May 11, 2007

Peaceful Transition to a Union at Rutgers Makes It a Model for Labor Organizers

By JOHN GRAVOIS

Here's a kind of labor story you rarely hear: A group of about 2,000 midlevel administrative workers at the Rutgers University system voted to form a union last month, and the university's leaders opted not to campaign against their organizing effort.

Moreover, the worker's votes were gathered not in a traditional election, with polling places and voting days, but by using the "card check" method, a system in which workers sign union cards — anywhere, and over an indefinite