Laguna Niguel, CA – March 6

Overcoming one of the most intense and brutal anti-union campaigns UE has faced, workers employed directly by Stanley Associates – the lead contractor at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Center (USCIS) in Laguna Niguel, California – today voted 103-75 for UE.

The union win is UE's sixth victory in eight elections, beginning on January 31, among the employees of contractors at the USCIS centers in California and Vermont. The six units won so far include a total of 714 workers. The win among Stanley workers in Laguna Niguel follows overwhelming votes for UE over the past two weeks by workers for three Stanley subcontractors at the same location -- Studley Professional Services (SPS), Choctaw Archiving and Northrop Grumman. "The strong union vote by Stanley workers today positions UE to make a strong move to the bargaining table with Stanley and its subcontractors," said UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley. "We look forward to beginning the next stage of this process and we remain intent on achieving a measure of justice for workers at these facilities in both California and Vermont."

Stanley's nasty union-busting campaign included bosses taking individual workers into the back room, with security guards stationed at the door, for one-on-one intimidation sessions that in some cases lasted as long as eight hours. The company made workers attend three captive audience anti-union meetings a day, and two days before the vote, forced workers to watch a propaganda video that slandered and distorted UE's policies and record. The company told workers that union talk and activity was prohibited on the site, and earlier this week filed an NLRB charge against UE, on completely phony, trumped-up allegations, with the intent of getting the NLRB to delay the election.

Sarah Beard, whose pay was cut from $12.98 to $10.67 when Stanley took over in December, says many other workers suffered similar pay cuts. "Now we're going to get the protection that we need and deserve." Daphne Carreon has been at the USCIS Center for eight years, and says Stanley has been the worst employer there so far. "They violated the Service Contract Act by not paying us what they should. They robbed us." But with the election win, she says she is "really, really happy. We kicked butt -- big time. We have justice now. They can't do that to us again."

Blanca Esposito, an employee of SPS, was also at the Stanley workers' post-election celebration. Like many workers for subcontractors Northrop, Choctaw and SPS, she was actively involved in helping the Stanley workers win with UE, too. Now she's looking forward to one more win, when Altron workers at the Laguna Niguel center vote on March 20. "The company was offering people a lot of things to try to sway them, but here we are with another victory. They cannot get away with the way they treated us anymore," Blaca added. "We need to be treated with respect."

Several UE international reps and field organizers worked tirelessly on this and the earlier Laguna Niguel campaigns, including Mark Meinster, Leticia Prado Marquez, Alexandra Huerta-Camacho, Karen Hardin, John Thompson, Steve Bader, Leah Fried, and Leanna Noble. Kim Lawson and Dante Strobino also worked on the Vermont campaign. and UE Regional Presidents Carl Rosen, Peter Knowlton and Andrew Dinkelaker, as well as and many rank-and-file members, assisted in the California and Vermont campaigns.

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UE today won two more organizing victories among contract workers for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Centers (USCIS). Workers employed by Choctaw Archiving at the Laguna Niguel, California center voted 124 to 11 for UE representation — an astonishing margin of more than 11 to 1! Voting at the same time, workers employed by Northrop Grumman, also at Laguna Niguel, chose UE representation by a decisive 105 to 40 margin. Both employers are subcontractors for Stanley Associates.

John Jeffrey, a member of the organizing committee at Choctaw, said workers at the California center are "ecstatic" at the outcome, "especially with the margin of victory at Northrop Grumman." Workers on the organizing committee were confident of winning Choctaw, so they focused their attention on Northrop Grumman in the final days before the vote.

Jeffrey says that workers are especially happy because the size of their margin of victory "will increase our bargaining power." Jeffrey, who has nearly two years' service and was one of many workers who suffered a pay cut when the new contractors took over the center in December, says the pay cuts "were a bit of an incentive" for organizing and contributed to the overwhelming margins of victory. The other factor was the effort of organizing committee members. "We worked hard and never let up until we had the yes votes."

'We Believe ...'

During the California workers' post-election party, we also spoke to Aileen Kim, a Northrop Grumman worker. "We're very happy here — having a celebration." She said the company tried to convince people that the union couldn't do anything for them, "but we believe the union can do something for us." Her explanation for the overwhelming vote for the union: "We have lot of issues."

