More than 200 hourly workers at one of the largest U.S. petrochemical plants are now members of the IBEW's newest local after a successful organizing election vote May 23.

Monaca, Pa., Local 724 is the first new local chartered in the Third District in at least two decades and is the new home of operations and maintenance workers at Shell's plastics production plant in Monaca.

At peak, more than 1,700 members of Beaver Local 712 were building the plant, which converts the abundant natural gas from the Marcellus Shale into tons of polyethylene pellets, an ingredient in a vast range of products from potato chip bags to car parts.

But after a nearly all-union construction workforce built the facility, the plant's permanent workforce was nonunion starting when production kicked off in 2019.

Many of the new hires were former union members, said Third District Lead Organizer Mike McGee, including many IBEW members laid off after the Beaver Valley power plant and the Bruce Mansfield coal powerhouse were shut down.

But when Regional Organizing Coordinator Steve Rockafellow, and later McGee, began approaching the workers about forming a union, not only was there no enthusiasm — there was fear.

"People were getting fired all the time, for stupid things — not following policies that had been promulgated the day before and that they'd never seen. The powerhouses cut a lot of people loose, and the Shell jobs paid well," McGee said. "They were scared of being on the street. They were scared to try to change it. They were just scared."

They heard from people wanting to organize, but they tended to disappear after a few calls or texts.

"I got a text that said: 'Couple guys got fired. Everybody is scared. Workers are upset. We need to try and organize. This is the time," McGee said. "I wrote back, 'Do you have any co-workers that are interested?' and he says, 'I'll talk to some people.' Then… nothing. I called him once, 'What's the feeling?' and he says, 'I'm still working on talking to people.' I never heard back."

Which is normal.

Shell is a quarter-trillion-dollar multinational oil and gas behemoth with 103,000 employees. A blue-collar job that pays six figures in western Pennsylvania is treasure.

"By the end of June, we gave up on it," McGee said. "We will have to sit and wait until they get more angry than scared."

They heard nothing for six months.

As summer turned to fall, McGee, Rockafellow, Third District International Representative Kris Anderson and district International Vice President Dennis Affinati developed a plan for a stealth organizing campaign, fast and silent.

And there it sat until January, when an operator at the plant reached out to McGee.

They scheduled a first meeting at his house for Jan. 19.

Four people showed up.

"I told them about the need for speed and stealth. I want management to find out we're here when we file for the election," McGee said. "And whatever you do, I said, only talk to people who are friends or people you trust, and never promise something we cannot deliver."

Three of the four people who met in that basement — Rick Hinds, Shaun Butler and Jeremy McWithey — became the backbone of the volunteer organizing committee. Hinds was former IBEW. Butler and McWithey were ex-Steelworkers. They all worked in different departments, and the signatures of support for a union came pouring in: 30 in the month, 75 by March. They held meetings, now not just in basements, and many more than four people came.

Rockafellow and McGee settled on a 190-member bargaining unit. Before heading into an election where you need to win by 50% plus one vote, 75 cards simply wasn't enough. They needed to risk a higher profile.

"At that point, we decided to call every unit member and say: 'I'm sure you are aware — we are organizing. You have questions or concerns, I would be happy to address them, one-on-one or in the meetings,'" McGee said.

They got 22 more cards in a few weeks — for a total of 97 — and no more. Was it enough to hazard an election vote?

"In the end, we took a risk. An informed risk, but a risk," Affinati said. They set up a meeting with the plant manager.

"He was so surprised when I said we had majority support and asked for voluntary recognition. Mum was the word," McGee said. "They opted for an election, and we filed immediately."

Then Shell did something unexpected. It didn't go to war. Management held captive-audience meetings, but they weren't scorched earth and the company didn't start firing organizers. It didn't slander unions. It didn't fight the unit structure or attempt to delay the election. Shell even asked the election date to be moved up.

"They weren't neutral, but they weren't nuclear either," McGee said.

The election was held over two days, May 23 and 24, to make sure every shift had a voice. In the end, it wasn't even close.

About 30 new unit members have been hired since, bringing the new local to about 220 members. Negotiations for the first contract began in late July, Affinati said.

"I'm so proud. In my career, it's often been closing a local or merging a local. I can't tell you the last time we chartered a local," Affinati said. "But this should be the first of many. By the time I retire, I want to be able to do it in my sleep."

It was decades in the making, but the call center workers at utility company Southern California Edison finally have a voice on the job, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated volunteer organizing committee and Diamond Bar, Calif., Local 47.

"This one has been long overdue," Business Manager Colin Lavin said. "It's been really great to see it all the way to the finish line."

Local 47 has represented workers at SCE since the 1940s. Most of those employees, currently about 4,200 out of the utility's roughly 12,000 total, work in jobs centered around construction and maintenance of the power grid, anything from power generation to transmission lines, substations and distribution lines. But there's long been a desire among the call center staff to have representation as well. Attempts have been made over the past few decades, but none came to fruition.

This time was different. A lot of the issues would be familiar to organizers and other call center workers — poor management, new systems that don't do what they're supposed to and end up causing more problems, a lack of proper training and support. But this time morale hit rock bottom. And this time the workers were fired up and willing to put it all on the line.

