IUPAT District Council 3 just made some local history in their unionization of Prestige Painting Worldwide. (PPW) The Painters ran a bottom-up, worker-led organizing campaign that put the now-unionized workers in control over large parts of the decision making in the lead up to the successful election where workers chose to unionize by a two-to-one ratio.
Workers at Prestige Painting Worldwide filed to unionize with the National Labor Relations Board on April 17th. On May 16th, they voted to unionize with ten “yes” votes to just five “no” votes. Nineteen workers were eligible to vote in total. This is the first successful campaign of this nature at District Council 3 in over 25 years and one of the only such campaigns in recent history amongst construction unions in the region.
The story of this organizing campaign began nearly two years ago, when workers from PPW approached the union with an interest in organizing their shop. The workers, mostly Hispanic, quickly got cards signed, but the company found out and the campaign fell apart. Organizers with District Council 3 backed off for a bit and were reapproached by the workers this February wanting to make changes in their workplace.
“Anyone can come and join the union, they are picking up the program, benefits, and wages that are already there. This style of bottom-up organizing just means more to the workers, they are building and winning their union from scratch. These workers are taking real action against their employer, the person giving them a paycheck. This was their campaign. We told them, we cannot form a union for you. We cannot build a union for them, the accomplishment is theirs. The workers are the ones who achieved the victory,” said Josh Wyrick, Director of Organizing for IUPAT D.C. 3. “The workers could see that the union was genuine. We inoculated them on what the boss would say and do, we made them a pamphlet. We even thought about making a bingo card with the various anti-union things that might be said. At the end of the day, the employer made it clear we were telling the truth. We didn’t promise the workers anything. We made it clear that they could be fired or retaliated against, it was about empowering them to stand up for what they deserve and that is exactly what they did.”
Wyrick believes that the limited resources that unions have to work with makes this style of bottom-up organizing attractive. District Council 3 only has so many full-time staffers, so trusting the workers to do the work to organize themselves with local support was a natural decision.
“We talked to the workers about what they liked, what they didn’t like, and we let them run the campaign. Everything was their idea. They controlled meetings, messaging, the actions, and we acted as the facilitators,” added Wyrick.
The workers who made the second organizing push at PPW were more demographically diverse, composed of black, white, and Hispanic workers, including Nicaragua, Venezuelan, Mexican workers.
The union heavily focused on bottom-up organizing in the second push. This is an organizing practice where a union will help the organizing of a non-union company by encouraging workers to take a proactive approach to winning the union election. The workers of the company lead the organizing activities, talk to their own coworkers about union membership benefits, build relationships, and raise awareness of the need for union representation. The union supports this through education and helps out where the workers identify a need.
“The staunchest supporters of Prestige’s unionization campaign were people the reactionary Trump regime calls “criminals.” That’s right: Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Hondurans were the most pro-union at the company; they never wavered. Without their support, the outcome of the vote could have been very different,” said Andrew James Herrera, Organizer with IUPAT District Council 3. “Unions need to start thinking about how to make their organizations more welcoming for all workers. Latinos make up the majority of workers in some Trades; especially painting, drywall, roofing and concrete. It’s important that immigrants not only assume passive roles, but active ones within unions.”
“Myself as the Director of Servicing couldn’t be more proud of the campaign that Josh and AJ put together for the workers in educating them on the entire process from the beginning to the end. I want to thank the hard work that the workers put into this campaign. Without their efforts we probably wouldn’t have gotten to the point of an election this soon. We aren’t done. Now it is time to continue with the worker engagement and education and to get Prestige Painting Worldwide to become a successful signatory contractor,” said Joey Flickner, Director of Servicing for IUPAT District Council 3.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
