Early this year on February 4 – just one week after the Ralston production workers voted to affiliate with UE – some of the maintenance workers contacted UE and requested a meeting to find out how they could also join the UE. They saw that their fellow employees were pleased with the way UE was helping workers set up and run their own local, and how the union was preparing to negotiate a new contract with real membership involvement – something that had never occurred at Ralston under the old union. (Both units had been part of a larger Operating Engineers local in which they had no real voice and little representation.)
As the maintenance workers watched the development of UE Local 777, the new production union, they were impressed with the training and service provided by the UE national union and by the unprecedented rank-and-file activism mobilized in the contract fight. Workers signed petitions, flooded a corporate toll-free phone line with calls, engaged in practice picketing (sticks but no signs), rallied in the parking lot, and on one occasion, filled the parking lot with green balloons to convey the need for more dollars in their paychecks. Local 777 leaders became more confident and effective as a result of comprehensive UE officer and steward training. The union gained unprecedented clout on the shop floor as stewards and members learned how to handle their bosses and solve problems through UE grievance techniques, including concerted membership action.
What clinched the maintenance workers’ decision to join UE were the impressive gains that production workers achieved in their first UE contract. The new three-year agreement, ratified on July 7 by a 72 percent margin, brought solid raises and significant improvements in contract language. So 88 percent of the maintenance group signed a petition resigning their membership in Operating Engineers Local 18S, and stating that they wished to be represented by UE. The petition was mailed to the Operating Engineers, Ralston Foods and the NLRB on August 16. The NLRB then scheduled an election over two days, because the plant operates 24/7 and the employees work a complicated pattern of shifts. The union held an open house to which all maintenance were invited to meet UE members and leaders, including Eastern Regional President Andrew Dinkelaker, and to ask questions.
The election results could not have been much more decisive: 46 votes for UE, zero votes for the Operating Engineers, and two votes for no union.
Aided by UE International Representative Deb Gornall, who assisted them through the organizing campaign, these new UE members are now writing a local constitution and making plans to elect officers and a negotiation committee, and to draft their contract proposals.