Union gains rare victory as Sears service workers sign on, 200 join ranks

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5625182,00.html

Union gains rare victory as Sears service workers sign on
200 join ranks even as numbers shrink nationwide

By Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News
July 12, 2007
Ed Humbert has spent two decades driving from house to house in his job as a Sears appliance repairman.

But at 55, the Johnstown resident has added a new twist to his working life: He's joined a labor union. He and roughly 200 other Sears workers in Colorado and Wyoming recently signed their first collective-bargaining contract, which gives them annual raises, extra job security and more control over their schedules.

"I've got 10 years left of working," Humbert says. "I'm doing this more for the (younger) guys. If you want to have a future, you've got to stand up for yourself as an employee."


Steven R. Nickerson © The Rocky

Ed Humbert, 55, a Sears appliance repairman from Johnstown, says unions help workers "get control of our working conditions and have a certain say in things."

The contract comes during an era of declining union membership both locally and nationwide. In Colorado, the number of union members slipped by 5,000, to 165,000 at the end of 2006. That represented just 7.7 percent of the state's growing work force.

Nationally, the 12 percent average has fallen steadily from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year the government began tracking comparable data.

Despite the declines, labor observers say workers still attempt to form unions at work.

FULL story at link.