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To learn more about forming a union,
Contact IUE-CWA Local
201 at
781-598-2760
or email jcrosby@local201iuecwa.org
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
workers attempt to organize with Local 201.
Click on "Local News" for details.
Unity Update
Local 201
Organizing Program Highlights for 2006
By Rand Wilson, Organizing Director
IUE-CWA Local 201's organizing committee
has focused on building "Working At GE" (WAGE) Committees at its
Northern New England plants and reaching out to many more workers at GE
vendors about forming unions.
The organizing committee's approach has emphasized
Local 201 member involvement. The committee helped organize three
weekends where Local 201'ers traveled to the homes of potential members
from GE or vendor shops to "talk union." It's hard work – but also lots
of fun!
The most important development this year is that
more members with previous work experience in vendor shops are talking
with their former co-workers and friends about the benefits of uniting
in Local 201. These members were recruited as a result of last year's
new member survey and direct follow up by the organizing committee. A
similar survey is underway now.
Uniting GE workers in WAGE Committees
Local 201 actively campaigned to win funding for GE
to build the Joint Strike Fighter Engine in Lynn. Winning the contract
would also result in more aircraft engine jobs at the "not-yet-union"
satellite aircraft engine plants in Hooksett, NH and Rutland, VT.
To build up political support for winning the huge
defense contract, workers in Hooksett used the same petition to
President Bush that we used in Lynn. The Hooksett petitions were signed
by over 70 GE workers and were presented by WAGE members to Congressman
Jeb Bradley.
The campaign was a great opportunity to involve
WAGE committee leaders in a political campaign and show workers in those
plants the benefits of everyone working together for jobs.
The upcoming national contract negotiations with GE
provide a similar opportunity to involve WAGE committee members. The
Auburn, ME committee organized a meeting to discuss contract issues with
national negotiating committee member (and Local 201 Business Agent) Ric
Casilli. Hopefully other WAGE committees will convene similar meetings
with Ric.
Uniting with workers at GE vendors for good jobs
Local 201'ers also circulated the Joint Strike
Fighter Engine petition to workers in the vendor companies, making the
case that a contract for GE would also result in more jobs at local
vendors. About 20 workers from vendor firms signed the petition.
Unfortunately outdated labor laws and weak
politicians have made it far too easy for employers to illegally
interfere with workers' rights to form unions. Workers at the vendors
are naturally concerned about management retaliation for their union
activity.
When companies receive public subsidies, it's an
opportunity to reduce employer interference. One local GE vendor,
Middleton Aerospace, received a low interest loan from the state and a
ten-year tax break to consolidate its Middleton and Peabody plants into
a new facility in Haverhill.
A number of local politicians strongly supported a
bid by Local 201 leaders to reach an agreement with Middleton management
that would make it much easier for employees to join. But the public
pressure wasn't enough and thus far CEO Bob Segal has refused. In the
meantime, former employees who now work at GE have been staying in touch
with Middleton workers.
More member involvement needed
Earlier generations of workers fought for -- and
won -- the good full time jobs our families and communities need. But
the pay and benefits that GE employees enjoy today in Lynn can't be
maintained in isolation from what's happening to the majority of working
people. It's in every member's interest to step up and help more
workers unite to win their rights.
About 35 Local 201 members or retirees participated
in one aspect or another of organizing in 2006. The entire membership
owes them a debt of gratitude for what is probably the most frustrating
work in the labor movement. While we had no union victories, these
members did the ground work that will surely pay off in the future.
Next year I hope that we can double the number of members involved in
organizing and celebrate a few wins!
Unity Update...
Auburn GE workers discuss
participation in 2007 contract campaign
Rand Wilson, Local 201 Organizing Director
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Members of the Auburn WAGE Committee gathered on April
23 to hear from Local 201 BA Ric Casilli (2nd from left), in his
capacity as a member of IUE-CWA National Negotiating
Committee. Casilli came to Auburn to give workers there
a preview of some of the anticipated bargaining issues
and the expected timing of nationally coordinated
membership activities to spotlight members' top
concerns.