"It's about being viewed as a person and not a number," said Martin Gaitan, an energy adviser and member of the volunteer organizing committee. "It doesn't matter if I'm a leader or a good worker. If I don't get the right metrics, it could lead to disciplinary action, up to termination."

As call center employees, Gaitan and his co-workers are tasked with assisting anyone from residential customers to commercial clients. Any number of issues can arise on the other end of the line, and it's their job to solve the problem and make sure the situation is handled amicably.

It's not always easy, but it's work they know how to do and they do it well — when they're given the right tools. But when a new phone system was implemented, ostensibly to enhance performance, their jobs got harder instead of easier. Employee morale, as well as customer service, started to decline.

"When I started, there was an emphasis on quality customer support. We wanted to be the best. But it's gone downhill," said Norma Diaz, an energy adviser who's been with the company for about eight years. "I don't hear that anymore."

The new phone system emphasizes statistics that don't accurately measure what the employees are dealing with — they don't allow for the countless variations and exceptions that could occur on any given call — but it also comes with the consequences of being disciplined and even terminated if they don't hit the right numbers. Someone could have great numbers one month but if they dropped the next, they could be on the chopping block.

"So many of the workers have bad anxiety because they're afraid of getting fired," Local 47 organizer Andrew McKercher said. "Close to 10% of the call center is on leave because of how their job has affected them mentally."

Discipline often meant losing the ability to work from home and having to come into the office, where they were supposed to get "performance enhancement" training. That's not what happened.

"The performance enhancement plan was more of a punishment than anything else," Gaitan said. "I'm all for enhancement plans that meet objectives or goals. Sadly, this plan was not what it was advertised as."

On top of that, when the campaign started last September, there were 354 workers on the call center list. By the time they filed the petition, there were only 280, McKercher said, likely due to the outsourcing of those 74 jobs to Mexico. It's a practice that started two to three years ago, Diaz said. And those representatives weren't getting adequate training either.

"Those reps only take certain calls, and when an issue doesn't get resolved, it creates more issues for us," said Diaz, who was also on the organizing committee.

In addition to the new phone system, and what Diaz and Gaitan said were near constant changes with no transparency or fairness, SCE was also cutting back on benefits. New hires were no longer eligible for a pension. Performance statistics were also used to determine things like scheduling and time off instead of the former seniority-based system. Like a lot of companies, management tried to assuage everyone with a raise. But money was never what the campaign was about, McKercher said. It was about working conditions and respect.

"They failed to realize that the workers were unionizing because they didn't like how they were being treated," McKercher said. "A raise is nice, but that wasn't going to solve their problems."

For Diaz, the organizing campaign wasn't about painting SCE in a poor light so much as it was about making the company better.

"Edison is a great company. I came from a job with no benefits," she said. "But everyone wants a positive work environment. We all just want to be comfortable."

Issues like being assigned overtime with little or no notice, with no regard for an employee's other responsibilities like finding child care, also contributed, Gaitan said.

"They talk about a work-life balance, but there isn't one," he said. "It directly clashes with their frequently mentioned mental health commitment."

Gaitan remembers the previous organizing drives. Things were bad then, too, but this time around, the conditions were no longer tenable.

"Things had gotten so bad that it didn't seem like it could get any worse," he said. "The work environment just kept getting more and more toxic."

This was also the first time that he volunteered to help with the campaign.

"I never thought I'd be involved, but there was a need for leadership," said Gaitan, who's been with the company for over 20 years.

With so many people working from home, it was hard to reach everyone and engage with them face-to-face, but the organizing committee persevered. They held meetings at an Applebee's near the main office and divided up contact lists. They asked everybody to contact one or two people they knew to help spread the word. They reached out to the Research Department at the International Office for help with getting contact information for those they couldn't otherwise reach. Having longtime workers on board like Gaitan, who were trusted and had strong reputations to stand on, also helped.

"It was very grassroots," Gaitan said. "It's because of the people who were involved that we were successful."

They also listened to their coworkers and made sure they knew they were being heard, Diaz and Gaitan said.

"Our success came from addressing everyone's concerns, from training to benefits to the constant changes that weren't having a positive impact," Diaz said. "It was about getting more empathy and less anxiety."

They filed for the election with about 55% support, knowing there was still another 30% of the unit they hadn't yet contacted. But once they got the voter list, and some help from call center workers out of Vacaville Local 1245, they phone-banked all the workers they hadn't contacted before.

"After the first week, it was very evident we had a really strong campaign," McKercher said.

They won the final vote with 85% voting yes.

"This success comes from our strong volunteer committee and all the work they put in, as well as the support of Business Manager Lavin who gave us the resources, time and flexibility to do our job," McKercher said.

Next up are contract negotiations. Gaitan said he'd like to see a more streamlined and consistent training process where team members can interact face-to-face, which has more value than virtual training. He also wants a more level playing field.

"At the core, most everybody wants to do well at their job, but the constraints don't allow for that," he said. "We need an atmosphere that's less stressful and more fair and transparent. That's how we all succeed."