The ARC of Monroe County and Gray Metal Products in Avon, NY Hire Union Busters
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The ARC of Monroe County and Gray Metal Products have been dealing with intimidation tactics by several Union Busting Firms who are being highly paid to thwart the rights of workers to unionize. The employees at Gray have chosen the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local 46 to represent them as they work to meet their needs for collective bargaining, a living wage, benefits and rights concerning their employment. ARC of Monroe employees have aligned themselves with SEIU to support their right to unionize. ARC employees have obtained the right to vote with mail in ballots. While this is a positive step the ARC employees are being made to attend mandatory meetings with the Union Busters of the Recently hired Permanent Solutions, Labor Consultants.Inc a union avoidance firm based in Michigan.
Thousands of dollars a day are being used for their services to pressure workers not to vote for union representation. The ARC is a 98% publicly funded agency, relying on Medicaid fees and private donations to run their agency. Despite letters being signed by elected officials, Religious leaders and private citizens in support of the workers and asking the ARC to not use Union Busters the ARC had refused to accept the letters and has continued their mandatory meetings with Union Busters. The letters were presented to a board member of the ARC, Kenneth Rohr, who is also a Trustee of the village of Fairport, NY.
Gray Metal management chose to fight against the worker's rights to form a union by working with two well-known union-busting law firms. Workers concerns include poor working conditions and lack of respect by management is what prompted their decision to form a union. Gray Metal's lawyer sent the following letter to employee:
Dear Employee:
We have heard that a union is attempting to organize our employees. We do not believe that our employees need a union. We have worked very hard to provide fair working conditions for our employees. Our employees have good wages and fringe benefits without paying union dues or initiation fees or exposing them to any union obligations. Some of you may not be familiar with union organizing tactics. The union organizer's purpose is to get you to sign a union authorization card. You should be on your guard! If anyone should tell you that by signing one of these cards, your are not obligated in any way, don't believe it! This is a common trick to get people to sign cards! Don't believe the union organizer who says: "Cards are only an expression of interest." "This card is only to get more information." "This card is only to request an election." "A majority of employees have already signed." "You must sign a card to vote." "It will cost your more if you don't sign now." Despite what the union organizers say, signing the card is a very meaningful thing. We do not believe that a union is in the best interest of our employees. No one should sign a card unless they are sure they want a union to represent them. Sincerely, Lewis Jackson, Esq.
While observing the rally in support of the Gray employees a Hispanic woman came out of the building with a sign written on cardboard that had the word Union written across the top and that had two boxes and the NO box marked with an X. I asked the woman why in Spanish but she did not respond and returned to the building. The Union Busters will be continuing their campaign to keep the unions out of these employers.
Comments
Union Buster Law Firm being used at Gray Metal
http://jacksonlewis.com/home.php
I just wanted to provide this info in the event that readers would like to do research on this firm
Additional Info on Union Busters
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120610/NEWS01/306100039
In addition, here are some linked in profiles of the folks we know on the ground.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/johanpena
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/peter-francis/33/948/b91
http://www.linkedin.com/in/amedsantana
Another is named Chyvonne sneed
Tou may contact CEO Barbara Wale to verify any of this and/or to express your thoughts .
Her office line is 585-672-2233
Here are 4 documents that show info from The Arc of Monroe financials:
1) Here's a breakdown of where their funding comes from. 76% is
Medicaid money; they also get 3% from government grants. The total
for those two things is about $34 million.
2) These numbers are sourced from Monroe ARC's 2010 tax forms which
have financials at the end.
Cost of permanent labor solutions previous union busting campaigns
3) This and the next thing are public records on file with the federal
Department of Labor. This document, a contract with National Beef,
lists their standard rate as $225 per hour.
4) This one just shows that they make a huge amount of money from
these contracts, in this case more than a half million dollars over a
few months.