By Susan Zachem

Photo courtesy of New York 1L

New members of New York 1L from Royal Horowitz Rae are sworn in during a union meeting.

Persistence paid off for New York 1L when the local accepted a second chance to organize a unit of 27 members at Royal Horowitz Rae.

According to the National Labor Relations Board, the odds of winning a second representation election are higher than for a first-time effort. More and more GCIU locals, like Local 1L, are finding this to be true.

Local 1L Vice Pres. Joe Curto said the local ran an organizing campaign last year at the full-service commercial printing company in Fairfield, N.J., but lost by a narrow margin.

"Local 1L's Organizing Department was determined to go back and get a win – and get a win, they did," Curto said. "The final vote was 20 in favor, two against, and five challenges."

Photo courtesy of New York 1L

Swearing in new members is Local 1L Pres. Patrick LoPresti, left. At right is Local 1L Organizer Jose Velasquez

Local 1L Organizer Jose Velasquez explained: "We're pretty persistent. We don't give up on anything or anyone."

The new unit represented by Local 1L includes pressmen, strippers, platemakers, and camera operators. West Caldwell 612M represents the bindery.

During the first campaign, Velasquez said, more than 60 percent of the unit signed representation cards, and enthusiasm for the union appeared to be running high.

But then the company launched a "full-scale anti-union campaign," Velasquez said.

The company brought in an infamous local union-busting firm that "pretty much read them the riot act," Velasquez said. "Employees were shown videos at captive audience meetings. They were handed leaflets full of anti-union propaganda that more than twisted the truth. The stuff they came out with – like members had to pay a $75 initiation fee and the local had fined members $670,000 in 1997 – was blatantly untrue. . . . They waged an ugly campaign – as bad as any I've been unfortunate to be up against."

When the company found out how many people had signed up for the union, Velasquez said, it fired two key union in-plant organizers "for lack of work." This excuse was unfounded because the shop had plenty of work, he said, but the company tried to cover it up by firing two other workers who were not involved in the organizing campaign.

The company asked for the employees to give them "a vote of confidence that things will get better," saying that it couldn't provide wage increases during an organizing campaign, Velasquez said. Company management also swore the plant wouldn't be sold or closed if the workers voted against the union, he said.

Local 1L countered with a "textbook" campaign, Velasquez said. It developed a strong in-plant committee and countered every lie with the truth. When the company fired the two union activists, the local filed unfair labor practice charges, found the activists jobs in other union shops, and made sure that the other unit employees knew the union was there to support them, he said.

After the first election was lost, Velasquez said, the local made sure the workers knew the union "was just a phone call away" if they needed help.

And call they did. As Curto noted, it was just a matter of time before "the bosses beat them down again, and they did."

Despite pledges during the first organizing campaign, the company was sold to Nicholstone Information Packaging in Nashville, Tenn. And the promises that "things would get better" fell dead as "things got worse," Velasquez said.

The new owner laid people off, took away accrued vacation time, and told them to forget about raises because they weren't going to get paid any more than the company's workers in Tennessee.

"The phone call came pretty quick," Velasquez said. Local 1L responded and ran the organizing campaign again. This time, he noted, there weren't any surprises. The company "didn't mount any kind of campaign, except to play on the gloom and doom part of it" with shutdown threats, he said.

Now that the election is over and the new members are focusing on negotiating a first-time contract, Velasquez said, the local is trying to let the company know that being a Local 1L shop is good for business. "I'm sure that having a union bug will benefit the company and increase business. We'll be sure to let our members know via the Internet and newsletters that we have a new shop under the Local One banner" and it's open for union label jobs, he said.

To the company, Velasquez said the message is simple and straightforward: "Let's sit down and negotiate a fair contract. Let's have a good working relationship. Keep the plant open. You're an established printer in a good location. It's not a good strategy to move the operation somewhere else. This is where the accounts are. Don't let your customers down. Don't let your workers down. You're going to get top quality people and turnover will decrease. Let's keep the jobs where they are and bargain in good faith. Let's give it a chance and make it work."