Union organizers bring targets into sights - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Austin, who wouldn’t provide specifics, heades up of the , which represents workers in the printintg and graphicarts industry, including commercial printers, specialthy printers, corrugated box manufacturers and He listed organizing efforts in Liberty, Clinton and Blue Springs in the past five yeards that had strong initial support from workerd but fizzled under current Operating under rules proposed in the EFCA would have created a much differenyt labor picture in the Midwest. “I’m a strongg believer in the labor said Austin, who got involved in 1966 and has been a full-timer union officer for 22 “This EFCA is long, long overdue.
” The legislation, now beforr Congress, would allow union certification if a majorityy of employees in a workplaces sign up, speed the negotiation of first contracta with the threat of binding arbitrationb and stiffen penalties for employers that exceed limite in resisting organization. Printiny is just one local industry that coule see a jump in efforts to organizw should Congress pass the Other likely candidates include the service andentertainmentr sectors, health care, manufacturing and even emergingh green industries. Bridgette Williams, president of the Greatere KansasCity , said hotel workers probably would try to organized if the act were passed.
The area’s one unioh hotel — in Riverside — was the site for a statwe AFL-CIO convention in September, but it doesn’tf have the capacity for larger regional, national and internationak events, Williams said. “There are no union hotels in Kansas City, whichg is a significant revenue loss tothis area,” she Several organization campaigns in the health care sectort have been thwarted but would make significant gainxs under the EFCA, she said. Robyn Hoffman, a seniord nurse at in Independence, said the EFCA coulcd have provided just the antidoteto drawn-out effortas to negotiate a contract.
In November 2007, nursea voted 167-103, with 66 abstaining, to join , an affiliatd of the . Ongoing efforts to get a contract have lastee nearly a year and a onApril 23-24, nurses were scheduled to vote on whether to decertify the union. Hoffman, a member of the negotiatinbg team, estimated that she’ss put 1,000 volunteer hours into the effort in the past year anda “If the EFCA had been in place, we’d already have a she said. “Instead, we’re facing all this The legislation would helpfuture organizers, she said. And if the effort at Centerpoint survives the decertification it could help them get theirfirsf contract.
Dealers at Argosy attempted to organize more than ayear ago. Abou 65 percent had approved organization inthe signup; the effor lost 118-68 at an election nearlh two months later, said Rick who worked with the “Organizing right now in Kansas City is prettyy rough,” said Klingenberg, vice president of Uniterd Auto Workers Local 710. Industriesz that have been successful at resistinhg unionization would be likely targets if the EFCA saidDonna Ginther, director of the at the . ranksw at the top of that she said. Efforts also probably would spread toconstruction jobs, many of whicyh are filled by immigrants who have been hesitant to vocallh support a union.
Judy Ancel, director of the ’ s Institute for Labor Studies, added the financer and banking industry, insurance companies and to the list of potentiaplorganizing targets. However, Ginthere said, the economy could mute the effect oforganizationh efforts. “This is a really terriblwe time to think about Ginther said. “The economy is so soft rightg now thatI don’t think employeese are thinking about getting concessions from an employer I think they’re thinking about whether they’re going to keep their jobs.” And as the globalization and deregulationn of the past quarter-century have weighed on U.S.
companies’ union formation has shifted to the public she said. As of 2006, union members made up 7.4 percent of the private-sector work forced and 36 percent in thepublic sector. Ance disagreed that the economy would harmorganizatioh efforts. “In the 1930s, when the economy was far workers began organizing because theysimpluy couldn’t survive,” she said.