ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512100017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
LONG-DISTANCE TELEPHONE information center workers in Clifton Forge will vote on whether to ask the United Paper Workers International Union to represent them.
Workers at the long-distance information center operated by CFW Information Service Inc. in Clifton Forge will vote Dec. 22 on union representation, culminating an organizing effort in which the union has charged the company with misleading workers.
The United Paper Workers International Union filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in early November for the election. The union had been actively organizing the center's 134 hourly workers since October, said Glenn Anglin, an international field worker for the union.
The center, which provides regional directory assistance services under a contract with AT&T, has been open less than a year. Anglin said it was unusual for a group of workers to be seeking union help that soon.
The union this week offered a challenge to the management of CFW to debate the issues arising from the union's organizing effort.
A debate is necessary, the union said, because of ``distortions, fabrications and half-truths'' CFW management has put out at meetings that employees are required to attend.
Among the falsehoods the company has spread about the union, according to Anglin, are charges that the union is Mafia-affiliated, that only a tiny percentage of union dues go to the local union, and that union officials would get better seniority rights than other workers.
But a company spokesman said Friday he knew nothing about the charges Anglin was making and would have no comment on them. Rory Fallato, corporate marketing manager for CFW Communications Co. of Waynesboro, the parent of CFW Information Services, said CFW would respond directly to Anglin about a debate and declined to say whether the company would accept the challenge.
The issues that led workers to ask for union representation are low wages and a lack of dignity for workers in the workplace, Anglin said. The workers had discussed unionizing with the Communications Workers of America but turned to the Paperworkers because of their strong presence in the Alleghany County area, Anglin said.
Fallato said work environments in a paper manufacturing plant and in a service operation like CFW's are vastly different and that the union couldn't help CFW's employees.
CFW offers good wages and benefits and a good working environment, Fallato said. It recognizes its workers rights to join any organization but believes talk between employees and the company can be open and honest without a third party intervening, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB