Health Care Workers, Bus Drivers Win Union Votes

by Mike Hall, May 23, 2007

Thumbs up from some of the 55 school bus drivers in Allentown, Pa., who voted to join Amalgamated Transit Union.

Health care workers, municipal employees and school bus drivers are new union members after recently winning their struggle for a voice at work.

In a harsh example of the flawed election process run by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), about 550 health care workers finally had their votes counted and now are certified to join AFSCME Council 5 in Minnesota.

The licensed practical nurses, nursing assistants, housekeepers and maintenance and dietary workers at Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis voted in 2003 to join AFSCME. But Walker appealed the vote.

It wasn’t until April 2006 when the NLRB certified the votes of all the workers except the LPNs, and only this month certified those 67 votes. LPN Terry Plant says the workers finally can celebrate:

because we know that our votes count. Now we can bargain together for good wages, benefits and working conditions. And we will have a powerful voice to improve patient care.

Under the NLRB election process, employers can game the system with long drawn-out appeals to deny workers their choice to form a union and many employers often harass and threaten workers during intense anti-union campaigns.

The flawed NLRB process is why working people are pushing for passage in Congress of the Employee Free Choice Act. With Employee Free Choice, workers could choose a union when a majority signs union authorization cards and employers would face much stronger penalties for harassing and intimidating workers. It passed the House in March and is now currently before the U.S. Senate (S. 1041).

In another vote for AFSCME,  the 110 employees of the Portland (Ore.) Development Commission voted to join AFSCME Council 75.

Over in Allentown, Pa., 55 school bus drivers voted to join Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1603 from neighboring Bethlehem, Pa. The new union members, employees of Laidlaw Transit, voted May 18 for a voice at work. During the organizing drive, officers and volunteers from Local 1603 and other Pennsylvania and New York ATU locals and the Lehigh Valley Labor Council pitched in with support and information.

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