Prevailing after a 15-month struggle, 800 workers at the Brylane warehouse distribution center in Indianapolis won a voice on the job with UNITE. The Jan. 29 win came less than one month after the company agreed to remain neutral and allow workers to decide whether they wanted a union. Workers demonstrated their desire to form a union through a card-check process. With a card-check, workers indicate their desire to form a union by signing authorization cards, a fairer alternative to the long, contentious National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process.

“We hung in there and fought a long time to win our union, and it was worth the wait!” says Brylane employee Doug Rhoton. Workers at the warehouse, who package and distribute clothes and home furnishing for the giant catalog retailer, wanted a union so they could win better wages, benefits and safety conditions. According to the company’s own records, one out of every 10 workers at the distribution center suffered a repetitive motion injury in 2000—an injury rate nearly 18 times higher than the industry-wide average.

The Brylane victory illustrates that workers will choose a union—if the process is fair and free, union leaders say. “Knowing that the NLRB election process is weighted heavily in employers’ favor and that in NLRB elections, workers can expect harassment, intimidation, threats and even firings, the Brylane workers wanted a better option,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

“This is a great victory for Brylane workers because it reaffirms their right to choose a union without employer interference,” adds UNITE President Bruce Raynor. “This process was fair, democratic and free of the pressure tactics that companies use too often in union election campaigns.”

“Brylane should be congratulated for agreeing to the card-check neutrality process and should be seen as a positive example for other employers,” says Raynor. “We look forward to working together in the future.”

Workers and union activists mounted a comprehensive campaign to help Brylane employees win their right to pursue a neutrality and card-check process. They held spirited rallies with community allies in Indianapolis and at the company’s New York City headquarters, as well as at Gucci stores, which are part of the Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) conglomerate, Brylane’s parent company. E-activists e-mailed leaders of PPR, requesting they remain neutral during the workers’ efforts to form a union.

More

Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney’s statement on the win.

Read UNITE’s news release about the Brylane victory.

Download a one-page fact sheet about employer interference in union campaigns.