AFSCME workers to vote on union representation

In about a month, 20 secretaries, clerks, and administrators - all employees of one of the city's most storied unions - will participate in a National Labor Relations Board election to decide whether they want to be represented by a union themselves.

Ironically, their employer, longtime labor leader Henry Nicholas, declined to recognize the bargaining unit when he was presented with signed petition cards from a majority of the workers.

Nicholas is a staunch supporter of a proposed federal law known as "card check," which would allow unions to organize workplaces without a separate election if a majority of workers sign cards requesting representation.

The Labor Relations Board has scheduled an April 2 election for the employees of District 1199C of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Organizer John Hundzynski said "all the employees" in the office signed cards, declining to comment further. Hundzynski is a union organizer for District 1199C, usually trying to sign up nurses and other health-care workers. The Philadelphia union has 11,000 members, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Before Hundzynski asked Nicholas to recognize the union based on the signed cards, Hundzynski "had already asked for an election," said Nicholas, who heads District 1199C.

"I'm not going to campaign against him. I'm not going to give out handbills. I'm not going to hold meetings," Nicholas said. "If he wins, I'm ready to bargain expeditiously."

Nicholas said the two disagreed Friday over whether the union's bookkeeper should be included in the proposed bargaining unit.

When Hundzynski lost that battle, Nicholas said, he countered by proposing the card-check provision and threatened to go public if Nicholas did not agree.

Hundzynski is not trying to affiliate District 1199C's staff with a major national union. Instead, he sought the election on behalf of a newly created local - United Staff Union Local 1319 (the Locust Street address of District 1199C).

District 1199C is part of AFSCME's National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, which Nicholas also heads. Nicholas said the staffs of some of the other national union locals were unionized.