The ranks of Council 2 continue to grow. Here are details of new gains.

Thirty workers for the Spokane Housing Authority have joined Council 2 following a card check on August 22. The card check, in which more than 70 percent of the workers signed authorization for representation cards, meant that a formal election was unnecessary.

This was the second election in two years to be held among workers of the housing authority.

In the first election, held last year, the employer ran a heavy-handed anti-union campaign that led to defeat of the proposal to join Council 2.

Knowing that the same campaign was likely this time around, many of the workers threw everything they had into an effort to ensure that they had more than the 70 percent necessary for a card check.

Hearing that a petition had been filed, the employer ran a campaign trying to convince the workers to withdraw their cards. But their efforts did not succeed.

The workers had learned from the first campaign the importance of being unified and standing together. The result was that they chose overwhelmingly to join Council 2.

The employer now has filed an objection to the card check and demanded a secret ballot election be held. In that way, they can run another campaign.

The objection is being heard by the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC).

A decision is expected soon.

About 50 employees of the Chelan County Corrections Office in Wenatchee, who were previously members of the Sheriff Deputies Guild, decided that they wanted to join Council 2.

On July 1, by an overwhelming vote (33-3), they turned that decision into action by electing to affiliate with the union.

The new members, represented by Council 2's Don Boxford, now have opened negotiations with Chelan County to modify their existing contract. Working conditions in the Wenatchee jail are among the top items on the list of proposals.

The officers of the new Local 846-CD are:

President: Delbert Hodson, Jr.; Treasurer: Kristina J. Kraus; Vice-President: Michael D. Smith; and Secretary: Sarah K. Whitmire.

Another group of former guild members also voted on July 1 to affiliate with Council 2. They are a group of 40 Klickitat County Deputy Sheriff and Corrections officers as well as support staff and dispatchers.

They voted 30-4 to join the union.

Among the reasons the corrections employees gave for their decision was that existing members at the City of Goldendale and Klickitat County Roads Department, both represented by Council 2, recommended that they do so.

The new members will be represented by Council 2's Tom Barrington. They were in contract negotiations at the time of the switch and Council 2 has reopened the negotiations.

Officers of the new Local 1533-DC, are:

President: Steven R. Shields; Vice-President: Erik T. Anderson; Secretary-Treasurer: Jennifer L. Berry; Executive Board members: Steven J. Hagen and James S. Leininger.

Seven security officers of the Seattle Public Library have also joined Council 2 following a card check.

The workers were not represented by a union before, but all the other non-administrative employees employed by the library were represented by Local 2083.

The security officers decided to join the union as well.

Matthew Graham was recently elected as steward for the new bargaining unit.

He and Tom Walker will assist Council 2's Bill Dennis in negotiating their first contract.