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| CitiBike workers to join in a union... the TWU local 100? (1308705) | |||
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CitiBike workers to join in a union... the TWU local 100? |
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Posted by Gold_12th on Thu Aug 21 00:43:29 2014 Citi Bike mechanics, station technicians and other employees who run New York City's bicycle-sharing program could vote on whether to join a union as soon as next month following a decision by the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday.The board's decision marked a victory for union organizers who had sought to include seasonal workers and many of the program's supervisors as eligible to join a collective bargaining unit, labor experts said. About 96 of 249 Citi Bike workers are classified as seasonal, according to the NLRB. "It's a win for the union," said Rebecca Givan, a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University. "You want to have full coverage to prevent the possibility of one group of employees being pitted against each other or being treated differently." The unionizing effort could further complicate matters for Citi Bike's operator, Alta Bicycle Share Inc. of Portland, Ore., as it hammers out a deal to sell a controlling stake to REQX Ventures, a New York City-based investment firm affiliated with real estate giant Related Cos. Representatives of NYC Bike Share LLC, the Alta subsidiary that runs Citi Bike, declined to comment. A Related spokeswoman couldn't be reached. Dolly Winter, a dispatcher of trucks and vans that "rebalance" Citi Bike's 332 stations with bicycles and who has been leading the effort to unionize, predicted employees would overwhelmingly support joining the Transport Workers Union Local 100. "It's going to give them a voice," Ms. Winter said, adding employees also want to see the bike-share system succeed. Union organizers and NYC Bike Share LLC, have two weeks to appeal the NLRB's decision, rendered by Elbert Tellem, the New York City-based acting regional director for the board's Region 2. If neither side asks the labor board to review the decision, the labor board might conduct the union election as soon as mid-September, Mr. Tellem said. If they vote to unionize, the bike-share employees would join some 38,000 employees who run New York City's subway and bus systems. John Samuelsen, president of the TWU Local 100, said Citi Bike, which launched in May 2013, had established itself as part of New York's transit system. "It's another valid mode of transportation," he said. http://online.wsj.com/articles/citi-bike-workers-win-labor-ruling-1408582089 |
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