House backs controversial union rules
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By Daniel Barlow Vermont Press Bureau - Published: March 23, 2007
MONTPELIER — The Vermont House passed a sweeping change in unionization laws for state employees Thursday, a move that supporters believe could result in the formation of new bargaining units at state colleges if it is signed into law.
The bill allows workers at the University of Vermont and other state colleges to form unions by getting 50 percent of the workers to sign cards. Often called a card-check election, the new system would bypass the traditional union election.
Union officials and other supporters said the bill allows state workers an easier path to the middle class by allowing them more voice in their wages, benefits and job security.
Jennifer Henry, the president of the United Professions of Vermont/AFT, said the bill expands on the increase in the state minimum wage passed by the Legislature last year and prior progress made on health care and affordable housing issues.
Henry's group represents 3,000 state employees, including workers at UVM, state colleges and nurses at several Vermont hospitals.
"(This bill) recognizes the importance of people being able to come together at work to create organizations that give employees a say in their wages, benefits and working conditions," she said in a statement Thursday. "It provides a fair process that recognizes that once a majority of workers chooses to form a union, unfair obstacles should not be placed in their way."
Vermont government has about 7,500 unionized workers, but many of the last remain-ing sectors not organized are in the state school systems, such as professional, administrative and technical staff at the state colleges.
One Vermont union official, who asked not to be named, estimated that there are "thousands" of workers in the state colleges system that could be unionized.
Instructors at the Community College of Vermont – which has 12 locations across the state – attempted to unionize several years ago, but lost in a secret ballot election with 260 against and 144 supporting the effort.
Rep. Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, the speaker of the Vermont House, compared the bill to voluntary efforts by companies such as Cingular Wireless to allow employees to form unions simply based on the card-check system.
This system results in less hostility and polarization in the workplace, she said.
"The bill allows public employees to have the opportunity to freely decide if they want to bargain collectively with UVM and state colleges and freely choose to form an organization to do this," Symington said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
But some employers are worried that the bill is a "slippery slope" toward allowing public sector employees to unionize in this method too.
Sharon Banfield, the state director of Vermont chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the state has become the latest battleground in the national union movement to change federal union laws.
A change in federal law would be necessary to allow public sectors to unionize via the card-check method, but Banfield said unions are focusing their efforts on bargaining laws for private sector employees to move the issue along nationally.
She compared card-check elections to signing a petition for a local candidate to run for office. Just because a person signs that petition, it doesn't mean that they will support the candidate in the election, she explained.
"The system is working right now," Banfield said. "But under the card-check system, employees could feel pressured to join the union. We feel that a government-supervised secret ballot election protects the rights of workers."
Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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