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CWA Firsts
Passaic Social Workers Win First Contract
Intense mobilization and political pressure have resulted in a first contract for 428 workers at the Passaic County (N.J.) Board of Social Services. The CWA Local 1081 members on March 23 ratified an agreement that gives them, among other improvements, a 20-percent salary hike over four years and binding arbitration for grievances.
“The real key to a contract victory was the work done by shop stewards and members away from the bargaining table,” said CWA Representative Kathy King, who chaired the bargaining committee.
Workers attended board meetings and picketed board members’ homes. When their former representative, the Professional Workers Association, tried to run a decertification campaign, said King, “our members refused to sign the petition.”
The clerical, income maintenance, social workers and investigators filed a representation petition with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission two years ago. Twenty-two months of bitterly contentious negotiations followed, during which the Social Services Board delayed making proposals and laid off 131 workers.
The layoffs were “clearly” intended to intimidate, said King. “All around, they wanted to bust CWA.”
District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino committed legal, research and organizing resources to the union’s campaign, King said. She credited the efforts of Local 1081 President David Weiner, who served as a public spokesperson for the bargaining committee, and committee members Wanda Sawyer, Alice Booth, Marsheena Edwards, Christine Saitta and Albert Vigoritta.
King related how at one point both she and Weiner stood up to speak at a Social Services board meeting and were abruptly silenced and told to sit down. The Bergen Record newspaper carried a headline comparing the encounter to censorship in a totalitarian country.
King said CWA organizer Laura Kaplan and stewards at five work locations spearheaded the mobilization and a get-out-the-vote campaign that changed the composition of the county Board of Freeholders. They, in turn, appointed more sympathetic members to the Social Services Board. Free-holder Lois Cochineal, secretary of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, King said, exerted considerable influence on her colleagues.
Jones Pressmen Roll with New Strategy
It’s tough bargaining a first contract for a new, small unit, says Jack O’Hare of Bowling Green, Ohio. His group of 15 pressmen who work for Dow Jones publishing, and a second unit of 12 in Englewood, Colo., voted in March 1997 to join CWA. They’ve become part of IAPE — the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, CWA Local 1096.
IAPE, which represents 2,500 workers employed by Dow Jones around the country, affiliated with CWA in January 1997. IAPE units at 17 printing plants each bargain their own contract. All but the two newest have contracts at various stages of expiration.
Fighting for seniority rights, staffing levels and leave provisions — the company won’t even talk money until these are settled — the two small units have held rallies, done informational picketing and, in Bowling Green, distributed 10,000 copies of a petition for community support.
They even hired a plane to fly over the Bowling Green State University vs. University of Toledo football game, trailing a banner emblazoned: “Wall Street Journal — No Contract, No Peace — CWA.”
IAPE’s affiliation with CWA introduced its members to the kind of mobilization that gets results. According to Local 1096 Chief Steward Joe Reineck, “They’re new at in-your-face tactics.” Still, he said, they’ve been sufficiently successful to draw support from other unions and a visit from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who signed their fair-contract petition.
They’re preparing to get tougher and counting on support from CWA brothers and sisters. Said Bowling Green Chief Steward O’Hare, “What we may have to do is paint our flagship Wall Street Journal as an enemy of labor.”
Intense mobilization and political pressure have resulted in a first contract for 428 workers at the Passaic County (N.J.) Board of Social Services. The CWA Local 1081 members on March 23 ratified an agreement that gives them, among other improvements, a 20-percent salary hike over four years and binding arbitration for grievances.
“The real key to a contract victory was the work done by shop stewards and members away from the bargaining table,” said CWA Representative Kathy King, who chaired the bargaining committee.
Workers attended board meetings and picketed board members’ homes. When their former representative, the Professional Workers Association, tried to run a decertification campaign, said King, “our members refused to sign the petition.”
The clerical, income maintenance, social workers and investigators filed a representation petition with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission two years ago. Twenty-two months of bitterly contentious negotiations followed, during which the Social Services Board delayed making proposals and laid off 131 workers.
The layoffs were “clearly” intended to intimidate, said King. “All around, they wanted to bust CWA.”
District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino committed legal, research and organizing resources to the union’s campaign, King said. She credited the efforts of Local 1081 President David Weiner, who served as a public spokesperson for the bargaining committee, and committee members Wanda Sawyer, Alice Booth, Marsheena Edwards, Christine Saitta and Albert Vigoritta.
King related how at one point both she and Weiner stood up to speak at a Social Services board meeting and were abruptly silenced and told to sit down. The Bergen Record newspaper carried a headline comparing the encounter to censorship in a totalitarian country.
King said CWA organizer Laura Kaplan and stewards at five work locations spearheaded the mobilization and a get-out-the-vote campaign that changed the composition of the county Board of Freeholders. They, in turn, appointed more sympathetic members to the Social Services Board. Free-holder Lois Cochineal, secretary of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, King said, exerted considerable influence on her colleagues.
Jones Pressmen Roll with New Strategy
It’s tough bargaining a first contract for a new, small unit, says Jack O’Hare of Bowling Green, Ohio. His group of 15 pressmen who work for Dow Jones publishing, and a second unit of 12 in Englewood, Colo., voted in March 1997 to join CWA. They’ve become part of IAPE — the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees, CWA Local 1096.
IAPE, which represents 2,500 workers employed by Dow Jones around the country, affiliated with CWA in January 1997. IAPE units at 17 printing plants each bargain their own contract. All but the two newest have contracts at various stages of expiration.
Fighting for seniority rights, staffing levels and leave provisions — the company won’t even talk money until these are settled — the two small units have held rallies, done informational picketing and, in Bowling Green, distributed 10,000 copies of a petition for community support.
They even hired a plane to fly over the Bowling Green State University vs. University of Toledo football game, trailing a banner emblazoned: “Wall Street Journal — No Contract, No Peace — CWA.”
IAPE’s affiliation with CWA introduced its members to the kind of mobilization that gets results. According to Local 1096 Chief Steward Joe Reineck, “They’re new at in-your-face tactics.” Still, he said, they’ve been sufficiently successful to draw support from other unions and a visit from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who signed their fair-contract petition.
They’re preparing to get tougher and counting on support from CWA brothers and sisters. Said Bowling Green Chief Steward O’Hare, “What we may have to do is paint our flagship Wall Street Journal as an enemy of labor.”