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Miller: Give the union a fair shot

Process so far has stacked deck against organization

By Doreen Miller
April 23, 2006

Published in the Boulder Daily Camera

I work for Boulder County, providing social services to residents in need. The families I assist are our neighbors here in the county, families of adolescents who are at risk with the law or because of other serious problems. I help these kids and their families get their lives on a better track. It's a difficult job, but I love helping people.

That's also why I'm working with many of my co-workers to form a union. By having a real voice on the job, we can use our experience and ideas to improve the services we deliver to Boulder County residents.

Just look at what Kaiser Permanente was able to do when its union-management partnership directed its efforts at improving services and efficiency. Employees here in Colorado developed a proposal to completely redesign their claims process, saving Kaiser $4 million a year. The partnership has improved patient care and increased both patient and employee satisfaction.

When the city of Los Angeles was facing a budget shortfall in 2004, union members worked with managers to come up with ideas to improve government efficiency and save more than $50 million.

We'd like to work with the county to create new, innovative forms of union-management partnerships to solve problems, increase efficiency and improve services. We want to work with community leaders to counter destructive attacks on public services, health care and retirement security.

But first, county employees need a process to freely discuss among ourselves whether we want to form a union, and then vote on it.

While the vast majority of Americans are guaranteed that freedom under federal law passed more than 70 years ago, we, as Boulder County employees, are not. Federal labor law only covers employees who work in the private sector. And although 29 states provide public employees the freedom to vote on forming a union, Colorado does not.

So we're asking Boulder County to be a progressive leader in Colorado by passing an ordinance similar to other labor laws at the federal and state level.

We're pleased by the overwhelming support this concept has received. Congressman Mark Udall and Boulder County state legislators all support our right to form a union if we so choose. A resolution in support of our freedom to decide on a union was passed overwhelmingly by the Boulder County Democrats' county assembly on April 15.

Dozens of groups and individuals have urged the support of the county commissioners. And a recent poll of Boulder County voters by a national opinion research firm, The Feldman Group, found that 70 percent support county employees' freedom to vote on a union.

Just recently, the county commissioners committed to schedule an election if a sufficient number of employees petition for one. The next important step is to establish a fair petition and election process that meets not only the basic standards set in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, but also the progressive standards established more recently by other states and local governments.

The key elements to a fair union election include:

1. A secret ballot election conducted by a neutral third party;

2. An agreement on who is eligible to vote;

3. A free and open discussion among the employees who would vote, with access to information and free from employer interference; and

4. The employer recognizing and bargaining in good faith with a union, should employees choose to form one. Employer neutrality is key to this process. When you are dependent on your job to live — as just about all of us are — you can't have a free discussion at work if you are concerned that what you say could hurt your job. Supervisors influence pay, vacations, promotions, evaluations and assignments. Even in a good work environment, a supervisor's opinion can be intimidating.

Adhering to these standards would prevent the kind of problems encountered in a previous county effort to gauge union interest. A few weeks ago, the commissioners sent out a survey to employees, along with a cover letter stating that even if a union were recognized, they would not negotiate on a number of issues, including some pay issues, discipline and other personnel procedures. If the county were a private employer, that letter and survey would have been violations of federal labor law.

Not only did the cover letter prejudice the results of the survey, but the survey was sent to hundreds of management employees who would not be eligible to vote in a union election. Andrew Myers, a respected national pollster, said that the survey "fails to meet the test of credible survey research at every level," urging the county to disregard the results.

The only way to truly know if employees want a union or not is to create a fair and democratic process based on the National Labor Relations Act and progressive examples from the 29 states that have extended these protections to public employees. Surely we, as Boulder County employees, should have the same freedoms as nearly every other working American.

Doreen Miller lives in Longmont.