The Petition

The first confirmation that FFPIR would not take kindly to our unionization efforts came immediately after we filed our petition, during the first week of May 2005. When FFPIR received word from the NLRB that the requisite 30% (nine out of eleven, actually) of employees in the LA door canvassing office had filed their petition to unionize with the Teamsters, their immediate reaction was to scramble for any possible argument they could present to the Labor Board, no matter how ridiculous. FFPIR first tried to argue that we needed to include the street canvassing office in our bargaining unit, because our jobs were identical. Needless to say, this is preposterous. The street canvassers work out of a different office, have a different pay system, work different hours, and have a different job description. The Labor Board did not accept FFPIR’s position.

FFPIR again argued that our petition was invalid, this time because it did not include the signatures of any summer pre-recruits. Pre-recruits are the potential summer staff members who are stopped on college campuses nationwide during the spring months, and who accept an offer to come to the office in May and June for an unpaid observation day. Pre-recruits are nothing more than potential core staff; none of them have even been to their office yet, few have a clear idea of what the job is really about, less than half will even appear for their scheduled observation day, and of those that do, only a small fraction will become staff members. Most importantly, however, not a single pre-recruit has filled out their tax forms until after their observation day, and as such, can’t be seen as employees.

Overwhelmed by the complexity and vagueness of FFPIR’s hiring process, the NLRB was on the verge of ruling in FFPIR’s favor, when our union representative, Emilio Arias, stood up in front of the Labor Board directors at the petition hearings, and, in so many words, called FFPIR out on their hypocrisies, their lies, and their general disregard for the “Human Rights” they purport to champion.  It took the threat of contacting their clients, (Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Human Rights Campaign, Save the Children) to make FFPIR accept our petition, and schedule a vote for June 9, 2005.