Idaho City Defies Mayor, Restores Workers’ Bargaining Rights
COEUR D’ALENE, IDAHO
Residents of this small city in northern Idaho, including a group of AFSCME activists, voted Feb. 2 to restore the right of the city employees to bargain collectively for their wages, benefits and working conditions.
The decisive vote — 1,366 to 965 — dealt a severe blow to the union-busting plans of the mayor and his supporters on the city council, who voted last March to scrap the town’s 16-year-old collective bargaining ordinance.
The repeal took place just months after a group of 92 city employees, the Lake City Employees Association, affiliated with AFSCME Council 2. Members of the newly formed Local 433 found themselves fighting for the life of their union. Working with the city’s police and fire-fighter unions, Local 433 launched a petition for a ballot initiative that ultimately restored their bargaining rights.
Local 433 President Paula Payne, an administrative assistant in the city’s wastewater treatment division, says AFSCME Council 2 was “instrumental in walking us through the process of campaigning for the initiative. We wouldn’t be where we are now without them. AFSCME has provided resources, advice and attorneys.”
The union victory followed several rounds of legal skirmishes. Within a few weeks of filing the ballot petition, the unions had collected 1,400 signatures from registered city voters — 500 more than the number required to put the initiative on the ballot. But the city filed a legal challenge against the initiative, and last November a judge granted an injunction to block it. The judge later reversed his decision and, just days before the vote, the city dropped its last appeal.
Despite the strong showing of support on the petition, the unions did not leave the outcome to chance. In the two weeks leading up to the vote, city workers handed out flyers at supermarkets and stores and mailed out thousands of brochures. More than 500 households put up lawn signs supporting the union initiative. On the eve of the balloting, activists made 6,000 calls to remind residents to vote.
“The support from the community was overwhelming,” Payne says.
The battle isn’t over yet. Next fall, three seats on the Coeur d’Alene city council will be on the ballot. “Now we need to find some candidates,” says Diana Booth, a Streets Department employee and member of Local 433.
