Baltimore 582M earned a hard-fought organizing victory for 117 employees at Standard Register in Salisbury, Md., in June.

Local 582M Pres. Patrick O'Hare said his local tried to help employees at the plant several times in past years, so when they wanted to try to organize again, they contacted the GCC/IBT for assistance.

"The company over the past 10 months had been taking things away, such as vacation time. The company also implemented a wage freeze and a 'point system' for attendance that they didn't think was fair," O'Hare explained.

Another major issue for the workers was the health care plan, O'Hare said. Management switched to a new plan that only covered providers in Maryland. Employees at the plant, which is located on Maryland's Eastern Shore, live in Delaware and Virginia, as well as Maryland, he said. Many of them had to travel to another state to get their families to doctors.

O'Hare said the plant, which produces continuous forms and labels for United Parcel Service, Federal Express, and other companies, is profitable, so the company couldn't use that as an excuse. "The employees work six days a week and rotate their Saturdays off. So, the plant is quite busy," he said.

Standard Register was established in 1912 in Dayton, Ohio, with the invention by Theodore Schirmer of the autographic register to feed continuous forms. Today the company has expanded into digital, print and consulting information services for health care, financial services, insurance, manufacturing, and other industries around the world. With some $900 million in revenues in 2004, the company has 13 facilities in the United States with prepress, press, and other digital operations.

The GCC/IBT has contracts at Standard Register plants in York, Pa., and Fayetteville, Ark., so the workers at the Salisbury plant could compare their situation with those contracts, O'Hare noted.

GCC/IBT Organizer Henry Rumph, who coordinated the campaign with the assistance of Lead Organizer Thomas Smith, put together an in-plant committee of 12 people for the production workers in the plant in the prepress, press, finishing, and shipping and receiving departments.

Rumph said they moved the campaign fast after it began in mid-April. They petitioned for election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 2, and the election was held on June 10.

The company handed out anti-union literature and held captive audience and one-on-one meetings with employees, asking them to "give the company another chance," Rumph said, adding: "So, you could say it was a normal campaign."

O'Hare said when the local handbilled the plant, management phoned the police. He said while Rumph and Smith talked to the police woman who responded to the call and explained to her that they were on public–not company–property, he finished up the handbilling. The police woman asked if they were coming back for the next shift and they said yes. They handbilled the next shift without police interference, he said.

Rumph said that, because of the close vote on the election, the company filed objections. While the local waits for the results of a hearing before an administrative law judge, he said, he and Smith are preparing a committee of employees for negotiations.

Rumph praised the assistance of Smith and volunteers from the GCC/IBT Organizing Institute.

Rumph also praised the hard work of the in-plant committee. "The only way to win an election is to have good people on the committee. These were good people," he said.

Rumph noted that the organizing campaign at Standard Register was won on the same day as the victory for San Diego 432M among insert, bundling, and shipping workers at the Union Tribune.

"This may be unprecedented–two wins for the GCC/IBT in one day," Rumph said.