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Author Topic: City-wide union organizing in Montpelier, Vermont
Mick
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posted 15 November 2003 06:22 PM      Profile for Mick        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

City-wide union organizing in Montpelier, Vermont

MONTPELIER -- Besides working in the same town, the workers who want to form a union here seem to have little in common.

They draw paychecks from establishments that range from restaurants to movie theaters to book shops. That doesn't matter, union supporters said, because workers at these establishments have other shared interests.


They want job security and decent wages. Over the summer and throughout the fall the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and the Vermont Workers' Center have been organizing Local 220.

UE is attempting to unionize about 50 businesses with a total of about 800 employees in the state capital. The union is calling for a 50-cent-an-hour wage increase and uniform grievance procedures.

The concept is novel -- and controversial.

"In terms of a citywide project, this is the first time anything like this has been attempted," said UE union organizer Kim Lawson.



From: Parkdale! | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
radiorahim
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posted 15 November 2003 10:26 PM      Profile for radiorahim     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I understand the Steelworkers engaged in a similar approach some years ago in Hawkesbury, Ontario.
From: a Micro$oft-free computer | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Mick
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posted 17 November 2003 11:15 AM      Profile for Mick        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by radiorahim:
I understand the Steelworkers engaged in a similar approach some years ago in Hawkesbury, Ontario.

Really? Was it sucessfull? I have some friends who are participating in the Montpelier union drive with the Vermont Workers'Center and I'm sure they'd love to hear about the Hawkesbury experiance.


From: Parkdale! | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Mick
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posted 18 November 2003 11:09 PM      Profile for Mick        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Got this appeal from my Vermont peeps today.

quote:

Comrades,

below is the internet link/address to the Vermont Workers Center web site that has an electronic petition in support of the montpleier citywide workers union. GMAC encourages folks to fill it out and hit the submit icon at the botton of the page.

solidarity,
GMAC

http://www.workerscenter.org/petition.html



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radiorahim
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posted 18 November 2003 11:14 PM      Profile for radiorahim     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Really? Was it sucessfull? I have some friends who are participating in the Montpelier union drive with the Vermont Workers'Center and I'm sure they'd love to hear about the Hawkesbury experiance.

I believe they had some degree of success. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details... I read about it some years ago in "Our Times" magazine.

You might want to check with them and see if you can find the back issue that contained the article.


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robbie_dee
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posted 23 November 2003 09:01 PM      Profile for robbie_dee     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Mick - I found this article really interesting and re-posted it in several places. You may also want to check out the thread that is developing over at a union reform / union democracy board I visit from time to time:

City-wide organizing in Montpelier, Vermont (ufcw.net)


From: Iron City | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
robbie_dee
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posted 06 December 2003 11:06 PM      Profile for robbie_dee     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Update:

Management files for union election at Capitol Plaza

quote:
MONTPELIER - The ongoing union drive took an unexpected turn Friday. Capitol Plaza and J. Morgan's Steakhouse owner Fred Bashara announced at a press conference that he had filed a petition for a federally supervised union election for employees of his hotel and restaurant.

It's a move Bashara says will settle the question of whether or not the majority of his employees support the union drive.

Union organizers, however, call the filing a "desperate move" and say they don't believe the National Labor Relations Board will allow the election to happen until after the board resolves the 20 unfair labor practice charges the union brought against the Basharas last week. The union alleges the Basharas have intimidated and coerced employees with illegal meetings, threats and surveillance.

***

Kathleen McCarthy, a supervisory attorney for the NLRB, said a delay of the vote until after the charges are investigated was possible.

"When the union files a petition for election, then they could proceed with an election even if there were charges pending," she said. "But (because) the employer has filed, the (union) will probably ask that the election be blocked until there is some resolution."

She said a petition filing by an employer is rare, but not unprecedented.



From: Iron City | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
robbie_dee
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posted 20 July 2005 01:56 PM      Profile for robbie_dee     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Another update:

After two years, the Vermont Workers' Center and the United Electrical Workers have abandoned the Downtown Workers organizing drive.

quote:
Many downtown employers were not as thrilled about the possibility of downtown workers having their own organization. When the conflicts that happen every day in some workplaces were brought out into the open, the union was sometimes accused of causing polarization. In fact, the union was often just bringing these long-standing problems out of the closet and into the light of day. But this process does involve conflict, and sometimes it made some residents of Montpelier uncomfortable. A memorable example is that of the conflict with the Bashara Corporation, which operates J. Morgan's Steakhouse. After the majority of workers at the steakhouse signed up for the union in a span of a few weeks, the Bashara Corporation responded in a Wal Mart-style illegal union-busting campaign. Nearly 30 charges of Unfair Labor Practices against pro-union employees were filed against the Bashara Corporation. These included charges of people being fired and having hours cut. The National Labor Relations Board investigated, a settlement was reached and workers received back pay. But the intimidation had worked. The workers who had previously signed-up for the union became scared of losing their jobs. Bashara Corporation was allowed to undermine their workers union despite the overwhelming support the workers received from the community. Unfortunately this was another sad example of the failure of labor law in this country.

