Three GCIU local unions successfully represented their members' interests and won arbitration decisions. The three victories involved Boston 600M, Seattle 767M, and Newark 8N.

A second grievance related to the 600M decision is also under consideration by another arbitrator, and GCIU attorneys anticipate a favorable ruling when the decision comes down.

A decision by Arbitrator Marc D. Greenbaum ruled that Avery Dennison management at a Chicopee, Mass., plant violated both the contract and labor law by unilaterally creating and hiring workers for a new, lower paid, job classification without bargaining with the union, GCIU Local 600M. The company created a new "general associate" position, where employees worked along side higher paid GCIU members and performed duties encompassed within existing job classifications. The arbitrator awarded back pay and promotion to the higher GCIU wage scales for the general associates.

Arbitrator Greenbaum's decision was passed on to the NLRB's regional director in Boston for implementation, and GCIU attorney Anton G. Hajjar believes it should result in a "cease and desist" order against management.

The case evolved from a series of anti-union moves on the part of Avery Dennison management, including hiring a union-busting legal consultant. They date back to a Jan. 2, 1998, layoff of approximately 80 senior GCIU members. Management convinced them to waive recall rights and accept severance because management maintained there was no chance of recall within a contractually mandated three-month recall rights period. Even as these union members were leaving, management was bringing in new machinery and products. Within months, the bosses hired temp workers to replace those laid off. This grievance is still under adjudication by an arbitrator on deferral from the NLRB.

First, the company hired the new "temporary" employees from a temp agency to do the work the laid-off GCIU members had done and eventually developed the general associates job category for permanent hiring, rather than seek out the experienced GCIU workers they had laid off. GCIU maintains the company violated labor law when the company laid the workers off and convinced them to accept permanent termination, even though they really expected an upsurge in business that would have prompted a recall of the union workers.

The company tipped its anti-union hand by launching and losing a decertification vote in 1997. And now that they have gotten rid of 80 union workers, they have another scheduled for later this year. But the NLRB may derail the company's attempt to get rid of the union as a result of the Greenbaum arbitration decision which requires them to bargain in good faith, according to Hajjar.

Newark 8N pressman

A second arbitration success involved a Newark 8N pressman, Albert Haklar Jr., who was given a warning letter, along with 14 other pressmen on his shift, for alleged involvement in sabotaging presses.

Haklar, a five-year Dow Jones employee, refused to accept the censure.

The arbitrator's decision found "that the employer has failed to satisfy its burden of proving misconduct by the grievant. Accordingly, the arbitrator will direct that the warning notice be removed from the grievant's file."

The company alleged that one of the pressmen working on Oct. 4, 1998, tampered with an air compressor valve and caused a press shutdown. The employer could not identify any guilty party for the action and chose to send warning letters to all of those working the shift. "If the crew acts as a group to prevent the company from identifying the guilty, then the crew must take responsibility for its collective action," the company argued in its brief to Arbitrator Bonnie Siber Weinstock.

Management decided to punish all the workers in the pressroom after the press stoppage that had earlier been attributed to a power surge and later supposedly caused by an air compressor valve shutdown.

At the arbitration hearings, Local 8N lawyers insisted that the employer must have proof of misconduct before discipline is warranted.

In the end their argument prevailed and the arbitrator reversed the company's overreach of discipline.

Quebecor balks at bonus

A third arbitration victory, for Seattle 767M, involved a refusal of Quebecor to pay a bonus to a retired employee despite the fact the contract pegged the bonus to income received in 1997, when he was still employed.

A 1997 five-year contract between 767M and Quebecor – in effect until August 29, 2001 – provided for a variable bonus, pegged at 2.25 percent of income earned in 1997. When management distributed the bonuses on August 29, 1998, Harry Whitehorse, who retired on June 30, 1998, did not receive one.

Arbitrator Carlton J. Snow heard arguments from both sides before deciding the employer violated the parties' collective bargaining agreement.