The volunteer organizing committee’s report was concise. After three months of interviews they had talked to about half of the workers in the local’s targeted worksite. Best they could tell 20% were very strong pro-union. About 20% were equally as strong anti-union with the rest, 60% completely undecided.
There seemed to be some agreement that the day shift supervisor had a personality disorder, whether or not it was clinical was for others to debate. Wages were ok but turnover was high. The work was repetitive and physically difficult. The technology in the plant was about a generation behind what the union plant had, so productivity was lower.
Those who were for the union were very strong and felt they could influence the rest. Whether they could or not remained to be proven. At the end of the report, the organizing committee chair asked for a motion. Should we go ahead and launch this campaign or not was his question? A vigorous debate ensued.
During the debate it was pointed out that this plant was a competitor for some of the same products of the union plant. Another noticed that while overall the wages were lower, they did pay more for a few of the higher skilled positions and on occasion one of our members would quit and go to work for the non-union operation. More likely however, was that our mill’s management would hire from the non-union mill and this caused some training issues for us. When they hired managers with no union experience this was especially difficult. Some one else observed that the non-union mill paid more for logs since they had lower costs and this drove up our mill’s costs and on occasions even meant that our mill got the lower quality logs causing no end to production problems for everyone.
In the end it was decided to go ahead since just having a community debate about the union and workers rights was viewed as a good thing and even if we lost the fight, the community would have a better understanding of just how much money the union brings into the community in terms of health insurance, pensions, and other benefits.
It was during this discussion that the campaign strategy was formulated. Since most anti-union attorneys want to make the election be about the union and not the company why not start by telling the union’s story upfront and in public even before the anti-union lawyer was hired.
For the next two months, with the help of District staff, the local VOC compiled how much money came into the community in the form of pension payments to retirees, how much money was spent on medical care from the union insurance trust, and what major purchases were made by union members in the community during the past year. All this was put into leaflets and talking points.
The next phase was a letter to the editor campaign and for $1,000.00 the Local bought 4 weeks of radio time on the local radio station. Their 30 second spot ran for 5 days each week with at least one per day in drive time. The spots highlighted the union’s positive contributions to Sawtown. No one remembers whose idea it was to buy it on the station that was played in the targeted mill but all agreed it was a great idea. The VOC also recruited a number of the members with the best voices to call in to the local radio talk show and talk about how union members are paid enough to support local merchants making sure to mention the local merchants who were sponsoring the talk show.
With the beach head softened up by some artillery it was time for a frontal assault. The union called a press conference and announced that the union was holding an election for the workers to vote and that the local Priest and mayor had agreed to oversee the election process. They spent that week getting as many workers as possible to come to the church and cast their ballot. At the end of the week, the mayor announced that with 80% of the workers voting, the workers had voted to join the IAM by a vote of 75% to 25%.
The employer immediately responded by saying that this wasn’t a government sponsored election and thus was not certified or even fair. The Priest responded by saying that he was certain it was fair and that every ballot cast was counted honestly and openly.
The Local then demanded to know why this employer was not interested in supporting the local merchants and why they did not want the families in Sawtown to have medical insurance and a pension, especially seeing how important pension revenue was to the Sawtown economy. Before long practically every car in Sawtown had a pro union bumper sticker, even the President of the Chamber of Commerce had one after his accountant confirmed how many new trucks his dealership sold to union wood workers and retirees.
At the same time the union supporters in the mill formed a bargaining committee and demanded to bargain. They started by asking for Good Friday off so that they could attend church services with their families. They also demanded the union pension plan, and medical insurance. By the time the anti-union consultant arrived in town it was too late.
The key machine operators were shutting down and going to the boss’s office at least once a day to demand to bargain some small issue about bathroom breaks or what decision to make regarding how their machine was to be run. Problems they were solving by themselves for years suddenly required managerial intervention. The bosses were running from one end of the mill to another trying to keep production up in a useless battle. By the end of the fifth week production was down 25%, waste was up 15%, and machine breakdowns and complaints had required the company to hire temporary maintenance workers at twice the union rate.
Some say this is why the workers won. Other say it was the regular week end hand billing of the mill’s largest customer, the big box lumber store. A few even suggested it was divine intervention since the local priest regularly prayed for justice at daily mass.
Five months after the victory celebration when it was but a dim memory, the local organizing committee, now comprised mostly of the newly organized members, reported that they had started interviewing the workers at a sawmill in the next town and would report back shortly.
July 20, 2006