GE has traditionally used the wage and
benefit package negotiated with its unions to set the
pattern for what it gives to GE workers who are not
united in unions.
The number of workers belonging to
unions at GE has declined from about 35 percent in 1980
to less than 15 percent today. While overall employment
at GE has stayed about the same, nearly half of the
company's workforce is now outside of the US.
"We've held off GE in past years, but as
union membership declines, it's getting harder and
harder," said Casilli. "The only way we can defend GE
workers wages and benefits is by uniting more GE workers
behind the unions' national negotiating committee."
"That means our contract campaign has to
educate and involve many more workers from non-union
plants like Auburn. The WAGE committee is really leading
the way," Casilli concluded.
Local 201 members
begin visiting workers from GE vendors and other local
manufacturing companies
Six members of Local 201 -- David
Bjorkman, Jeff Crosby, Norm Hirschfeld, Gary Ralston,
Bob Reynolds, and Susan Strauss - went door-to-door over
the weekend of April 8 and 9 to visit with workers from
other manufacturing companies about the importance to
the local economy of winning the Joint Strike Fighter
contract.
Over the course of the weekend teams
from Local 201 visited with workers from Analog Devices,
Central Centerless, Middleton Aerospace, Sensitech, and
Synventive.
At each visit, Local 201 members asked
people to sign a petition about funding for defense jobs
in Massachusetts. Several enthusiastic workers took
extra petitions back to their workplaces. Members of
each team also gave out information about the right to
organize, a brochure about IUE-CWA Local 201, and the
most recent Local 201 newspaper.
LOCAL 201 MEMBERS KEY PART OF ORGANIZING
PROGRAMYou probably know that Local 201 has hired an
organizer to implement the local’s organizing program. What you might
not know is the organizing program’s goals and priorities. Who exactly
is the local trying to organize? Why is the local trying to organize a
particular company or group of workers instead of another? Which groups
of workers would make the best fit with Local 201?
The policy board developed a three level
strategy as part of the organizing program. In order of priority, Local
201’s organizing priorities
are:
1. Other GE locations
(W.A.G.E.)
2. GE River Works vendors
3. North Shore companies
Clearly, organizing other GE
locations, and in particular those locations which do the
same work as Local 201 members, is the highest priority.
Our bargaining power increases as the number of
union-represented workers within GE grows. This makes it
easier for negotiators to get a better contract.
At the same time, GE workers who
join the union gain the full benefit of the contract, not
just the parts GE chooses to extend to workers at the
nonunion locations, which are often changed, weakened or
withdrawn when it suits management’s needs.
Local 201 is already
helping to unite workers at other GE locations.
We’re currently working at GE locations in
Wilmington, NC, Hooksett, NH, and Auburn, ME to implement
IUE-CWA’s "Working At GE" program (WAGE).
WAGE is designed to build union support at
GE locations, which have been traditionally difficult to
organize. For more info visit: www.geworkersunited.org/wage
Our second priority is to help workers
at vendors who supply and support the
operations at the Riverworks in Lynn.
Many Local 201 members are
aware of who these vendors are. You’ve seen their
trucks making deliveries or their labels on the boxes or
crates their parts come in. You could have even worked
for one of them at some time.
You may also have family or
friends who work for one of the vendors. Some of them
might have expressed a desire to join a union to get the
wages, benefits and protection union workers enjoy. You
can help them organize where they work and help yourself
at the same time. Here’s how:
Have them contact the
local’s organizing department at (781) 598-2760 or,
if they’d like, get their information and call the
office yourself or forward it through a steward or board
member.
Our third priority are workplaces
in the area that are not connected to GE but whose
workers are looking to organize with Local 201.
Regardless of where they work and
what they do, if you know someone in the area who wants
to organize have them get in touch with us. If Local 201
IUE-CWA isn’t the right fit for their type of work,
we’ll help them get in touch with a union that is.
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