Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7250 in Minneapolis is in union contract negotiations with the Rove Pest Control company. I believe that this is the worker's first union contract. Bargaining reports issued by the union document that the company has done the following over five recent negotiations sessions:
* The Company refused to allow a CWA bargaining team alternate into the negotiation session in the absence of one of the core team members.
* The Company passed proposals on Management Rights, Probationary Period and the Union's Seniority proposal. The Union rejected proposals on Management Rights, and the company’s counter to recognition as both completely eliminated rights to every protection as represented workers.
* The Company has been slow to respond to Union requests for information.
* The Company finally removed the anti-union material posted on a bulletin board in the break room during a bargaining session after the Union and the Company reached a tentative agreement on mutual respect.
* The Union and the Company reached an agreement on a portion of the bargaining rules that the Union team presented.
* The Company showed up at one early negotiating session with no new proposals to introduce, and instead presented counter-proposals to three proposals that the Union had offered previously. The Company rejected the Union's proposal on card check neutrality.
* The Union and the Company reached a tentative agreement on two of the proposals passed by the Union team on Mutual Respect and Union Representation.
The Union's response has been to say "Bah-Humbug!...Our team remains focused on achieving our first contract for the Union Represented workers at Rove Pest Control."
* The Union and the Company reached an agreement on a portion of the bargaining rules that the Union team presented.
* The Company showed up at one early negotiating session with no new proposals to introduce, and instead presented counter-proposals to three proposals that the Union had offered previously. The Company rejected the Union's proposal on card check neutrality.
* The Union and the Company reached a tentative agreement on two of the proposals passed by the Union team on Mutual Respect and Union Representation.
The Union's response has been to say "Bah-Humbug!...Our team remains focused on achieving our first contract for the Union Represented workers at Rove Pest Control."
I think that our blog readers will agree that the company is using delay tactics and stonewalling and not negotiating in good faith. This is a textbook example of what many, or most, companies will do after workers vote for a union, put together their goals for negotiations, elect a negotiating committee and do their part. It's no big deal in most situations for companies to agree to mutual respect, ground rules for negotiations, and management's rights clauses in contracts---and then violate of not the letter of what has been agreed to, then the spirit of what has been agreed to.
I hope that readers will agree with me that this demonstrates the need for changing the laws that block and frustrate union organizing and achieving union contracts. I also hope that folks will take a lesson here: we have to continually bring people along as we go through these processes and struggles, and the daily work of the union is to build the capacity for workers to fight back. The union is taking the high road where others might be bitter, go behind closed doors or not issue bargaining reports after every session or not take the fight to social media. Perhaps we should all resist or refuse to sign off on management's rights and no-strike contract language and insist that the one-page summary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provided by the United Nations be added as an addendum to every contract.
Local 7250 and CWA District 7 both know how to fight, and both are taking on some big fights right now. They need our solidarity.
Please join me in contacting the employer with a positive message supporting Local 7250.
The opinions expressed here are not those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.
No comments:
Post a Comment