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ACORN Refuses Offer from Union to Negotiate

Union Charges that Counter Offer "Lacks Substance"
By Seattle IWW, April 24, 2001

(Seattle) Striking workers at the Washington ACORN office, represented by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) made an offer last week to settle the strike, in exchange for union recognition and negotiations for a contract. The offer was initially ignored, then rejected.

ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is facing a hearing in Federal court with the National Labor relations Board, and the NLRB may issue a formal complaint at the end of the week regarding unfair labor practice charges filed by the union. The hearing is likely to result in the reinstatement of firing workers with full back pay.

Instead of taking the request for union recognition and negotiations into consideration, ACORN insisted that the IWW drop all charges, in exchange for concessions that the union is already likely to be entitled to under a NLRB ruling. The offer mentions nothing about recognizing the union at the Washington office, and lacks substance.

"ACORN has stated that they want labor peace and will let the union organize now. I guess that is an easy thing to say, after they have spent 4 months firing and purging all union supporters and sympathizers from their national organization", says Fellow Worker x337969, and IWW organizer in Seattle. "This is yet another example of the hypocrisy ACORN workers have been complaining about".

Workers at the Washington ACORN office struck on February 26th, after presenting their manager, Doug Bloch with a majority of union cards. The union filed for an election with the NLRB, but charges filed against the union (subsequently dismissed by the NLRB) by the employer held up that process. The IWW asserts that ACORN wants to avoid an election at all in that facility, because they know the union will win; hence the continued insistence for a "national" bargaining unit.

"ACORN can talk about labor peace when they recognize the union at their Washington facility, and the workers are not backing down from that demand," adds x337969.