Union decertification petition filed by ADT Security worker

Enterprise, The, Sep 13, 2004 by Rattle, Barbara

A petition to terminate the Communications Workers of America union as representative for approximately 40 employees of ADT Security Services in Salt Lake City has been filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The union has represented employees at the ADT office, 536 E. 300 S., since the mid-1980s. An election has been scheduled for Sept. 22.

"The contract expired July 31. I simply thought if you had 40 employees and, say, if union membership dropped down below 50 percent, the union went away," said ADT installer Lew Jameson, who filed the decertification petition. "I found out that is not true. You actually have to go through the formality. I'm not saying [union membership] is below 50 percent; that's what we're having the election for."

Jameson said that as the petitioner, "I can't really take sides. I just want to throw it out for a vote."

Kent Anderson, a spokesman for CWA Local 7704 in Salt Lake City, said he would like to retain the bargaining unit.

"Unfortunately for Mr. Jameson, not all the people want the union out," he said. "He does."

Legally, at least 30 percent of the members of the bargaining unit must vote against the union before it can officially be rejected. Anderson said he "hopes to prevail."

"We did have collective bargaining scheduled for the end of July, when the contract expired, but we couldn't ever get the ADT labor people to respond in a timely manner," he said. "Then the petition was filed."

The union has an organizing campaign, he said, "just like the company has a decertification campaign." According to Anderson, ADT had a "captive audience" meeting slated for last week.

"The letter from ADT says they want the people to make an informed decision. Unfortunately, we were not invited so we could maybe address some of the employees' concerns on the union side. But that's typical."

Local ADT representatives could not be reached for comment.