The Montpelier Downtown Workers Union did not succeed in its ambitious goal of establishing basic standards for working conditions in downtown Montpelier, let alone being able to enforce them through a union contract, but there also was success. There were workers who initially opposed the idea of the union, but then experienced unfair treatment themselves and seeking the help of the union stewards. Some of these folks themselves became vocal union supporters. The union assisted workers throughout downtown Montpelier, from both small stores and corporate employers, in resolving numerous problems, ranging from discriminatory application of store rules to receiving back wages or settlement checks as a result of wrongful firings and sexual harassment.


However, the Barre Montpelier Times Argus reports that this is not the end for the union. 25-30 former members are now reorganizing with the Industrial Workers of the World.

quote:
MONTPELIER — Several members of the now-defunct Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union are reorganizing under a new name and are affiliating with a new union.

Some 25 to 30 Montpelier workers who were formerly members of the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union, which was affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, are resurrecting themselves as a branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, according to a written statement from the newly named Montpelier Workers Union.

The Montpelier Downtown Workers Union was an effort to organize the capital city's retail and food-service workers. It officially called it quits earlier this summer, blaming high turnover and strong employer resistance as the reasons.

Montpelier Workers Union Steward Diana Duke, who works at Champlain Farms, said she hopes the new union will have 50 members and new contracts signed with shops by the first snowfall. She declined to say what stores the union had targeted for contracts. She said "pretty extravagant things" would be happening soon.

"This is a really big changing of the guard. It's an opportunity to reinvent ourselves," said David Van Deusen, who was active in the old union and is helping to organize the new one. "We want very much to correctly portray ourselves as a community resource." Van Deusen is a freelance writer, he said.

The IWW has two union drives — one in Philadelphia and one in Wisconsin — that are similar to the Montpelier-wide drive that happened from 2003 to this year, according to Duke. That's why it made sense for the union to leave the UE (which also wanted to focus its efforts on some other projects, Duke said) and join the IWW.



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Mick
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posted 30 July 2005 12:45 PM      Profile for Mick        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Here's the IWW press release

quote:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Diana Duke, Union Steward
Montpelier Workers Union
(802) 279-5413

Alexis Buss
IWW General Secretary-Treasurer
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 222-1905
Cell: (617) 680-2624
Email: [email protected]


Montpelier Workers Join IWW, Expand Organizing

Montpelier, VT July 18 - Dozens of Montpelier workers, formerly members of the MDWU
(UE Local 221), are reorganizing their union as a branch of the Industrial Workers
of the World (IWW). The decision to affiliate with the IWW comes from a desire to
affiliate with similar unions across the continent.

In Philadelphia, the IWW-affiliated South Street Workers Union has members in
multi-national chains, franchises and locally owned business along the busy
retail/restaurant corridor. The IWW uses a model they call solidarity unionism, which does not
require contracts or legal certification, but instead organizes workers to pursue
grievances through community and workplace solidarity. The South Street Workers Union has
established health clinics and tax clinics to provide the district’s impoverished
workers with badly needed services, and has pressed grievances over unpaid work time,
unsafe working conditions, discrimination and sexual harassment, among other issues.
Similar campaigns are being organized in a number of cities in the U.S. and Canada.

“We look forward to being in the same international labor union as these like-minded
organizations,” said Montpelier Workers Union steward Diana Duke. “We intend on
learning from each other, to become a strong and united voice of working people
throughout Vermont, the U.S. and beyond.”

The union will now organize workers throughout the capital region. To reflect this
expansion of its organizing scope, the union will now be known as the Montpelier
Workers Union. This union is no longer affiliated with the United Electrical Workers or
the Vermont Workers' Center. The Montpelier Workers' Union retains members in shops
throughout the capital and has gained members in a number of new shops since
deciding to affiliate with the IWW. The union will continue the MDWU’s citywide grievance
procedure and seek contracts and improvements in working conditions in new shops.

IWW General Secretary-Treasurer Alexis Buss will meet with members of the Montpelier
Workers Union July 31, after speaking the previous evening in Barre as part of a
labor history event.



From: Parkdale! | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged

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