Before TOP unionized....

LA Telephone Outreach Project (TOP) received the news on June 9, 2005 that the door canvassers had won their union vote. We were very happy for them, but we kept quiet about it. The TOP callers were dismayed at the kind of money and resources that FFPIR wasted trying to discourage/prevent the door office from unionizing. Mostly, we wondered what FFPIR had to hide.

Immediately, TOP director Jennifer Shanley (as with absolutely all matters, instructed by Doug Phelps and Wendy Wendlandt via Nancie Koenigsberg) kicked anti-union campaigning into high gear. Shanley took several of the strongest callers away from our computers mid-shift to have 30-45 minute private discussions about the dangers of unions, particularly the Teamsters. Later, we all compared notes on what exactly was said, and found that the same (mis)information was robotically imparted unto each of us in the exact same manner. The discussions started out with very pointed questions as to whether or not we knew of the door canvassers attaining their union-vote, followed by further questions regarding how we felt about the canvassers unionizing, and how we felt about unions in general. We were then bombarded with a litany of reasons why joining any union, especially the Teamsters, would be to the detriment of FFPIR and its relationship with its employees. There were various stories and spins imparted to each of us regarding the Teamsters, and how they were the enemies of the environment. Shanley rattled on about how the teamsters are notorious for lobbying in support of oil drilling in Alaska’s Artic Wildlife Refuge. Shanley clearly suggested that joining the Teamsters would compromise employees' value systems as well as employees' relationships with FFPIR, as we would be supporting such environmental destruction. Jennifer Shanley (again instructed by Doug Phelps and Wendy Wendlandt via Nancie Koenigsberg) further stated that if we joined the Teamsters, and had "this" with them (hand-gesturing back-and-forth to connote communication/relationship) we would no longer have "this" (same gesture) with FFPIR. It was all very intimidating for each and every one of us who were taken aside for these sessions.  

Shanley then endeavored to ask us what she could do to stop us from joining any union, especially the Teamsters. Each of us declared that decent wages and respectable bonus structures would be nice, for one thing. We also mentioned benefits that we would like to have, such as a small number of sick days, paid vacation after an employee has been on staff for one year, paid holidays, and more open-book-like disclosure of their extremely complex and secreted pay-evaluation-bonus-structure, rather than having to believe them about all things on "blind faith." The fact remains that FFPIR had never bothered or cared to broach the subject of better working conditions until this time. Shanley made promises to each of us that she could and would do these things for us without a union. However, Nancie Koenigsberg, Shanley’s immediate supervisor, later stated that "none of this was even on the radar," and no further mention of these promises has ever come to pass. 

 Jennifer Shanley's sessions with many of us were then followed by long-distance phone calls from Nancie Koenigsberg in Boston, presumably to check up on Shanley's union-busting progress, to further question/intimidate callers, and dissuade us from joining any union, especially the Teamsters. It was a matter of days later that LA TOP callers received notice that our healthcare coverage, which had never been "tampered with" before, and had only been "experimental," was to be downgraded (more hours required to receive the same coverage, or callers would now need to pay the difference). Now knowing the kind of company we were employed by, our petition for a union vote was shortly thereafter filed with the NLRB.