Women’s Solidarity Breakfast Highlights Need for Employee Free Choice

by Mike Hall, Dec 2, 2009

Roselyn Maina

Roselyn Maina wasn’t about to settle for doing first-class work but being treated like a second-class worker. So she and her co-workers at the Budget car rental operation at Boston’s Logan Airport joined together, and despite strong management opposition, formed a union in October.

The new member of IUE-CWA Local 201 was one of several union women who took part in the recent North Shore (Mass.) Labor Council’s (NSLC‘s) Women’s Solidarity Breakfast.

NSLC organizer Rosa Blumenfeld says the annual meeting gives women a chance to share stories and strategies on how to improve their work lives, often in the face of anti-worker employers, as in Maina’s case. Says Blumenfeld:

Her story is one of determination and courage.  

Recently, Avis car rental, where workers at Logan have a voice with Local 201, bought Budget. Maina explains that “even though Avis and Budget are owned by the same company, are supervised by the same managers and share the same fleet of cars,” Avis workers were treated better because they are in the union.

We wanted equal treatment, not favoritism.

When workers at Budget began to seek equal treatment and equal pay, top managers from New York flew in to Logan to try to turn workers against the union. The workers successfully countered management’s efforts to divide them, including forcing Budget management to cut short many of its captive audience meetings because the workers kept taking them over. Says Maina:

Managers tried to tell us that we didn’t need the union. They were so sure they were going to win the union election.

But by better than a 2-to-1 margin, Budget workers voted for Local 201 and are now in contract negotiations.

As Local 201 Vice President Alex Brown told participants in the Solidarity Breakfast, “The best way that we can better our lives is by taking it to the streets and organizing.

There is a law in Congress right now that will make it easier for any of us to join a union. It’s called the Employee Free Choice Act. Call your congressmen and senators and tell them to vote for it.

Click here and here for videos from the Solidarity Breakfast.

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