A majority of workers in San Diego Gas and Electric's call center recently voted to join the IBEW, and San Diego Local 465 Business Manager Nate Fairman says Cece Marquez deserves recognition for a historic win.

"Cece was the leading force of the campaign," said Fairman, whose local now represents more than 1,700 SDG&E workers across multiple departments after organizing the unit of more than 200 people. "She was involved in every organizing attempt in the call center. We couldn't have organized these members without her."

Marquez, who began working at the call center in 2002, was highly motivated to improve conditions there. "I was 20 years old, with very limited education and no college," she said.

Even for someone with experience, Marquez said, the job of energy service specialist can be overwhelming.

"We're supposed to be the one-stop for handling billing items," she said, "plus electrical emergencies, power outages, Mylar balloons on power lines, people wanting to go solar or install electric vehicle chargers."

"They handle hundreds of customer calls and help our communities and crews handle issues," Fairman added. "They're essential workers who do extraordinary work in an extremely high- stress environment every day."

What could often make the job harder, Marquez said, were poor training, conflicting orders and an inability for workers to get help.

"I used to cry on my way to work," said Marquez, a single mother of two. Time and again, she tried to advocate for better working conditions.

"[Managers] told me, 'Just be a good worker bee and don't ever talk about your pay and compensation,'" she said.

Marquez's drive to organize got personal when "I found out new people were coming in making more than me," she said. "Something needed to be done."

In 2016, a fed-up Marquez got in touch with Local 465, and she soon found herself meeting in a cafe with Assistant Business Manager Raul "Kiko" Diaz. Not long after, a unionizing campaign was underway.

"Our volunteer organizing committee was a small but mighty few," she said. Throughout the entire drive, Marquez feared retribution from SDG&E for her efforts.

After that first try failed, Marquez said, SDG&E "held captive audience meetings, hired new people and pretended to care. They said, 'Give us another chance.'"

"That's also when they realized it was me behind it," she said. By then, though, Marquez was eager to mount another campaign as soon as possible.

"I found out we had to wait 12 months till the next election," she said, adding that during that time, "I got more knowledgeable about my rights, and I learned I shouldn't have to be in fear."

Fairman, who at this point had been elected business manager, made sure the local's support for Marquez's efforts remained unbroken. "Nate's energy is contagious," she said. "His drive and enthusiasm are inspiring."

The VOC, meanwhile, enlisted backing for their campaign from a broad range of local community members. "We talked to people, held town hall meetings, held a lot of late-night meetings at people's houses," Marquez said. These strategies proved useful when organizers needed help with things like informational pickets outside SDG&E's corporate headquarters.

This drive in 2017 lost by just seven votes. Afterward, Marquez said, SDG&E "held more captive audience meetings, but this time, they never invited me. I still had to work."

Marquez noted that her pay had been so meager that she qualified for a low-income discount for her own electricity from SDG&E — rather than an employee discount — and her children were eligible for state-paid health care.

She had applied for a promotion to call center dispatcher — a Local 465-representated job that came with a $15-an-hour raise — but received an offer only after the failure of the second organizing campaign. While she accepted the job, she could see SDG&E's motives. "This was them pushing me off the call center floor," she said.

Marquez still gets emotional when she remembers her co-workers on her last day with them in the center. "They said, 'Cece, don't forget about us!'"

She was adamant. "I'm not gonna forget you," she told them. "I'm always here for you guys."

True to her word, a third organizing attempt was launched in 2023. As he had in 2017, Fairman again got help from Vacaville, Calif., Local 1245. "They came down, made house calls, helped us out," Marquez said. "We are so thankful for their solidarity."

Marquez also got help from District Organizing Coordinator Greg Boyd and Regional Organizing Coordinator Bob Brock. "We learned so much about how to use the International Office's resources," she said.

The timing of this third campaign was fortuitous, as SDG&E's franchise agreement, which grants the company exclusive rights to serve San Diego's business and residential customers, was expiring.

"They wanted the union's help to get it renewed by City Council," she said. The company was aware of IBEW members' good relations with the council after the union worked for more than a decade to help elect the body's pro-worker majority.