Daphne Carreon, a Stanley worker at the Laguna Niguel center, is confident of another UE win coming next Thursday, March 6, when the California Stanley unit votes. "After these other three companies voted this way," — the three groups of subcontract workers at her center who have so far voted for UE — "it helps us. I'm sure our co-workers from the other companies will help us to win, too."

So far UE has won five out of seven in this series of organizing elections that began on January 31, adding more than 500 workers who are now represented by UE. UE now represents a majority of workers at the Vermont and California USCIS Centers, and, says UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley, "The union intends to move ahead and forcefully bargain for these newest UE members." At the California center, UE has won all three elections so far. Two additional units in California are yet to vote: Stanley on March 6 and Altron on March 20.

Voting the same day as the two California groups, the organizing drive of workers in St. Albans, Vermont employed by lead contractor Stanley Associates had an outcome that is, at this point, inconclusive. There were 60 votes for UE, 80 votes for the employer, and 21 votes were cast subject to challenge and have not yet been counted. Of the Vermont vote, Bob Kingsley said, "I applaud the courage of the 60 Stanley workers in Vermont who stood up for justice in the face of an overwhelming employer assault."

The anti-union attack by Stanley in Vermont, which eroded a strong majority sign-up for UE, shows not only what's wrong with the system of U.S. labor law, but the larger problem of corrupt corporate domination of the federal government in Washington. One sign of that corruption is the "revolving door" where high-ranking government officials end up lobbying for the same corporations they were previously supposed to regulate.

In the case of Stanley, its union-busting campaign and its legal representation before the NLRB were directed by Jack Toner, the former Executive Secretary of the NLRB — the federal agency that is supposed to protect workers' right to organize. Toner was able to stall the NLRB-supervised election by a month, which gave Stanley extra time to conduct an intensive campaign of intimidation, captive audience meetings, one-on-one sessions in which bosses browbeat workers, and a wide range of threats. Through this reign of workplace terror, Stanley managed to scare many of its workers into voting against their own interests.

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A third group of workers employed by a Stanley Associates subcontractor have become the latest to vote for UE representation, this time by a three-to-one margin. Studley Professional Services (SPS) workers voted 23-8 for UE in the first of five elections to be held at the Laguna Niguel worksite in California.

The SPS workers overcame heavy-handed pressure by their employer, including one-on-one election-day sessions by the CEO of SPS. Earlier this week, UE sent a letter to SPS, demanding the company stop violating the rights of its workers. Despite the company’s tactics, SPS workers made it clear they were uniting for better wages and better treatment by increasing their activism prior to the election, talking with co-workers after their one-on-one meetings, replacing signs the company took down, and confronting management in their own meetings about lies and exaggerations.

Waiting outside the giant federal building in Laguna Niguel, more than 50 union supporters, including SPS, Choctaw, Northrop Grumman, Stanley and Altron erupted with cheers as the vote result was announced.

'A Voice ... to Make a Difference'

“I feel fantastic,” said Camille Puccinelli, an eight-year employee. “It feels like a rebirth,” she exclaimed. “You thought you were going to get cheap labor, and now you won’t. Period,” she told the CEO. "It’s remarkable,” she added, "people have come together as a whole and said ‘enough is enough!’”

Earlier this month, Stanley subcontracted workers in Vermont employed by Northrup Grumman Technical Services overcame bad weather to become the second group to join UE, voting 57-40, just a day after Choctaw Archiving workers chose UE by 51 to 31.

This Wednesday about 450 Stanley workers in both states will cast their ballots in the next set of elections. In all, about 1,000 workers are employed by Stanley and its subcontractors at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Centers in St. Albans, Vermont, and Laguna Niguel.

“I had to come back from my leave early, to make sure my vote went in,” exclaimed another exuberant eight-year SPS employee, Blanca Esposito, who had been on leave when the organizing drive started. Commenting on the vote, she said “we’re not going to allow anybody to stomp on us or treat us badly just because they think they have the power to. It’s about fairness and respect.”

A $2 an hour wage cut and elimination of sick time imposed by Stanley when it took over operations in early December sparked the organizing drive, bringing workers together to defend their wages and benefits.

