Mountaineers Bring the Union Home

WVSEU paves the road to collective bargaining by organizing some 800 state workers in the "Summer Blitz of '96" campaign

Charleston, West Virginia

When Christina Farley heard the union needed volunteers for its campaign to organize West Virginia state employees, she answered the call.

"I didn't think twice about it," said Farley, a Local 7777 member who works as a highway toll collector. "Having AFSCME as my union is awesome. Even though we don't have a contract, for years the union's been a force to be reckoned with throughout the state."

Farley, who was eight months pregnant at the time, figured that if she prayed hard enough, "Baby Sam"--short for Samantha--would wait until the end of the five-week "Summer Blitz of '96" organizing campaign. "It's all about commitment," she said. "Despite many obstacles, we pressed full steam ahead towards building a strong union in West Virginia, one member at a time. We're also struggling to win a collective bargaining law and I'm in it for the long haul," said Farley.

Within 35 days, Farley and 50 other union activists signed up over 800 state workers as members of the West Virginia State Employees Union (WVSEU). Organized in 1991, WVSEU is jointly affiliated with AFSCME, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Communications Workers of America, the United Steelworkers of America and the United Mine Workers of America.

While others were taking vacations, these activists worked hard to fight for better pay and benefits for state workers.

WVSEU Pres. Jerry Lilly hailed the campaign as very effective and credited AFSCME Area Director Dave Bielski with initiating and directing the blitz. "Long hours and intensive organizing will pay off for West Virginia's public employees when we build our union," said Bielski, who is also WVSEU director.

Ready or not. "For the first couple of weeks, organizing was slow going," said Farley, who found that some state workers are afraid to join a union, even if it means a change for the better. "When they said they didn't want things to change, I asked, 'Why not?' I told them, 'A change would bring about more money and better benefits for you and your family.'"

Farley wasn't the only WVSEU organizer who found her work a special challenge. So did Kentucky SEIU member Penny Burchett, one of the many volunteer organizers from Kentucky, Ohio and Minnesota who used release time or vacation time to share their knowledge about unionism.

"This is by far the hardest campaign I've worked in my 20 years of organizing, but I loved it," said Burchett.

"Most of my experience has been in areas where there's power with collective bargaining. Here in West Virginia, workers must beg their legislators for raises, vacation and other benefits," she said.

But perseverance paid off.

Union yes. Minnesotan Monica Hendrickson, a heavy equipment operator and AFSCME Local 695 vice president, found that the best way to win over skeptical workers was to talk about the wages and benefits she gained thanks to her AFSCME contract.

"What I do isn't the easiest job in the world, but it's afforded me a better lifestyle, and here's the proof," Hendrickson would tell West Virginia highway workers, showing them her pay stub.

According to Hendrickson, one worker discovered that she earned twice as much as he did. "He told me he'd really like to work in Minnesota, but since he can't move there, he'd stay in West Virginia and join the union."

For Ralph Smith, an Ohio highway worker and a chapter president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local11, it was his first time organizing out of state. "Organizing is daily work, and with it comes strength in numbers, power, commitment and respectability."

Smith and other organizers were at times ordered by some highway supervisors to get off state property. "I'd just keep on talking to the workers," he said. "I'd tell them that, like me, they too, can be a proud, card-carrying union member."

The WVSEU organizers aren't only battling to build the union in the workplace, they're also working to win the right to collective bargaining for all public workers by helping to elect Charlotte Pritt governor on November 5. A coal miner's daughter, Pritt is a progressive who has already announced her support for collective bargaining.

"We've waited a long time for collective bargaining, but with Pritt at the helm, West Virginians will have the best chance ever of winning it," said Farley, who gave birth to 7 lb. 6 oz. Samantha eight days after the Summer Blitz campaign had ended.

By Venida RaMar Marshall