Cox corporate leaders can run, but they can't hide.

First, workers at the Dayton Daily News said yes to Midwest Newspaper 128N. Now, a group of 103 workers at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has said yes for contract help from Atlanta 527S.

Local 527S Pres. Ralph Meers said the organizing campaign at the Journal-Constitution began in September 2002, when Local 527S Vice Pres. and Secy.-Treas. James Parker received a call from a group at the paper.

Parker said the group of maintenance and mailroom workers had major fairness issues with the company. About 80 of the workers have been with the company for five or more years but are still considered part-time, with no sick leave or paid overtime. He said they can get some health insurance through the company, "but it's so costly it's not feasible for them to purchase it," he said.

Meers said the mailroom employees work shifts on Wednesday through Saturday and sometimes on Sunday with no overtime pay. "These are mostly women and minorities, and the company is taking advantage of them. It's just devastating to think that as rich as Cox is, they treat their employees so badly," Meers said.

Parker said the local put together a strong in-plant organizing committee for the two 10-hour shifts, with both full-time and part-time employees. Committee members signed up 70 percent of their co-workers.

When the company found out about the organizing campaign, it enlisted two attorneys, a consultant, the corporate human resources manager, supervisors, and even some retired employees to try and bully the unit. Parker said management held anti-union meetings and showed negative films about unions.

But committee members were prepared for this, Parker said. They took good notes and asked questions during the meetings. Then they organized union button and t-shirt days.

Parker said that, when the company realized its campaign of fear had failed, it turned to a "love fest." But the union committee members were onto this tactic, too. It also failed.

When the National Labor Relations Board held the election, there were 69 yes votes, 10 no votes, and one challenged ballot. The local said some employees were off the day of the election, and some were on vacation. The NLRB turned down the request by these employees to vote before their vacation began.

Parker said that negotiations are underway on a first contract, but "it's a slow ride." Cox is living up to its reputation as a sore loser, he said, and reneged on yearly raises they were supposed to implement while contract talks continued. After the union filed unfair labor practices charges over that, the company agreed to pay the workers retroactively, "so, we were able to move off that," he said. Meanwhile, he said, "they put proposals on the table, then take them back. We've also had to file charges about that."

"I haven't dealt with an outfit quite like this for some time," Parker said. He said the company hired a lot of management people to spy on small groups of workers. "There's nothing else for them to do," he said about the new management employees. "They're running over one another. I found out at a state AFL-CIO meeting that Wal-Mart is doing the same thing where unions are trying to organize at that company."

"It's terrible that in 2003, companies are doing the same things they did in the 1920s," Parker said. But he said the unit is "hanging in there with us," and they are determined to get a contract.

Meers said, given Cox's attitude toward its employees and unions, "it's going to take a lot of public support to get a contract."

Locals 527S and 128N, which also is trying to reach a first contract for the Dayton Daily News mailroom workers, are working together with the International, the AFL-CIO, and area labor groups to put pressure on Cox to obey the law and to reach fair contracts.

Photo courtesy of Atlanta 527S

Members of the Atlanta 527S negotiating team at the Journal-Constitution are first row, from left, Local 527S Pres. Ralph M. Meers and Vice Pres. and Secy.-Treas. James Parker, JoAnn Curry, and Diana Harris. Second row from left are Annie Driver, Yolanda Parks, Tiffany Jordan and Robert Pace.