Looking forward to Wednesday’s vote, California Northrop Grumman employee Zoraya Sanchez, said she was inspired by today’s vote. “SPS workers now have a voice ... more opportunity to make a difference.” On Wednesday, “We will vote YES!”

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Second Group of Stanley Workers Vote UE

For the second day in a row, employees of a subcontractor of Stanley Associates at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Center have voted to join UE. Despite bad weather, workers employed by Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc. travelled to NLRB polling places in St. Albans and Essex and voted 57-40 to become members of UE.

This victory came just a day after workers employed by Choctaw Archiving chose UE by 51 to 31. These are two of eight elections that will take place in the coming weeks among nearly a thousand workers in Vermont and California whose wages and working conditions came under attack when a new federal contractor, Stanley, and its subcontractors took over their workplaces.

Scheduled next is a February 27 vote by two units -- workers at Choctaw and Northrop Grumman, in California. The union is awaiting voting dates for three additional units.

"This is not about the company," said Lisa Stenta, a Grumman employee who has worked at the service center for nine years, surviving three different contractors. "It's not about who the contractor is. It's about us taking charge of our future." She spoke of women forced to work 16-hour shifts with mandatory overtime. "We deserve better than that. We're dedicated workers." She said past union organizing drives had failed, and nothing changed after the election, so this time workers weren't taking chances. "I feel great" about the outcome, she said.

Kelly Levick is employed by Choctaw Archiving, the group who voted to join UE one day earlier. "I'm very excited about our victory and the Northrop victory," she said. Kelly, with eight years on the job, attributes the workers' win to "a lot of hard work. We all pulled together and pulled it off."

Jeremy Murray works directly for Stanley, the lead contractor at the Vermont service center. His bargaining unit of approximately 150 people is still waiting for the NLRB to set their voting date. But the divisions the bosses have set up between employees under the different contractors don't really mean anything to the workers. "It's all about the group -- we all help each other," Jeremy said, and UE supporters are working together to bring everyone into the union. "We don't want to leave anyone behind. This will give us so much strength."

The campaign has been followed closely by the Vermont media. This week the local newspaper, the St. Albans Messenger, endorsed the union campaign in an editorial. Earlier, the campaign received significant support from area community and political leaders, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT.

WAGE, BENEFIT CUTS SPARK CAMPAIGN

Five subsequent elections will decide how many additional workers in Vermont and California will be included when UE begins bargaining for improvements in wages and conditions. All the workers performed services for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), which contracts with each employer for data entry and clerical work. Stanley and Associates acts as the lead contractor for the group.

A $2 an hour wage cut imposed by Stanley when it took over operations in early December sparked the organizing drive, bringing workers together to defend their wages as well as sudden cuts in their sick and personal days and vacation time. A top Stanley executive's comment about the cuts was reportedly, "Get Over It!" — a comment which inspired one campaign slogan, "We're UE. GET OVER IT!"

In all, more than 1,000 workers, mostly women, are employed at the two service centers in St. Albans, VT, and Laguna Niguel, CA.

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Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) have written a letter to Stanley CEO Philip Nolan expressing support for the organizing efforts of workers at the Orange County facility and calling on Stanley to respect the rights of its employees during the organizing process.

Read the full text of the letter here...

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From the St. Albans Messenger

By Michelle Monroe

ST. ALBANS CITY – At 4:15 Thursday afternoon roughly two dozen contract workers from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) center cheered their victory in the second of four union elections.

Workers for Choctaw Archiving Enterprise voted 51- 31 to join United Electrical Workers (UE). In an election that ended a half-hour earlier, workers for the Federal Working Group voted 12-8 against joining the union.

"For the first time in a long, long, time I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow," Choctaw employee Kelly Levick said.

Levick, who has worked at the center for eight years, said, "I think we're taking a huge step in the right direction." She supported the union because she believes the workers need to "have outlined in a contract our wages and our benefits."

UE is alleging the Federal Working Group violated the law by holding one-on-one meetings with workers in the hours before the vote. Companies cannot legally discuss the union with workers for 24 hours prior to the election. The union will be filing unfair labor practices charges against the Federal Working Group, according to Kim Lawson, a UE organizer. "We have ample evidence that the employer used strong-arm tactics," Lawson said.

