CWA District 3 Welcomes New Members: Piedmont Airlines Ramp & Gate Agents

District 3 would like to welcome our newest members into the CWA; Piedmont Airlines ramp and gate agents, who have been trying for over 8 years to join the union! They succeeded on November 4th, 2010 in a vote that was 2 to 1 in favor of representation. There were 2,867 eligible employees voting, 1107 voted to join the CWA, out of 1808 valid votes. 

Voting was done via phone and internet. The new rules were in place for the first time during this election. Under the Railway Labor Act and the NMB that conducts the election, you now must cast a vote either for or against having representation. In the previous elections, the old rules were very undemocratic, requiring 50 + 1 of the eligible employees to cast a YES vote for a union. Under the old rules, if someone chose not to vote, it counted as a NO vote.

District 3 now has over 1200 of these new members spread out over our 9 states at Piedmont Airlines locations.  District 3 would like to recognize the hard work all on the Internal Piedmont organizing committee did this time and in all of the past election campaigns. Piedmont management ran a very nasty and expensive anti-union campaign and hired a very expensive firm to try to convince the employees that they did not need a union. This backfired on the company and turned off many of the employees that were on the fence to vote in favor of representation with the CWA.

The work of the organizers and staff nationwide was second to none and we would like to thank all of them for their hard work. Michele McNeal, from Jacksonville, FL was especially helpful in the Charlotte airport location, where the largest group of Piedmont employees in the country are based. There were over 800 employees there and Michele dedicated her all to this group in Charlotte and we want to thank her for her sacrifices, being away from her family for so long in order to help the workers gain a real voice at work.

Leading this campaign in District 3, were Booker Lester, Administrative to District 3 Vice President Judy Dennis, and Liz Roberson, District 3 Organizing Coordinator, with help from; Velvet Hawthorne, District 3 Staff Representative-North Carolina, Luidny Morelus-Florida, Darlene Stone-Vermont, and Joy Edery-Florida and a thanks to Sandy Rusher, Organizing coordinator from District 6 and to all others who worked countless hours to make this campaign a victory.