by Mike Hall, Sep 6, 2007

Emergency service workers and delivery drivers in New Jersey, police officers in Florida, truck makers in North Dakota and stagehands in Las Vegas have won a union voice at work in recent elections and majority sign-up victories.

Some 541 nurses, paramedics, dispatchers and emergency medical technicians with Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp. (MONOC) voted by better than a 2-to-1 margin to join the Fire Fighters (IAFF). MONOC provides pre-hospital emergency health care from Passaic in northern New Jersey to Atlantic City in the south.

Salaries and benefit of paramedics and emergency medical services (EMS) workers are woefully inadequate in New Jersey, says Sherrie LeBarre, president of the new local.

We must bring the emergency medical response system into the 21st century and recognize that EMS workers are professionals who have committed their lives to serve the public.

City police officers in Port St. Lucie, Fla., voted 126-11 to join the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA). One of the officers’ chief concerns is understaffing in the department’s patrol division and a proposal by city officials to move officers currently assigned to some troubled schools to patrol duties instead of hiring the additional officers needed.

In five recent elections, workers voted to join the Machinists (IAM). In Fargo, N.D., 71 workers at Rugby Manufacturing Co. voted to join IAM Local 2525. Rugby manufactures truck bodies and hoists and the workers include welders and painting and assembly employees.

In Quincy, Ill., 38 adult and child day care workers and fitness, health and recreation workers at the Quincy YWCA voted to join IAM Local 660. Thirty-two industrial maintenance workers at BE&L Industrial Services won a voice at work with IAM Local 882. Also voting to join IAM were 18 workers at L3 Vertex T-1A Maintenance at the Pensacola (Fla.) Naval Air Station and 12 technicians at Engineering and Consulting at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Several groups of entertainment workers chose a voice at work with the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), including 30 workers at Disneyland’s Pyrotechnics Department. The workers, who produce the fireworks and other special effects show at the Anaheim park, joined IATSE Local 44 through majority sign-up, in which an employer agrees to recognize the workers’ choice to have a union when a majority signs union authorization cards.

Majority sign-up is one of the key elements of the Employee Free Choice Act, which passed the U.S. House earlier this year but was bottled up in the Senate by a Republican filibuster.

In other IATSE wins, 20 showroom technicians at the Orleans Hotel and Casino, Gold Coast Hotel and Casino and Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas voted to join IATSE Local 720 and 14 wardrobe department workers at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., joined IATSE Local 722 via majority sign-up.

In Ewing, N.J., drivers and dispatchers at IBA Molecular voted to join Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1032. The company fought the workers’ effort with what organizers called a “classic” anti-union campaign, including forced meetings and threats. Says Local 1032 President Jim Marketti:

The employer attempted to intimidate the employees with the threat that if they unionized, a strike would occur. We thought that was peculiar since it was the employer talking about a strike and not the employees. I guess we know what the employer is really afraid of.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article | Comments (0)