Today Northrop-Grumman workers were to vote whether to join UE. Sandra Behan, a Northrop employee who has worked at the center for five and a half years, said that the result of the Choctaw vote "makes me feel pretty positive."

"All of us from Choctaw are definitely behind them," Levick said when asked about the Northrop vote.

Following the counting of the Choctaw ballots, one worker proclaimed into her cell phone, "Choctaw has a union," while Jeremy Murray, a Stanley Associates, Inc. employee, said, "I don't know about justice at Stanley, but we have justice at Choctaw." Stanley Associates is the primary contractor at the center; the other firms are subcontractors.

"For the first time in the history of the Vermont Service Center, there is a union," Lawson told workers assembled at UE headquarters following the vote. "We'll pull off Northrop-Grumman. We'll pull off Stanley, and we'll pick up Federal Workers Group, because we aren't leaving them behind," Lawson said, drawing cheers of agreement from the workers.

James Haslam, of the Vermont Workers' Center, called the victory "long overdue." According to Haslan the USCIS service center has been the largest source of calls to the workers' rights hotline run by the Vermont Workers' Center since the first contractor, Labatt-Anderson, took over file set-up and maintenance at the center in the 1990s.

"It's great to see people being able to withstand an unfortunate anti-union campaign and stick together," Haslam said.

Haslam also observed that raising the wages of workers benefits the whole community, and cutting them hurts the whole community. By cutting wages at the center, Stanley is "taking that money out of the community and putting it in a few pockets in Arlington, Virginia," Haslam said.

That money is significant. Approximately 100 workers at the center have had their wages cut $1.70 per hour, resulting a total loss of more than $350,000 per year for the St. Albans workers.

Northrop-Grumman has told workers in recent days that if they vote for the union they'll lose the benefit of Northrop's own grievance procedures, an argument that has not impressed Behan who asked a Northrop executive, "What protection is there for clerks with that system?"

Behan also has been unimpressed by Stanley's claims to have provided new benefits for center workers. "They're not giving us anything," she said. The 10 holidays Stanley claims to have given workers are federal holidays during which the center closes, and government contractors are required to spend $3.16 per hour per person on benefits, Behan said. Even with that requirement, Northrop-Grumman is not making any contributions to a 401(k) for its workers.

Stanley Associates, Inc. Vice President Bill Karlson attended the Choctaw vote count, but declined to comment on the outcome.

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UE was the big winner on the first day of union representation elections among nearly a thousand workers in Vermont and California whose wages and working conditions came under attack when a new federal contractor took over their workplaces.

In a 51-to-31 vote, workers employed by Choctaw Archiving resoundingly chose UE in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) supervised election held January 31st. Following the ballot count, cheering workers left the voting site at City Hall chanting the name of their new union.

The campaign has been followed closely by the Vermont media. This week the local newspaper, the St. Albans Messenger, endorsed the union campaign in an editorial. Earlier, the campaign received significant support from area community and political leaders, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT.

The Choctaw vote established that there will be a union at the St. Albans facility. It overshadowed a vote among a smaller group of workers, employed by Federal Working Group, who voted 12 to 8 to remain non-union. UE is investigating reports of strong-armed and possibly illegal tactics used by that employer prior to that election.

WAGE, BENEFIT CUTS SPARK CAMPAIGN

Six subsequent elections will decide how many additional workers in Vermont and California will be included when UE begins bargaining for improvements in wages and conditions. The unusual multi-group election is tied together by work performed for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), which contracts with each employer for data entry and clerical work. Stanley and Associates acts as the lead contractor for the group.

Approximately 100 Northrop Grumman workers will decide tomorrow on UE representation, while a final group in St. Albans, employed directly by Stanley and Associates, awaits an election date not yet set by the NLRB. Meanwhile, four additional groups of workers in California are also awaiting election dates.

A $2 an hour wage cut imposed by Stanley when it took over operations in early December sparked the organizing drive, bringing workers together to defend their wages as well as sudden cuts in their sick and personal days and vacation time. A top Stanley executive's comment about the cuts was reportedly, "Get Over It!" — a comment which inspired one campaign slogan, "We're UE. GET OVER IT!"

In all, more than 1,000 workers, mostly women, are employed at the two service centers in St. Albans, VT, and Laguna Niguel, CA.

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