In a 9-to-6 vote on Aug. 24, workers at Heritage Glass said no to unionizing with Glaziers, Architectural Metal & and Glass Workers Local 740. Workers at Heritage Glass do high-end glass installations like glass doors and custom shower enclosures for wages that range from $12 to $25 an hour. That’s well below the union scale for the same work ($37 an hour plus $16 an hour in fringe benefits). That’s chiefly why Heritage employees contacted Local 740 in July to see about unionizing. Local 740 is part of District Council 5 of the Painters and Allied Trades, and the council assigned organizer Mike James to assist the union campaign.
On July 24, when Local 740 asked the National Labor Relations Board to schedule an election, the union had support from a majority of the company’s 15 employees. But an anti-union campaign by the owner persuaded several workers to reconsider support for the union. James said some of Heritage’s tactics broke federal labor law, including threats that the company would close its doors if workers voted to unionize.
Still, James says he’s not mourning the election loss, in part because it would have been challenging for the union to negotiate a single-employer first contract with an employer who is hostile to the union. Local 740’s 21 union-signatory contractors are all under the same master agreement, and James said the union would never undercut them by offering better terms to a newly unionized employer.
After the vote, three pro-union workers left Heritage for better-paying jobs with union-signatory glass contractors. James said more may do the same as union jobs become available.
