In recent months, 166 new members have been added to the ranks of Council 2 in areas from Klickitat County in the south to Mount Vernon in the north and Friday Harbor in the west.

Details:

• Skyline Hospital, White Salmon, Klickitat County
  About 60 workers at Skyline Hospital in White Salmon, Klickitat County, are among the newest members to join the ranks of Council 2.
  
  All the hospital employees, with the exception of the nurses, who have their own labor union, are now members.
  
  Council 2 already represents employees for the city of White Salmon. With the addition of the hospital employees, the union has large representation in what is a relatively sparsely populated region of the state.
  
  No election was necessary as more than 70 percent of the union-authorization cards were signed.
  
  Washington state law allows for certification of the union without an election if the number of authorization cards that are signed is 70 percent or greater.
  
  After checking the signatures of the employees against those on the payroll records, certification of Council 2 as the bargaining representative was approved on June 8.
  
  The Skyline Hospital workers have elected officers and are now preparing to enter negotiations with the hospital district.
  
  The new officers are: President – Craig Terry, Vice President – Barbara Woodbury; Recording Secretary – Rita Stephenson; Treasurer – Kathy Huntley; Shop Stewards –
  Susan Metz-Koontz, Pam Mitchell and Debbie Sexton.
  
  “We had an excellent organizing committee that really did an outstanding job in getting out there and collecting those cards,” says Council 2 Organizing Director Bill Keenan. “All the cards were signed within four weeks.”
  
  Council 2 Staff Representative Tom Barrington also worked hard on the project, Keenan adds.
  
  
• Skagit Transit Bus Drivers, Mount Vernon
  About 50 fixed-route bus drivers and paratransit drivers at Skagit Transit in Mount Vernon were added to the rolls of Council 2 on June 9.
  
  Because more than 70 percent of the authorization cards were signed, the addition of the workers to Council 2 was approved in a cross-check election.
  
  The decision by the workers to join Council 2 was preceded by what Keenan calls “an incredible opposition campaign” mounted by the Skagit executives.
  
  “The employers went out of their way to visit each bus driver independently and to try to persuade them not to sign the union cards,” Keenan says. “They went even further and tried to convince those who had signed cards to withdraw them In addition, they held mandatory meetings for the drivers to try to persuade them not to join the union.”
  
  The employer had been successful twice before in persuading the workers not to unionize, but they failed on this third attempt. This time, Council 2, which was not involved in the previous two attempts, had three staff representatives working on the project at one time or another.
  
  “The drivers told us that we put a far greater effort into keeping in contact with everyone,” says Keenan. “We held a lot of group meetings.”
  
  At one stage, when the Transit executives called a mandatory meeting of all employees, Council 2 representatives handed out leaflets to the employees before the meeting, telling them what they would be told at the meeting and why Council 2 disputed the statements.
  
  “It really surprised the employers that we would show up at the meeting and hand out flyers,” Keenan says.
  
  “But we were obviously right on target. The Transit representatives really had nothing to say. The meeting lasted only two minutes.”
  
  Jon Stables, who was instrumental in organizing the workers, will serve as their Staff Representative.
  
  The workers are now preparing for negotiations and have elected the following officers: President – Robert Sullivan; Vice President/Chief Steward – Joel Deese; Secretary/Treasurer – Joe MacDonald; Recording Secretary – Greg Rasmussen; and Trustees – Rich Searle, Jill Allen and Art Gallegos.
  
  Tom Fuller, James Haapoja and Doug Zempel were appointed to the Executive Board.
  
  
• Township of Friday Harbor
  All the employees of the Township of Friday Harbor have voted to join Council 2. The 30 workers are employed by the only township in the state of Washington. They essentially perform all the duties that normally are undertaken by city employees.
  
  As in the case of Skyline Hospital and Skagit Transit drivers in Mount Vernon, more than 70 percent of the authorization cards were signed and the workers were certified July 5 in a cross-check election.
  
  They are in the process of preparing for negotiations and have voted to become part of the larger San Juan County Local 1849. Roxanna Zalmanek was appointed to the vacant Recording Secretary position.
  
  Council 2 Staff Representative Jon Stables undertook a major part of the organizing in this case, too.
  
  
• Southwest Suburban Sewer District
  
  Twenty-six employees of the Southwest Suburban Sewer District in Burien who belonged to an employees’ association voted unanimously on June 6 to be affiliated with Council 2.
  
  The workers have a contract that expires at the end of the year. Staff Representative Clem Edwards will lead the negotiations for Council 2.
  
  As soon as the vote of approval was taken, the District moved to contract out their sewer inspector positions to a private contractor, Keenan says. One of the three people who would lose their jobs as a result was on the main organizing committee for the union.
  
  But Council 2 has succeeded in delaying the move to contract out the positions.
  “We and the employees attended the last three Board of Commissioners meetings and we convinced them to hold off for now,” Keenan says.
  
  The new Local, 21-S, has elected these officers: President – Bill Stephanie; Vice President – Ron Hall; Recording Secretary/Treasurer – Loree Johnson; Shop Steward – Darren Hill; and Trustee – Dee Van Dan Acker.
  
  
• Klickitat County
  Never before has Keenan seen an employer procedurally drag its feet in opposing an organizing campaign as Klickitat County did.
  
  The union filed with the Public Employees Relations Commission in March to represent 60 employees who work throughout the county in various departments.
  
  “The County, led by labor relations consultant Tony Menke, challenged the makeup of the proposed bargaining unit. We proposed one big union and they wanted to split it four or five different ways,” says Keenan.
  
  Finally, after a series of negotiations, an agreement was reached with the County to form two units, one for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and one for all other departments. A mail-ballot election has been set for August 29.