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Big Win in West...Sears Service
Workers Vote IBEW 

August 18, 2006

Sears service and repair personnel in Denver, Colorado, and Casper and Cheyenne, Wyoming, will now be able to roll up their sleeves and fix what's wrong with their jobs after voting 91 to 65 to be represented by Denver
Local 68.  The winning campaign, after two unsuccessful organizing drives over the past 10 years, covers 178 Sears employees, including 136 technicians who perform in-house repairs and others who sell, ship and receive parts.

Skip Murphy, a 10-year employee and member of the volunteer organizing committee (VOC) was on the phone two hours a night talking to co-workers before the early August vote.  Comparing the recent campaign to previous losing efforts, he said, "Speed and flooding members with education about unions won for us."  The last campaign, he said, consisted of "more meetings than momentum."  Local 68, he says, "listened and learned from us."  Sears didn't have time to develop a strategy to thwart the union.

"I think that what made this campaign successful is that the workers felt like they were already part of a union when they voted," says Henrietta Kelly-Sperry, Local 68 organizer, praising the volunteers for bringing together the far-flung unit, holding a solidarity barbeque two days before the vote.

 "When you have no contact, workers only have tenuous relationships," says Murphy, describing how telephone calls, group visits, direct mailings, on-the-job contacts and the barbeque helped build relationships among workers who rarely see each other because they take their service trucks home after work.

Murphy and a few co-workers first met with Local 68 in early 2006, airing complaints of unfair treatment. Veteran workers are upset with the lack of any benefits from their longevity. Many have not seen a pay bonus in two years. Crews are angry about cutbacks in medical coverage.  Craig Carter, a 14-year employee, pays $130 every two weeks for health insurance and faces family deductibles between $5,000 and $6,000. Employees are often forced to work excessive hours at the beginning of a week, but are sent home early later in the week after they have worked 40 hours. Training is meager; technicians often see new appliances for the first time on house calls.

After a second meeting with 20 Sears workers, Kelly-Sperry distributed authorization cards. Murphy and his co-workers brought back 109 cards, an overwhelming majority of the 136 technicians.

Following the card signings, Sears argued that 35 employees who staff counters should be included in the bargaining unit, expecting them to undermine the union's campaign. After it was agreed that they would be included, says Kelly-Sperry, some counter workers--who are paid less than technicians--jumped aboard the union campaign.

"I couldn't have asked for a better volunteer organizing committee," says Kelly-Sperry.  One of the oldest members of the committee, who was nearing retirement, said that he was fighting for "the kids on the job."  During the campaign, he suffered an accident on an ATV and underwent surgery to remove part of his intestines.  The day after surgery, he called the local hall and asked how the campaign was proceeding.  "One week after he got out of the hospital, he went down to Colorado Springs with us to speak to other Sears workers.  What more can I say about people like this?" asks Kelly-Sperry.
           
The trips to Colorado Springs cemented the workers' solidarity. While managers might have expected that Wyoming's right-to-work laws would help them in Casper and Cheyenne, workers there lined up behind IBEW, many saying that they would quit Sears if the drive was unsuccessful.

Local 68 and the VOC made certain that the union's base among the workforce was secure before calling for an election.  The VOC members then prepared for union-busting techniques by Sears by "inoculating" their co-workers from deceptive messages.  By the time Sears called captive-audience meetings, the organizers were prepared.  At one meeting, one rank and file member strongly challenged the company's representative for presenting misleading information about labor organizations. At another meeting, all of the workers crossed their arms and looked up at the ceiling during their employer's presentation.

Sears' pitch was that the workers wouldn't be effective by going to a "third party" for help.  The company asked for "one more chance" to improve conditions without a union.  "I don't think they were as nasty as they could have been," says Kelly-Sperry, crediting the VOC for "keeping the campaign under wraps."

Kelly-Sperry and the VOC are preparing a questionnaire to prioritize issues for first contract negotiations. They contacted Toledo, Ohio, IBEW Local 8, where Sears service personnel have been members of the Brotherhood since 1931.

With many Sears workers across the country still unorganized, the new IBEW members in Colorado and Wyoming are aiming for a first contract that makes them an even more potent example of union solidarity for others to follow.