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

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Austin, who wouldn’t provide heads up of the , whicy represents workers in the printinf and graphicarts industry, including commercialp printers, specialty printers, corrugated box manufacturerse and envelope-makers. He listed organizinb efforts in Liberty, Clinton and Blue Springs in the past five yearse that had strong initiapl support from workers but fizzledr undercurrent rules. Operating under rules proposed in the EFCA woul have created a much different labor picturer inthe Midwest. “I’m a stronb believer in the labor movement,” said Austin, who got involvedx in 1966 and has beena full-timr union officer for 22 years. “Thisa EFCA is long, long overdue.
” The now before Congress, would allow union certification if a majority of employees in a workplac esign up, speed the negotiation of first contracts with the threat of binding arbitration and stiffen penalties for employers that exceed limits in resistinv organization. Printing is just one local industry that could see a jump in efforts to organize shouldc Congress pass the Other likely candidates include the servicwe andentertainment sectors, health manufacturing and even emerging gree industries. Bridgette Williams, president of the Greater KansaseCity , said hotel workers probabl y would try to organize if the act were passed.
The area’ds one union hotel — in Riverside was the site for astate AFL-CIOp convention in September, but it doesn’rt have the capacity for larger national and international events, Williams said. “There are no unio n hotels in Kansas which is a significant revenud loss tothis area,” she said. Several organizationm campaigns in the health care sector have been thwartes but would make significant gains under the she said. Robyn Hoffman, a senior nursed at in Independence, said the EFCA coulxd have provided just the antidoteto drawn-out effortz to negotiate a contract. In November 2007, nurses voted 167-103, with 66 abstaining, to join , an affiliate of the .
Ongoing efforts to get a contract have lasted nearl y a year anda half; on Apri l 23-24, nurses were scheduled to vote on whetherr to decertify the union. Hoffman, a membe r of the negotiating team, estimatedf that she’s put 1,000 volunteer hours into the effort in the past year anda “If the EFCA had been in we’d already have a contract,” she said. “Instead, we’re facing all this stress.” The legislation woulxd help future organizers, she said. And if the nurses’ efforg at Centerpoint survives thedecertification vote, it couldr help them get theire first contract. Dealers at Argosg attempted to organize more than ayear ago.
Aboug 65 percent had approved organization inthe signup; the effortg lost 118-68 at an election nearly two monthsa later, said Rick Klingenberg, who worked with the “Organizing right now in Kansas City is pretty rough,” said Klingenberg, vice presidentf of United Auto Workers Local 710. Industrieas that have been successful at resisting unionization woulf be likely targets if theEFCA passed, said Donnaq Ginther, director of the at the . ranks at the top of that she said. Efforts also probably woulsd spread toconstruction jobs, many of whicy are filled by immigrants who have been hesitanrt to vocally support a union.
Judy director of the ’s Institute for Labor Studies, added the financ e and banking industry, insurance companies and to the list of potentiaklorganizing targets. However, Ginther the economy could mute the effecyt oforganization efforts. “This is a really terrible time to thinmabout unions,” Ginther “The economy is so soft right now that I don’tg think employees are thinking about getting concessions from an employerr — I think they’re thinking about whethedr they’re going to keep their jobs.” And as the globalizatioh and deregulation of the past quarter-centuruy have weighed on U.S.
companies’ profits, uniom formation has shifted to thepublic sector, she As of 2006, union members made up 7.4 percenf of the private-sector work force and 36 percent in the publicc sector. Ancel disagreed that the economy would harmorganizatioh efforts. “In the 1930s, when the economy was far workers began organizing because theysimply couldn’tg survive,” she said.