Tower Climbers at QualTek filed a petition late last week with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election in Henderson, NV. The filing is for admittance into the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union. Inside Towers was sent an internally-circulated letter from the desk of Yonah Diamond, CWA’s Organizing Coordinator.
“This is a huge deal,” Diamond told his members. “This will be the first shop that moves forward with winning formal union certification. Once they win their election, they will be able to sit down with the company and bargain their first collective bargaining agreement.”
Diamond said the CWA will be reaching out to QualTek management to give them a chance to address its tower workers, although, he said, the vote was “near unanimous.”
A QualTek representative said the company would provide no comment on the announcement.
“If they refuse the high road path of voluntary recognition,” Diamond said, “the workers are ready. They’ve committed to each other to stick to each other until they win. This is the moment. This is the spark that we need to jump this off nationwide,” he said.
Diamond referred to the group as “pumped, solid, and excited to be the first of many shops that formally go union with full bargaining rights.” Diamond alluded to the recent flurry of union activity amongst Starbucks workers who have won their elections to unionize in 20 stores with another 200 in the process of voting.
“It’s a real movement, and if it is happening in Starbucks and Amazon, we can make it happen in the tower industry,” Diamond said.
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