Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 5, 2004, Sunday

Copyright 2004 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
All Rights Reserved
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

September 5, 2004 Sunday Metro Edition

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 1E

HEADLINE: COMPANY TIME

BYLINE: Joy Davia, Staff, jdavia@DemocratandChronicle.com

BODY:
Better growth for unions may rely on card signings
Joy Davia
Staff writer
Unions have long bemoaned the problems of organizing workplaces.
Sure, a majority of workers might at first support the organizing effort. But union support typically drops in the weeks preceding a secret ballot election, as the employer begins to oppose the union.
Some anti-union campaigns are legit. Others are not. Some companies have fired pro-union workers or intimidated employees with threats of job losses, unions allege.
Another problem for unions is the shift from a manufacturing to a more service economy, because the latter is not as heavily organized, said Jerry M. Hunter, former general council for the National Labor Relations Board.
So unions in the private sector are entering the Labor Day weekend at a crossroads. How do they build up membership? About 12 percent of the private sector work force is in a union, down from 37 percent in the 1950s and 1960s, Hunter said. To rejuvenate membership, unions have turned to some seldom-used organizing tactics.
Unions are increasingly asking employers whether they can just ask workers to sign cards saying they definitely want a union, officials said. When a majority of workers sign cards - and the process is validated by a third party - a union comes to the plant. These "card checks" replace the government-regulated secret ballot.
"The problem with the (secret-ballot) election system is that it's so perverted it frustrates the right to organize as opposed to honoring it," said Lance Compa, who teaches labor law at Cornell University. "Card checks get a more rapid result and take place in a climate without the intensive threatening and intimidation and name-calling and bitter campaigns that characterize the (secret ballot) system."
But a recent study suggested that workers might prefer the privacy of a secret ballot, said the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank. Why? "Your signature is on a card somewhere," said Joseph Lehman, executive vice president.Plus, unions might intimidate workers into signing cards, he added.
Card checks are not new to Rochester.
Several years ago, Margarita Peters, who was a licensed practical nurse, signed a card in favor of a union at the Jordan Health Center, which is now represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1199 Upstate Division.
"I just thought it was a lot easier," said Peters, who is now an organizer at SEIU 1199. "At the time, I heard what happened at other places that organized without card checks. And I later saw some of it first hand."
Peters was the organizer at the Episcopal Church Home of Rochester, which in June 2003 in a secret ballot election voted against a union. The election ended with allegations of intimidation against the church home that were settled with the National Labor Relations Board.
The Episcopal home admitted no guilt, but it did agree to address the allegations, including giving back pay to a fired employee and posting pledges not to threaten or punish anyone who supports a union.
The success of the card check hinges on employers letting unions use such a method to gauge union support. Cintas Corp., for example, has rebuffed union attempts to use card checks at its plants here and nationwide.
The company's reason? Officials don't want to take away their workers' right to a democratic, government-run election. They fear that the card checks are not regulated and could be vulnerable to abuses.
Company Time by Joy Davia is about issues that workers face on the job and in their careers. Write or e-mail her with story suggestions.