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Enid, OK Employee Union Gains Certification

new AFSCME members in Enid, OK
Muskogee, Okla., city employees celebrate the
launch of their membership drive at Sequoyah State Park.
Photo Credit: Brett Deering
City employees from Enid, Okla., became the first municipal workers to organize with AFSCME under a 2004 state law. Calling it "a great day for Enid," they hailed the unanimous vote by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) to admit union membership cards submitted in 2004.

"The certification was a long time coming, but it will mean that we can now work in partnership with city management to make Enid a safer and healthier place to live," said Eldon Stephens, a 17-year veteran city employee who works for the city's solid waste department.

Enid employees petitioned PERB in November 2004 to validate a unit according to a law passed by the Oklahoma Legislature the previous year. The bill requires cities of 35,000 people or more to recognize non-uniformed workers' unions and thus covers some 9,000 workers across the state.

The city challenged the law and sought an injunction against the request to unionize. In July 2005, the state Supreme Court ruled that its population limits provision made the law unconstitutional. Municipal employees were not discouraged and AFSCME and PERB filed a petition for rehearing on their behalf. The request was successful and in a rare reversal the court reinstated the law.

The decision has motivated city employees throughout the state who want to organize with AFSCME. Municipal workers from the City of Muskogee launched a membership drive on July 15 as some 200 people attended the Muskogee Public Employee Unity Picnic at Sequoyah State Park. Likewise, PERB is expected to rule in the next few months on cards filed by employees from the City of Moore to unionize its nearly 100 municipal workers. Other cities will follow soon.

"The refusal to recognize the right to organize has been a divisive issue for a long time," said Ron Johnston, Enid Ward 1 City Commissioner. "The PERB's decision hopefully puts an end to that." In order to form a bargaining unit, state law requires that more than half of the city's municipal workers state their intent to join a union. Nearly 64 percent of Enid's 269 employees did so in 2004 by signing their union membership cards.

To read the Supreme Court ruling, City of Enid v. Public Employee Relations Board (Case Number 101729), go to: http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/deliverdocument.asp?citeid=445719

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