"We used the franchise agreement negotiations to pressure SDG&E to enter into a card-check neutrality agreement," Fairman said.

It worked. The council approved the extension of the franchise agreement, and SDG&E stayed out of the way of IBEW's organizing. Not only was Local 465 successful in going after the 200 call center workers, but it also organized more than 50 workers in the utility's generation department. Negotiations toward first contracts for both units were ongoing as this newspaper was being prepared.

"We also made it known to [SDG&E] labor relations that every nonunion department is an organizing opportunity," added Marquez, who now serves as Local 465's recording secretary. "We've had other nonunion departments reach out to us."

Fairman noted that the IBEW represents workers at more than 250 utility call centers across the U.S. "The IBEW is a perfect fit for SDG&E, too," he said.

The IBEW and other labor unions in the South took another body blow recently, when Alabama and Georgia both passed and signed into law bills that strip state incentives from any company that voluntarily recognizes a union.

But in a way, it was something of a compliment. Support for unions is at its highest level in decades, and organizing drives are taking place throughout the country — including in the Deep South.

"If you're not doing anything and you're off the radar, no one is wasting their time with you," said Fifth District International Vice President Glenn Brannen, whose district includes Alabama and Georgia. "When you get on their radar, people want to take you on."

The new laws come at a time when organized labor's massive gains under the Biden-Harris administration are threatened by a Republican agenda that would take anti-union policy nationwide. (See this issue's cover story for more information.)

Workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers earlier this year despite stiff resistance by state officials. Georgia workers for the Blue Bird Corp., one of the country's largest manufacturers of school buses, voted for representation from the Steelworkers last year and approved a first contract in May.

The IBEW worked with the AFL-CIO in both Alabama and Georgia against the laws, but it was an uphill battle from the start. Both statehouses are dominated by the GOP, and Republicans also control the governor's mansions. Georgia has two Democratic U.S. senators, but the GOP still controls statewide politics.

"Our governor [Brian Kemp] wants to see the percentage of Georgia citizens as union members go down, not up," Georgia Political Director and Fifth District International Representative Will Salters said.

Salters said he isn't sure if the new law will have much impact on the IBEW in Georgia. Voluntary recognition of a union is largely unheard of in the state, so having a vote is the norm. It also should have little impact on the IBEW's signatory contractors in the state, he said.

"Anything that kind of discourages unions and tells companies they should not be working with unions, that makes an impact," said Salters, who was a leader in securing IBEW workers at the Vogtle Power Plant when he was the business manager of Augusta Local 1579. "But in Georgia, we've been fighting these battles for many, many decades. It makes it a little harder, but it's almost insignificant to us."

Alabama Political Director Ross Roberson, who also serves as president of Birmingham Local 136, echoed many of Salters' comments. The state's AFL-CIO recommends getting at least 74% of workers at a proposed bargaining unit to sign representation cards before even calling for an election, Roberson said.

"We're fighting an uphill battle," he said. "A majority of the statehouse is not friendly to unions. Our governor [Kay Ivey] is one of the biggest union-bashing governors in the country."

The right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, which long has fought against union rights, has been shopping bills like the Alabama and Georgia laws to other GOP-led states, the Associated Press reported. Some labor analysts expect the laws to eventually be challenged in court, on the grounds that Alabama and Georgia are interfering with a worker's right to join a union.

Prominent politicians have railed against unions for decades in the Deep South, and every state in the area has a so-called right-to-work law, which allows employees to benefit from a collective bargaining agreement without contributing toward it. Brannen has watched that up close. He grew up in Louisiana and is a former business manager of Shreveport Local 194.

But he said it seems more intense now, in part because most workers — even in the South — say they want to join a union. It's also likely a reaction to what has happened on the federal level, where President Joe Biden's administration has been the most union-friendly in American history.

In Arkansas, several laws banning child labor were rolled back. Florida has done away with almost all protections for members of public-sector unions.

"One of these governors says, 'Look what we did,'" Brannen said. "Another one says, 'Well, we're falling behind when it comes to attacking unions.' They sadly want to be the one that keeps on the case."