Try, Try, Try…Try Again: IBEW Scores First General Electric Organizing Victory in a Decade

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http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/02/03/try-try-try-try-again-ibew-scores-first-general-electric-organizing-victory-in-a-decade/

The fourth time was the charm for workers at a General Electric Transportation plant in Kansas City, Missouri when they voted 44 to 41 to be represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1464.

After an initial attempt by the IBEW, the Teamsters and the UAW unsuccessfully tried to help workers organize at the plant. Using different techniques and with workers more eager to ignore the company’s union-busting after seeing their co-worker have his legs crushed and then die, the IBEW was able to do the unthinkable, organizing a GE facility for the first time in over 10 years:

Lead Organizer Mike Knox says workers at the plant called organizers back soon after a prior IBEW campaign lost by 11 votes in December 2010. Based upon company statements during the prior campaign, workers had been led to expect a significant wage increase if the union lost. But the wage increase they received was not at the level they expected.

Jim Wasserman, a heavy frame repairman, has worked at GE Transportation for a year and a half. A volunteer organizing committee member, Wasserman says his committee dealt upfront questions such as whether GE would pull out of Kansas City in retaliation for a win by the union.