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The victory was featured at the Sixth District Organizing Conference. From left are Local 1220 Business Manager Ro Wratschko, IBEW Secretary-Treasurer Jerry O'Connor, court reporters Renia Boykin and John Tominello, Sixth District Vice President Pat Curley, court reporter Sue Gruszka and former Local 1220 Business Manager Jessica Logan, who is also project organizing coordinator.

Justice and fairness have a key role in any courtroom. But it took 15 years of struggle, a signed law by the governor and a vote by the state legislature to extend those principles to nearly 200 court reporters at the Illinois Supreme Court. Early this month, the workers finally won the right to union representation by IBEW Local 1220 in Chicago.

"AFSCME [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] tried to organize them and they gave up; the Teamsters tried to organize them, and they gave up," said Sixth District Vice President Pat Curley. "We didnt give up."

The court reporters have been trying to organize since the late 1980s. In the past four years, thanks to Local 1220, those efforts intensified. A public awareness campaign emphasized that workers were being denied collective bargaining rights explicitly granted to state workers under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act. But the justices continued to resist voluntary recognition, even after a new Illinois law giving the reporters a right to union representation was signed in June 2003.

Finally on July 1, the Illinois Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, recognized Local 1220 as the collective bargaining representative of the 187 court reporters in Cook County. Local 1220 will continue to fight to represent 319 additional court reporters in other districts in Illinois.

"We will continue the fight and we will not give up until all the official court reporters are represented by Local 1220," Curley said at the recent Sixth District Organizing Conference.

Two court reporters, Renia Boykin and John Tominello, were featured at the organizing conference. Tominello was fired in May 2001 for what he and Local 1220 contend was his organizing activities. The two received a standing ovation from the audience, said Sixth District International Representative Lonnie Stephenson.

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