Yesterday over 1,800 workers in the city of Long Beach, CA. voted by a nearly two-to-one margin to join the IAM in an agency shop vote. The group of Office and Technical workers joined four other city units who had already voted for agency shop; the Professional, Protection, Refuse, and Skilled and General units already had made the decision to vote IAM YES. The IAM now represents four-thousand city employees in Long Beach.
GVP Pearson said, “The IAM now represents these workers wall to wall in the city, we organized the Professional unit at the end of last year and there is a long list of improvements that have happened already for them. When we began talking about what the IAM could do for the Office and Technical unit, we could prove it by pointing to the people they work with. I’m very proud of the team that brought this win to the IAM. The Western Territory staff worked hard on this, and DBR Sanchez and his staff were fantastic. This was a total team effort, and it paid off as this unit realized that the IAM is the union of choice for working families. Now we will move into negotiations with the city for all five units, and we are four thousand strong. We will deliver a good contract.”
GLR Joel Ochoa, who led both the Professional unit campaign and this one, said, “The campaign was a true team effort. We reached out for volunteers from the other units to help us tell the story of what the IAM can do if everyone is together, we had people from the Office and Technical unit join in, we had retirees come out and help us, and we had IAM talent from Districts 725 and 190, as well as tremendous leadership and support from right here in District 947 and Local 1930. This was a huge campaign, and there was a lot of work to do, but this group rolled up their sleeves and did everything that was asked – and more.”
Steve Cooper, GLR and Western Territory Organizing Leader, helped to coordinate the effort. “We trained the volunteers on the approach for the campaign, and then we gave them talking points and locations where the over eighteen-hundred workers were at. These workers are in locations all across the city. Some locations have one-hundred of these workers in them, and some places are out at city parks and there might be only two or three people there; it was quite an effort just to find many of them.” The volunteers helped the staff by setting up the site visits, and answering questions for the group, making phone calls, stuffing envelopes, handing out flyers and cards, and gathering signatures.
The timing of the campaign was perfect; a new contract for all five units will begin negotiations very soon. The organizing campaign was ambitious, and we needed the help of the workers who already had made the decision to go agency shop. One of the main points that brought in volunteers from the other groups was the immediate improvements they saw after the Professionals voted to have Agency Shop last year. Since their election, there have been numerous improvements in their wages, work standards, training opportunities, and representation. GLR Ray Rivera, who helped lead both campaigns said, “Advertising the success that the other groups were already receiving, made the organizing easier. All we had to do was show them the proof of what happens when workers stand together.”
Ochoa added, “There are a lot of people to thank, and I’m sure that I will forget a few, it has been an exhausting push to the final vote, but the help from the staff of District 947 – DBR Richard Sanchez, ADBR Linda Amparan, BRs Janet Wright, Gloria Carter, Frank Brito, Jose Lara, Chris Ward, and Organizer Felix Osuna were all fantastic. District 725 allowed us to use organizer Mike Bellestri, and District 190 loaned us Business Rep. Al Lopez, both of these guys worked tirelessly and were a critical part of this win. I am also indebted to the western territory staff; with GLRs Ray Rivera, Don Whitaker, Matt McKinnon, Steve Cooper, and Communication Rep Kevin Cummings all rolled up their sleeves and did whatever was needed. Of course, none of it would have been possible without the leadership and support from GVP Pearson and AA Gary Allen; their direction and willingness to provide whatever we needed was critical to getting this win.”
