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New Montpelier Union Says it's Setting Up Shop

By Sky Barsch - Barre Montpelier Times-Argus, July 20, 2005

Disclaimer - The following article is reposted here because it covers an IWW campaign.  The views of the author and the publisher do not necessarily agree with those of the IWW and vice versa. 

MONTPELIER — Several members of the now-defunct Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union are reorganizing under a new name and are affiliating with a new union.

Some 25 to 30 Montpelier workers who were formerly members of the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union, which was affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, are resurrecting themselves as a branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, according to a written statement from the newly named Montpelier Workers Union.

The Montpelier Downtown Workers Union was an effort to organize the capital city's retail and food-service workers. It officially called it quits earlier this summer, blaming high turnover and strong employer resistance as the reasons.

Montpelier Workers Union Steward Diana Duke, who works at Champlain Farms, said she hopes the new union will have 50 members and new contracts signed with shops by the first snowfall. She declined to say what stores the union had targeted for contracts. She said "pretty extravagant things" would be happening soon.

"This is a really big changing of the guard. It's an opportunity to reinvent ourselves," said David Van Deusen, who was active in the old union and is helping to organize the new one. "We want very much to correctly portray ourselves as a community resource." Van Deusen is a freelance writer, he said.

Just recently, the Vermont chapter of the UE had posted a message on its Web site saying the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union was calling it quits due to high turnover and opposition from employers. Last week, the director of the Vermont Workers Center, which helped the downtown union on many of its initiatives, published an opinion piece in The Times Argus explaining why the union drive ended.

This week, Van Deusen contacted the newspaper to say that some of the members of the downtown union were reorganizing with IWW. The written statement from the newly organized union said it would not be affiliated with UE or the Vermont Workers Center.

But the Montpelier Workers Union is "not stepping away from UE and Vermont Workers Center, they are fighting the same fight we are," Duke said.

The IWW has two union drives — one in Philadelphia and one in Wisconsin — that are similar to the Montpelier-wide drive that happened from 2003 to this year, according to Duke. That's why it made sense for the union to leave the UE (which also wanted to focus its efforts on some other projects, Duke said) and join the IWW.

The new Montpelier Workers Union will help employees handle grievances and work on affordable rent and affordable childcare in Montpelier, according to Van Deusen. It will accept members in Montpelier as well as from surrounding towns, though Montpelier workplaces will be the priority, Van Deusen said.

Members who work more than eight hours a week will pay $3 per week for dues, and those who work less than that will pay $1.50, which is the same structure the downtown workers' union used, according to Van Deusen.

Duke said the union will work to get employees sick time and vacation time, as well as to increase job security.

Several of the former leaders of the Montpelier Downtown Workers' Union are currently working with the IWW drive in Philadelphia, including former chief union steward Kristin Warner and former steward Sean Damon, according to Van Deusen.

"The IWW uses a model (it) call(s) solidarity unionism, which does not require contracts or legal certification, but instead organizes workers to pursue grievances through community and workplace solidarity," the Montpelier Workers Union said in a written statement. "The South Street Workers Union (in Philadelphia) has established health clinics and tax clinics to provide the district's impoverished workers with badly needed services, and has pressed grievances over unpaid work time, unsafe working conditions, discrimination and sexual harassment, among other issues."

Said Duke, "Those people in Philadelphia and Wisconsin are already gaining worldwide acknowledgement, people are recognizing them and respecting them and we're hoping to gain that in Montpelier."

Contact Sky Barsch at [email protected] or 223-3335.