New York Group Trying To Raid UFCW In Montgomery County

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

An out-of-town labor group with a “checkered past” is raiding Montgomery County government workers, reports UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO. The National Corrections Employees Union (NCEU) from Massachusetts and the New York-based United Public Service Employees Union (UPSEU) are soliciting the Local 1994 members for signatures on a decertification petition. Local 1994 secretary-treasurer Yvette Cuffie says the organizations want to “play on the understandable frustrations of our members who just came through a bruising budget battle.” UPSEU in particular has a “checkered past,” according to Cuffie. “They’ve been associated with raids on the SEIU, AFSCME, the IBEW and the New York Building Trades. In one incident in 2003, complaints about rat contracts on New York building projects persuaded then AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to revoke the IUJAT charter.”