When employees of unions organize
According to Chron.com:
Hamilton Gramajo says he was working seven days a week, often from 9 a.m. to well past midnight, trying to organize the 5,300 janitors for the Service Employees International Union.
It was a grueling schedule — he couldn’t even get a couple of hours off on Sunday to go to church — but when he and others complained to his union bosses, Gramajo said they were ignored.
Gramajo said the stress to “keep up with his numbers” in worker sign-ups resulted in chest pains and a warning from his doctor to rest. His ironic plight — a union worker claiming work rule violations by the union itself — led to a National Labor Relations Board complaint that is still pending.
“There’s no way I can go to the janitors and tell them to fight for their rights if I’m being treated the same way,” he said, referring to the Justice for Janitors campaign in 2006 that led to a three-year contract between five Houston janitorial companies and the SEIU.
Gramajo and his co-workers did what he recommended for the janitors: They joined a union. The SEIU’s own workers reached out to the Federation of Agents and International Representatives, or FAIR, and laid out demands for job protections, limits on working hours and actual food breaks so they didn’t have to eat in their cars between appointments.
But Gramajo said SEIU officials were none too pleased to hear about the other organizing drive going on internally at the office. He said some union organizers received tougher work assignments, others were sent to different locations while some, including Gramajo, were terminated.
The employees, through FAIR, responded with unfair labor practices complaints, alleging that the SEIU refused to communicate, failed to follow seniority rules for layoffs and recalls, and terminated Gramajo for his union-within-a-union work.
The complaint also contends the SEIU reduced its employees’ pay and refused requests to use sick leave and vacation leave...click to continue.
