Victory!

Organizing victory for Local 315

The eight inspector clerk employees from ASR International who work at the Richmond Bulk Mail Facility are bringing in the New Year on a positive note: on December 28, 2005 , they voted 7-1 in an NLRB election for Teamsters Local 315 to represent them.

“In spite of a vicious all-out employer effort to persuade the employees to vote against the union, the group remained united behind having union representation,” said Local 315 Organizer Steve Gutierrez.

New York-based ASR is a subcontractor to the U.S. Postal Service. When ASR took over the subcontract from a unionized subcontractor in 2005, they immediately lowered the employees' wages. “One of the employees called us to find out about gaining Teamster representation and told us what his new employer did,” says Secretary-Treasurer Dale Robbins. “We advised him that because the company would be covered by the Service Contract Act, lowering wages was illegal.”

In response, the employees first filed charges against the company at the Labor Department, and got a ruling in their favor. Then, they signed authorization cards and Local 315 filed with the NLRB for a Teamster election. “They actually received raises—getting them back to their original pay scale—even before getting a union contract,” Robbins adds.

In an effort to delay the election, the employer forced a hearing at the NLRB alleging that because some of the employees are supervisors, they are therefore ineligible to be part of the bargaining unit. The NLRB ruled against ASR and scheduled the election.

After the union won the election, the employer filed objections again, using the same argument. It took no time for the NLRB to again rule in favor of the union. In January, they certified the union victory.

“The union has requested to start negotiations and expects the process to begin soon,” says Gutierrez.

ASR has 22 other units in the U.S. but only the Detroit facility is unionized.

Robbins welcomes the new members to Local 315 and is optimistic that the union will get them a fair contract with the representation they seek.