Big Las Vegas laundry workers’ union local defects to competitor

Grace Leong

Monday, Sept. 25, 2000 | 10:58 a.m.

The Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) has taken over representation of more than 1,600 workers at Las Vegas' largest commercial and industrial laundry -- beating out two other unions wanting to represent the workers.

A UNITE official said workers from Mission Industries of Nevada Inc., formerly represented by Textile Processors Local 311, voted 405-33 on Sept. 5 to affiliate with UNITE.

The Textile Processors Local 311 is now renamed UNITE Local 311, said Bob Comacho, the Textile Processors' former president. He resigned on Sep. 13.

Anthony Griese, Local 311's former secretary-treasurer who resigned on Sep. 7 due to ill health, said in an Aug. 18 letter to Local 311 members the Textile Processors' local executive board approved and recommended affiliating with UNITE after the board's initial attempts to affiliate with another International union, United Food and Commercial Workers, met with opposition from many Local 311 members.

He said the decision was reached because of "much campaigning by opposing groups at the plants and ... recent federal court decisions concerning an affiliation vote of (the Textile Processors International union) with the UFCW and the likelihood of years of court appeals, ... and the desire of the (local) Executive Board to bring harmony back to Local 311."

John Watson, general president of the Textile Processors' International Union, said the Local 311 rejected the Textile Processors and chose to merge with UNITE because UNITE was "putting out information promising increased wage, pension and other benefits."

He said the executive board of the Local 311 also endorsed the union's merger with UNITE because it wanted to resolve a court action in Chicago and petitions filed by UNITE with the National Labor Relations Board.

Howard Cole, Mission's attorney, said a lawsuit was filed in 1999 by two members of the Textile Processors Local 46 in Chicago, Lilly Gee and Daisy Sewell, in U.S. District Court in Illinois against the union and several of its leaders including Frank Scalish, former general president who died in February, Watson, current general president, and Griese, to stop a planned merger between the international union and the UFCW.

"The lawsuit questioned whether the Textile Processors' International and local unions abided by their own procedures and bylaws in approving the merger with the UFCW," he said. The plaintiffs won orders on March 28 to block the merger between Textile Processors international union and the UFCW.

Watson said the Textile Processors International initially wanted to merge with the UFCW for protection against raids by UNITE, but the Local 311 voted to join UNITE because of "anti-UFCW and anti-Textile Processors' propaganda put out by UNITE."

Watson said the lawsuit was dropped about three weeks ago as part of a global settlement reached mid-August between UNITE and UFCW that included a withdrawal of all federal lawsuits as well as a provision that allowed Local 311 members to vote on whether to merge with UNITE. The lawsuit, filed by Textile Processors' Local 46 members who said they wanted to merge with UNITE, alleged the merger vote with UFCW violated union laws that require "equal and meaningful voting rights to union members," and that the merger agreement was allegedly made by union officers who "stand to gain financially from the consummation of the merger agreement."

As an independent union, the Textile Processors isn't protected by AFL-CIO rules that prohibit rival unions from raiding the membership of other AFL-CIO members or affiliates by conducting membership drives. While the Textile Processors International Union is against affiliating with UNITE, Watson said his international union isn't against affiliating with other international unions to strengthen the Textile Processors' bargaining position and membership.

Cole said the Textile Processors still has a valid collective bargaining agreement with Mission and that agreement is binding on UNITE until the contract expires in 2003.

"Because of who the Textile Processors represent -- the laundry workers -- we feel our union will have more strength and better bargaining power when the laundry industries are united and represented by one organization," said Christina Vazquez, UNITE's vice president and regional director.

UNITE, which already represents laundry workers at Bally's Laundry, which does laundry for the hotel-casino, a TJ Maxx distribution center in North Las Vegas and a Levi Strauss distribution center in Henderson, now represents about 3,500 workers in Las Vegas. UNITE launched a national organizing drive in the commercial laundry industry last year and now represents more than 25,000 workers nationwide.

"It's no surprise that some unions, like ours, are focusing on Las Vegas, which is a growing base for union membership across all industries. Las Vegas is a big market for resort-casinos, and therefore, laundry," said Ernest Bennett, UNITE's international vice-president.