by Mike Hall, May 29, 2008

Pilots, translators, meter readers, mechanics and drivers are among the latest workers to win a union voice at work.

Pilots at CommutAir overwhelmingly voted to join the Air Line Pilots (ALPA). Some 135 pilots fly for the airline that operates as a Continental Connection carrier and serves 23 cities in the Upper Midwest and Northeast from its Cleveland base.

Also, the First Air Pilots Association ratified a merger agreement with ALPA. The 140 pilots fly passengers and cargo throughout northern Canada, including the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Some of the Arctic towns they serve are only accessible by air.

Capt. John Prater, ALPA president, says two of the pilots’ major issues are:

addressing pilot fatigue and ensuring the safety of winter flight operations.

In Jacksonville, Fla., 91 drivers, who operate wheelchair-enabled buses to transport people with disabilities to medical and business appointments, voted to join the Machinists (IAM). The drivers are employed by First Group, a subcontractor for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. Also voting to join the IAM were seven mechanics at First Student Inc., in Villa Park, Ill.

Meanwhile in rural Maine, 72 workers at two FairPoint call centers were able to choose to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) without employer interference. The CWA successfully negotiated a neutrality and majority sign-up agreement in its recently-approved contract extension for the 3,000 former Verizon employees at the company.

Majority sign-up is a key element of the Employee Free Choice Act that would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions and strengthen the penalties against those who use threats, intimidation, harassment and other illegal tactics to deny workers the freedom to form a union.

We’ll have more on the FairPoint wins later this week, from Jonathan Putnam, a CWA member-organizer and recent graduate of the Organizing Institute.

Ninety workers at five Books & Rattles day care centers in Queens, N.Y., had a far different experience than did the FairPoint workers. Workers say they had to endure a brutal, anti-union campaign before they voted to join CWA Local 1180.

The union reports the company conducted captive-audience meetings the day of the election, disciplined three workers for their union activities and posted supervisors outside the voting area to intimidate the workers. But the company’s strategy failed. The workers voted for a voice at work by a better than a 2-to-1 margin.

Also, 162 workers at Metropolitan Translators, a firm contracted to translate wiretaps for the Drug Enforcement Administration, voted for representation with CWA Local 9400 in Los Angeles.

Some 100 meter readers and collectors at Public Service New Mexico voted to join the Electrical Workers (IBEW). Their victory was followed just weeks later by 262 gas workers who voted for IBEW representation at the same company. Both groups of workers had to overcome an anti-union campaign by the company’s new owner, Continental Energy Corp.

And in Kalamazoo, Mich., nearly 80 full- and part-time stagehands, wardrobe, hair and make-up workers and video technicians at Miller Auditorium voted to join the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).

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