Unions target New York city

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Weight: 238 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0745-4880
• DOI: 10.1002/mare.4080200802

✦ Synopsis

industries; some are now spending ten times more on organizing than they did a few years ago. The efforts are paying off, as unions recently organized 2,200 asbestos-removal workers, 1,500 demolition workers, 1,400 podiatrists, 300 Red Cross workers, and 300 workers at Sony-owned movie theaters. Ambitious campaigns are underway to organize 35,000 workfare workers, 10,000 limousine drivers, tens of thousands ofworkers at hospitals and nursing homes, and thousands of Catholic school teachers. Meanwhile, the Teamsters are seeking to organize 5,000 mechanics at Continental Airlines, including 700 at Newark International Airport.

"We're seeing a lot more organizing now," Esther Bigler, director of the New York City campus of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told a reporter. "It's part of the labor movement's new approach of turning itself into an organizing organization. And workers seem to be more receptive-we're getting requests for information about unions from doctors, health care professionals, engineers, from all across the board.