Right to Organize Praised and Demanded
More than 70 activities took place nationwide on June 24, the “National Right to Organize Day of Action,” to draw attention to workers seeking union representation and to employers who fight them every step of the way.
More than 100 people turned out in Alton, Ill., to protest management’s union-busting activities at Beverly Farm, a privately run corporation providing care for the developmentally disturbed that annually receives millions of dollars from the federal and state government. Beverly Farm employees voted four years ago for AFSCME representation through Council 31. Since then, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued seven complaints against the facility’s management for continual violations of collective bargaining laws.
The June 24 rally preceded the resumption of negotiations between management and Council 31 representatives, as ordered by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court, after it found that Beverly Farm had illegally withdrawn its recognition of the union.
Sharon Morris, a direct care worker at Beverly Farm, told the crowd, “Management needs to start working with the union. If it does, the workers and clients at Beverly Farm will be better off.”
In Louisville, Ky., a prayer breakfast highlighted the need for collective bargaining for all public employees in the state. Louisville public workers, who enjoy AFSCME Council 988 representation, were held up as examples of empowered public employees by union supporter and city Mayor Jerry Abramson (D). “Our efforts have been to the betterment of the community as a result of collective bargaining for public employees,” said Abramson.
In other events, representatives of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees/AFSCME Local 4 told a public hearing that the four-year-long organizing drive of 450 Toledo Head Start workers is being thwarted by bureaucratic red tape.
In Vincennes, Ind., about a dozen community supporters demonstrated at a Vincennes University Board of Trustees meeting, because of the board’s refusal to recognize bargaining rights for employees seeking representation by AFSCME Council 62. And in Spencer, Ind., Owen County highway workers held a news conference at which they launched a petition drive to force the county government to recognize the AFSCME representation of its employees.
