Union organizers have obtained what they say is majority support in one of the biggest unionization drives in the South in decades, collecting the signatures of thousands of Houston janitors.þþIn an era when unions typically face frustration and failure in attracting workers in the private sector, the Service Employees International Union is bringing in 5,000 janitors from several companies at once. With work force experts saying that unions face a slow death unless they can figure out how to organize private-sector workers in big bunches, labor leaders are looking to the Houston campaign as a model. þþThe service employees, which led a breakaway of four unions from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. last summer, has used several unusual tactics in Houston, among them lining up the support of religious leaders, pension funds and the city's mayor, Bill White, a Democrat. Making the effort even more unusual has been the union's success in a state that has long been hostile to labor.þþÿIt's the largest unionization campaign in the South in years,ÿ said Julius Getman, a labor law professor at the University of Texas. ÿOther unions will say, 'Yes, it can be done here.' ÿþþMr. Getman predicted that the Houston effort would embolden other unions to take their chances with ambitious drives in the South, although success could prove difficult because many companies will continue to fight unionization efforts, and many workers still shy away from unions.þþÿThis could be important to build momentum in the South, but it's still an incredibly hard task to organizeÿ there, said Richard W. Hurd, a professor of labor relations at Cornell. ÿOne big problem is there's not a base of union members in the South to use to do organizing. And employers in the South have demonstrated a very strong antiunion bias and a willingness to go to great lengths to avoid unionization.ÿþþThe service employees' success comes as the percentage of private-sector workers in unions has dropped to 7.9 percent, the lowest rate in more than a century.þþWith its campaign to organize the janitors, the union has focused on two groups it says are pivotal if labor is to grow again: low-wage workers and immigrants. The janitors, nearly all of them immigrants, earn just over $100 a week on average, usually working part time for $5.25 an hour.þþSome of Houston's business leaders oppose the unionization drive, saying its pledge of higher wages may hurt business. þþÿI don't see how it's going to help Houston from a business standpoint,ÿ said Mark Jodon, a Houston lawyer who represents employers. ÿIt has the potential of raising the cost of doing business.ÿþþThe union has trumpeted the Houston effort - which cost more than $1 million - as part of its Justice for Janitors campaign, billed as an antipoverty movement.þþFlora Aguilar, a Mexican immigrant who cleans an office tower for $5.25 an hour, volunteered to help the organizing drive as soon as the union gave the janitors questionnaires asking what aspects of their jobs they thought needed improvement.þþÿThe wages are terrible, there are no benefits, there's nothing,ÿ Ms. Aguilar said. ÿI have to stretch myself like a rubber band to make ends meet. I want a union because it will give me a better life.ÿþþIn recent days, the union has collected cards signed by about three-fifths of the workers at four of Houston's biggest janitorial companies. An agreement signed in August calls for the American Arbitration Association to inspect the cards and certify when the union has received majority support. The janitorial companies have promised to recognize the union once that happens.þþEven if the union is recognized, it still faces a big obstacle in negotiating a contract that delivers some of the hoped-for improvements in wages and benefits.þþYet the union's Texas achievement stands in stark contrast to the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s failed drive in the early 1980's, which sought to recruit tens of thousands of Houston workers. Known as the Houston Organizing Project, that $1-million-a-year effort faltered along with the economy, as unions retreated and focused on holding onto the workers they had, and as Texas companies fought hard against unionizing.þþ
Source: NY Times
