"Common Sense" Guides IBEW Win
at Louisiana Utility
August 15, 2005
A guessing game kicked off when Claiborne Electric Cooperative near Shreveport, Louisiana fired an unpopular general manager in the midst of an IBEW organizing drive.
Would the workers pin their hopes on a new manager and give up on the union? Or, would they hang tough to nail down a contract giving them a permanent voice on the job?
On August 4, a nail-biter turned into a blow-out as the utility's work force put the IBEW on top by a vote of 40 to 15.
An organizer for Shreveport Local 194, says: "These were a bunch of workers you could sit down with and talk to. We held a lot of meetings with them and they responded with common sense. They were ready for a union."
Glenn Brannen and Joe Pledger, Fifth District International Representatives, credit the success of the organizing campaign to good initial contacts between Claiborne's workers and IBEW members, followed by a relentless union communication effort to counter misinformation spread by managers.
Claiborne, established in 1938, always operated nonunion. However, Claiborne workers often teamed up with IBEW utility workers to restore power during outages resulting from the frequent storms that slam the Gulf region.
Members of Bogalusa, Louisiana Local 1077, Baton Rouge, Local 767, Shreveport Local 194 and Beaumont, Texas Local 2286 were among the unionists providing shoulder-to-shoulder contact with Claiborne crews on storm teams.
During one of the outages, a Claiborne employee asked an IBEW member what it would take to join the union. He was given the number of an IBEW business manager to call. Within weeks, the union was holding meetings with a core group of workers including linemen, apprentice linemen, right-of-way workers, mechanics, staking engineers and equipment operators.
Interest in the union spread quickly, expanding the core group to 25 or more workers at most meetings.
More than wage or benefit improvements, Claiborne's work force was concerned with what they called the arrogant "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude of the company.
The union addressed the workers' desire for fair treatment, showing them how a union grievance procedure works. Simultaneously, organizers won prospective members to the need for a written contract to protect their wages and benefits from being arbitrarily cut by management.
The company's discharge of the unpopular general manager unwittingly worked to bolster the union's case for a labor agreement. He immediately filed a lawsuit alleging that the company had broken his contract.
Claiborne's work force asked themselves the question, "If he deserved a contract, what about the men and women who spent their lives working for the cooperative."
IBEW set up an organizing office between Claiborne's headquarters and a second plant site. As managers held captive audience meetings on the job, the union packed more information into each gathering with Claiborne workers.
Company attorneys told workers that managers were open to hearing and addressing their complaints. Some workers wondered why the company was taking a sudden interest in their morale. Others were more vulnerable to company fear tactics.
Many companies, faced with organizing challenges, distribute sample paychecks, showing workers' reductions in their take-home pay, after union dues. Anticipating such a tactic, organizers addressed the issue head on.
The IBEW broke down how dues work, what portion goes to the local and what portion to the International. Organizers reviewed the IBEW Constitution and told workers to expect more negative information from the company. Meetings were held twice a month to reassure Claiborne's workers that the union road was worth taking.
The week before the vote, organizers concentrated on house-calling and visits to job sites, reviewing IBEW's contracts with other utilities and answering questions.
Most of the Claiborne work force lives in rural areas, where chicken farms and unorganized poultry processors dominate the local economy. Their questions about unions run deep, but so does the potential to build organized labor.
Brannen recalls IBEW's 2002 strike against the rural co-op, Tishomingo Electric Power Association, in northeast Mississippi. Members of Corinth and Tupelo, Local 852, walked out around July 4 after a dispute over health insurance. There was an immediate outpouring of community support. Citizens brought food, water, portable toilets and other essentials to the picket lines.
"The workers go to church on Sunday and attend Little League games with the same folks who hold the meters in the cooperative and have voting power over the cooperative's board of directors," says Brannen. At Tishomingo, the community's dissatisfaction with the board for forcing union members on strike led them to vote out the majority of board members.
Local 194 is looking forward to negotiating a good contract at Claiborne and to more winning campaigns. The union vote has initiated discussions in other nonunion utilities in the area and among clerical workers at Claiborne.
As Claiborne workers wait on the certification of their vote, organizers are planning a picnic and fish fry to celebrate the workers' victory.
Organizers have encouraged Claiborne members to welcome everyone to the picnic and to the union, including those who voted against it. They stress the importance of having a united workforce as bargaining begins on a first contract.
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