H.B. 2893, the Worker Freedom Act, which would allow Oregon workers to choose not to attend mandatory meetings on politics, religion or union organizing campaigns.