Montana's On Fire
AFSCME has fire in its belly, raging to organize across the Treasure State.
By Susan Ellen Holleran
HELENA, MONTANA
It's five o'clock on an August afternoon, and all the cars have their headlights on. The sky is a yellowish gray. The sun is an unnatural, deep-rose red. All month fires have ravaged the state, jumping from hillside to hillside, ignoring the firebreaks.
Yet the fiery devastation has not stopped Montana AFSCME's amazing drive to organize. It's not just the flames that are burning Montana up: The state is also ablaze with union spirit.
In just over a year, AFSCME Council 9 has organized eight new units and won four first contracts. They are on the way to doubling the size of the council.
But it hasn't been easy.
Montana's Big Sky covers a land area of 147,138 square miles, making it the fourth-largest state. Quite a contrast to the population: with 856,057 people, Montana ranks 44th in that respect. Residents are scattered; it takes a very full day to drive from Montana's border with North Dakota to the one it shares with Idaho. But Council 9's members and staff have been bitten by the organizing bug, and their cars show it in high mileage and worn tires.
VOICE AT WORK. The organizing issues in Montana are the same as in the rest of the country: "A group of people is better able to express their job wants than an individual," says Vicki Scheidecker, an employee at the newly organized Lake County landfill. She and her co-workers voted AFSCME Yes! a year and a half ago.
It was a team effort. "Everybody was part of the organizing drive," Local 3283 Pres. Craig Elverud explains, "mostly for protection — so management couldn't keep taking things away." For example, the county had eliminated their longevity pay — quite a loss to Elverud and to 19-year veteran Glen Fulkerson, who called in AFSCME. None of the jobs are easy. Truck drivers and equipment operators do their own vehicle upkeep in addition to hauling the trash and maintaining the landfill.
Organizing paid off. The workers stopped the erosion of benefits and won wage increases, and the county added another employee to the staff. "Now we can take the vacation time we've earned," says Elverud. The local's success has not escaped notice: The road and bridge workers are thinking union.
CARE FOR THE CARING. With health care in such disarray, it's no wonder that hospital workers have been seeking AFSCME representation.
Take the ongoing organizing drive at Marcus Daly Hospital in Hamilton, at the heart of the worst fires. The disaster has slowed, but not stopped, AFSCME's progress. Management intimidation was rampant, and the organizing committee had embarked on a series of home visits. "We were very well received," says Council 9's Senior Field Organizer Timm Twardoski. "I usually went along with a committee member so I could answer more detailed questions. We had really comfortable discussions."
But the fires brought mass evacuations, and many nurses had to move to shelters or in with family members — while they continued providing care for members of their community and the hundreds of firefighters suffering from smoke inhalation and exhaustion. The disaster has reminded the nurses how important it is for them to support each other.
For staff at Mineral Community Hospital, "the administrator from Hell" sent them to AFSCME. Their organizing meetings — beginning during the summer of 1998 — were "probably the most active of any I've seen," says Council 9 Exec. Director Don Kinman. "There were 35 to 40 people [almost half the unit] at a meeting."
When they organized, the administrator was fired. The same thing has happened in a number of recent hospital organizing drives. The hospital boards frequently lease — through management consulting firms — new administrators whose job seems to be keeping the union in check.
In its first contract, Local 3288 bargained for labor/management meetings and for training on how they could work effectively together. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service sent in a specialist who has helped both teams hone their communications skills. At meetings, issues are aired before they have the chance to fester. Local 3288 Pres. Terrie Wasley is looking forward to a refresher course that she hopes will smooth out some of the rough edges.
SHOW OF SUPPORT. At Powell County Memorial Hospital, the rough edges showed up during bargaining for the first contract. "We were stuck on the issue of financial compensation," says Local 3570 Pres. Cindy Hiner, RN, "trying to get us up to the equivalent rate of other rural hospitals. We locked heads; they were not going to give. The workers took a strike vote. Management posted all our jobs." The nurses reached out to the community for help.
"We had hundreds of signs printed:'This family supports our nurses'; 'this business supports our nurses.'" The sunny yellow signs turned up in windows everywhere — from businesses on Main Street to homes throughout the community. Management couldn't escape them.
"It showed we meant business," says Hiner. "I don't believe management thought we were that serious." The result: a contract with an outstanding discipline and discharge grievance procedure and a fair wage increase. The local is now preparing to bargain for its second contract. Two years of experience have pointed up language that needs to be strengthened, and as Hiner puts it, "We have quite a few issues to work on."
CHANGING TO ORGANIZE. As new workers are deciding to join AFSCME, established locals are also re-examining how they carry on union business and preparing their organizing plans. Local 398 in Missoula is a case in point.
A local of LPNs at the Community Medical Center, they organized more than 10 years ago. The leadership actively recruited lively young leaders to help organize the hospital's 700 non-represented workers. Amy Baker, LPN, the local's secretary-treasurer who will play a pivotal role in that effort, understands the value of union solidarity.
"Wage security and job security are really important," says Baker, "and so is knowing we support each other. We can confront management together instead of having to do it individually." Her current job takes her all over the center: "Each department has different issues. I'm glad that I can go around and give my input."
As Council 9 reaches out to unorganized workers across the state, it is also keeping its eyes on a larger prize: the state's employees. AFSCME already represents a number of state workers, but hundreds remain with no union to speak for them. The combination of organizing zeal and political activism means that's about to change. Mark O'Keefe, the Democratic candidate for governor, is committed to the right to organize. AFSCME is supporting his election and hopes — if he wins — he'll be open to discussing further organizing efforts.
The fires Montana has faced this summer are starting to die down. But the heat from Montana AFSCME's organizing power will warm the state through many winters to come.
