InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

March 19, 2001

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IT Workers Look At The Union Label

Dissatisfied dot-com workers look to labor organizers to blunt effects of economic slowdown

By David M. Ewalt   (dewalt@cmp.com)

More on Unions:

Look For The Union Label Online? TechWeb: Etown, First Dot-Com To Push For Union, Closes TechWeb: Union Vote Called Off At Dot-Com Company

n Feb. 14, customer-service workers at consumer electronics site Etown.com experienced their own Valentine's Day massacre. Citing a lack of funding, the San Francisco company closed its doors and laid off all of its 100 employees.

But this shutdown was different from other dot-com failures. For four months, Etown was a battleground between management and organized labor, and its closing ended the potential for a vote that could have led to the first union at a dot-com company.

Unions are rare in high-tech businesses and nonexistent at dot-coms, where lucrative stock options and high salaries generally have kept employees happy. But the recent economic downturn is causing workers to reconsider their rights, and union organizers are optimistic, despite Etown's closing.

People are starting to see what a union voice can accomplish, says a spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America, which represents a half-million technical workers. Tech employees increasingly are concerned with inflexible scheduling, forced overtime, and high turnover, she says, and they hope union contracts can help.

Organizing efforts have become significantly more aggressive in the last year. In February, California chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers, as well as the Teamsters, filed federal charges with the National Labor Relations Board against online grocer Webvan Inc. They allege that the company restricted workers' rights of speech and assembly to keep them from unionizing. In November, about 50 customer-service employees at Amazon.com Inc. began working with the Washington state Alliance of Technology Workers to unionize their department, citing concerns over mandatory overtime and pay issues. Amazon responded by launching an aggressive antiunion campaign, and the union has since backed down.

Etown's dispute began in October, when about 20 customer-service employees staged a one-day sick-out to protest scheduling, overtime, and pay issues. When the workers returned, two organizers of the action were fired. Frustrated, employees contacted the Communications Workers of America and took action to unionize.

By late November, the CWA had collected signatures from more than 80% of the customer-service workers, about 38 people, says Bill Wyland, a CWA organizer involved in the Etown campaign. The union then filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board requesting a vote on union representation. In following weeks, the union filed two unfair labor practice complaints with the board, one based on the firing of organizers and the other alleging that Etown had held mandatory meetings to scare employees away from the union. "They told employees, 'If the union prevails, we're closing, and you're not going to have a job,'" Wyland says.

By the end of January, both complaints were withdrawn. "The record now very clearly stands for itself," says Steve Ramirez, who was VP of marketing and communications at Etown. "It's very clear these allegations are baseless." He denies that the company tried to intimidate employees or interfere with the election.

With the abrupt closure of Etown, the election has been canceled. Nevertheless, Wyland says, a vote to organize eventually will happen elsewhere. "In the young high-tech industry, there was a lot of unfamiliarity with unions," he says. But as organized labor makes contacts and builds a track record for representing dot-com workers, unions will penetrate deeper into the industry. "We're learning from Etown," Wyland says. "We're going to get more campaigns out of this."

Ramirez learned from the experience as well, and he says the conflict taught management to listen to and demonstrate respect for employees. "If there's a clear lesson," he says, "it's the importance of focusing on communicating with employees."

Photo of Bill Wyland by Natashia Fuksman

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