Tasty Baking workers vote in favor of joining union

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20100814_Tasty_Baking_workers_vote_in_favor_of_joining_union.html

Posted on Sat, Aug. 14, 2010

By Jane M. Von Bergen

Inquirer Staff Writer

Tasty Baking Co.'s bakers, warehouse workers, food-safety technicians, auto mechanics, and vending drivers have voted, 2-1, to join a union.

The votes - 149 in favor, 72 opposed - were counted shortly before midnight Wednesday, with 221 workers out of 240 casting ballots, said James Condran, the union representative working with Philadelphia-based Local 492 of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union.

"When they transferred over to the new building, some of the workers didn't like the way it was handled as far as their seniority," Condran said. "They felt they needed some security." In the spring, the company shifted production from its longtime plant on Hunting Park Avenue in North Philadelphia to a new facility in the Naval Business Center in South Philadelphia.

Condran characterized the campaign on both sides as professional, with neither management nor the union engaging in the kind of tough, no-holds-barred behavior that can accompany organizing. Neither side, he said, filed unfair labor practices against the other.

"There were the usual meetings," he said, "but there wasn't a lot of bad blood."

David Vidovich, vice president of human resources and labor relations at Tasty Baking, agreed with Condran's assessment.

FULL story at link.