Bikeshare union has wheels

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.labornotes.org/2016/01/bikeshare-union-has-wheels

January 27, 2016 / Joe Demanuelle-Hall and Nicholas Bedell


In a brand new industry, this union is starting off on the right foot. Bikeshare mechanics, drivers, and dispatchers have already gotten some practice confronting managers on the job. Photo: TWU Local 100.


Say you’ve just won union recognition, in an organizing drive led by rank and filers. Now you’re facing a new set of tasks: bargaining a contract, learning to enforce it, and linking your workplace up to the bigger union you’ve joined.

How do you keep the momentum rolling, so that the day-to-day culture of your new union is as bottom-up as your “vote-yes” campaign was?

Six hundred newly organized workers are tackling these challenges at four of the largest bikeshare systems in North America. Workers recently ratified first contracts in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

Chicago is the latest to reach a tentative agreement. And on January 8, bikeshare workers in a fifth location, Jersey City, voted to unionize.

FULL story at link.