Local Motion
December 2006
Union election activity in Oregon and SW Washington,
according to the National Labor Relations Board
and the Oregon Employment Relations Board
Elections held
Company
Date
Union
Results:
Union
No
Union
Camas Valley
4
0
General Distributors (decertification)
12/15 Teamsters Local 162
Oregon City
43
12
Camas Valley School District
12/13 OSEA
Location
Elections requested
Company
Union
Location
# of employees
Wilsonville
2
Weber Distribution
Teamsters Local 81
Bay Cities Ambulance (decertification)
International Association. of EMTs & Paramedics
Paratransit Service Inc.
Amalgamated Transit Union Division 757
Coos Bay
35
Bend
34
Labor groups rally around bus
drivers trying to join ATU #757
BEND — Four Central Oregon la-
bor groups are rallying behind three-
dozen bus drivers who will vote Jan. 29
whether to unionize with Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 757.
The drivers are employed by Para-
transit Services, a non-profit company
based in Bremerton, Wash.
On Jan. 10, the Central Oregon La-
bor Council, the Central Oregon Build-
ing Trades Council, the Oregon School
Employees Association, and Central
Oregon Jobs with Justice issued a state-
ment of “solidarity” with the transit
employees.
Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer
Jerry Fletcher, who is also president of
Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 280,
attended an organizing meeting of driv-
ers. All four organizations stress that a
level playing field during the union
campaign can best be achieved through
card-check recognition or, short of that,
employer neutrality.
Since 2003, the City of Bend has
contracted with Paratransit Services to
provide door-to-door transportation for
people with disabilities. Last year the
city added bus service along six fixed
routes to the contract.
Seeking better wages and increased
job security, several drivers contacted
Portland-headquartered Local 757 in
November to talk about unionizing.
Wages for the Bend drivers currently
top out at $12.25, while union bus driv-
ers in nearby locales earn several dol-
PAGE 10
lars an hour more. Local 757 represents
drivers at transit districts up and down
Western Oregon, but none thus far in
Central Oregon. ATU locals in Seattle
and Tacoma represent other units of
Paratransit Services.
Shortly after the union filed for an
election, the company sent employees a
four-page letter outlining its opposition
and urging drivers to “vote against the
union and suggest you encourage oth-
ers to do the same.”
In mid-January, management held a
series of mandatory-attendance anti-
union meetings from which pro-union
workers were excluded. Workers are
reportedly being told that they may lose
their jobs if they vote the union in.
They might get the low wages of one
ATU contract in Alaska, but pay the
higher dues of a local in Seattle.
ATU International Rep Ron Heintz-
man, a former Local 757 president,
hopes workers will resist the scare talk.
Heintzman recently bargained a con-
tract with Paratransit in Port Angeles,
Wash., and said the company does bar-
gain fairly when employees stand firm.
And it’s a good time to unionize,
Heintzman said — Bend bus service is
likely to double in the next few years,
and will undergo lots of changes. Hav-
ing a union will make sure workers’ in-
terests are represented as it grows.
“They (drivers) want the same right
to bargain that police, fire and others in
the City have,” Heintzman said.
SEIU campaign
to organize bus
drivers stalls
A union campaign among school
bus drivers at Gresham-Barlow School
District failed to win a majority in a
Jan. 5 vote. With 103 drivers eligible
to unionize, the vote was 44 for and 49
against joining Service Employees In-
ternational Union Local 503.
The drivers are employed by First
Student, a multinational corporation
which has the contract to provide bus
service to the 12,000-student school
district.
Starting wages among drivers in
Gresham are $11 an hour, and some
drivers wanted comparable pay of
unionized school bus drivers at nearby
school districts.
For SEIU, the narrow loss was a
setback in its “Driving Up Standards”
campaign to unionize First Student,
the second-largest private bus com-
pany in the United States. In the cam-
paign, SEIU is allied with the the
Teamsters and Great Britain’s Trans-
port and General Workers Union. First
Student is owned by UK-based First-
Group.
Local SEIU organizers believed
First Student would stay neutral, as
promised after a stockholder protest at
the company’s 2006 annual meeting in
Aberdeen, Scotland. But in the final
days before the local election, First
Student management came out
strongly against the union, a union
spokesperson said.
The same thing happened in 2003,
when another local union, Amalga-
mated Transit Union Local 757, tried
to unionize the same group of drivers.
Local 757 staff attorney Susan Stoner
said First Student managers created an
atmosphere of threat and intimidation,
conducted surveillance when union or-
ganizers came to talk to workers, and
stirred up conflict among the workers
and then used that to predict endless
turmoil if the union were to win. ATU
lost 73 to 33.
SEIU has union campaigns among
First Student workers at the Tigard
School District, as well as in Jack-
sonville, Fla., and Minneapolis, Minn.
Meanwhile, the Teamsters have
won union elections among First Stu-
dent workers in Anchorage, Alaska.,
and Baltimore, Md. There are about
22,000 First Student drivers in the
United States.
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