Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
United
This is about Solidarity, “Union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests, as between members of a group or between classes, peoples, etc.” This is how my phone’s dictionary app defines the word that has been buzzing around my workplace for months now. Since last September, when it was announced that the health insurance provider had been arbitrarily changed, staff members at Legal Services have worked to create a union shop. The main impetus was the policy change that resulted in higher co-pays and the inability to use established providers. The costs of some medications went up under the new plan. A co-worker of mine found out that one medication she absolutely must have went from $25 to $200. People who had been seeing mental health providers had to change therapists or pay out of pocket to stay with their counselor.
In September, a large group of employees attended a weekend conference. While so many people were in one place, the core group that has been trying to unionize for several years made the rounds of disgruntled people and offered the option of unionizing. They got many people to sign cards agreeing to join the Newsguild-Communication Workers of America local 36047.
By November, a majority of staff had signed cards, enough to request senior management for voluntary recognition through an official card count. If it was determined that a majority of employees had signed on, we had ourselves a union. A neutral third party, Rabbi Susan Talve, agreed to do the count. About 20 of us used personal time to attend the count held at her Temple. It took her nearly an hour to examine each card and compare the signatures to samples of our signatures provided by our Human Resources department. The head of HR also attended the count. Tension in the room was palpable. Finally the door to the conference room opened and Rabbi Talve announced that there was a majority of legitimately signed cards. At that moment, we had a union.
The greatest challenge has been finding a time outside of working hours to hold meetings. Wednesdays at 5:30 became the appointed time, meeting in person or by Zoom. For most busy people, that is an awkward time. The place for meeting was the Quaker meeting house in downtown St. Louis. That turned out to be a poor choice since most people don’t live downtown. Despite the issues, a cohort of 10 – 12 people turned up faithfully for the meetings. They have been busy sending out surveys to the larger group. The intention is to get as much feedback from employees as possible as to what we want to go into a bargaining contract.
After much effort, our employer agreed that 20 people could meet for an hour using their 30 minute break time and 30 minutes of paid time per week. Any more than 20 would have to be uncompensated or use paid time off. We had our first in-person, on-site meeting last week. There was a technology glitch that used a chunk of time to resolve, but we were all together in our own conference room. That felt good.
There has been one bargaining session. Most of the time was spent establishing ground rules for future meetings, so no issues were actually addressed. The sessions will be four hours long and the next one is in early February. We are all invited to attend these sessions to show solidarity with our bargaining team. I hope to attend the next meeting. It will be a new experience for me. I have been member of a union before – in Santa Fe I joined the teacher’s union to show support. But I’ve never been “in the room where it happened”, the place in which the demands are expressed and decisions are made. Another new experience for my 70th decade!