Bloomingdale’s Holding Off Drive for Teamsters Vote

From a pure numbers standpoint, Bloomingdale’s appears to be gaining the upper hand in its attempt to keep its Fashion Island Newport Beach stores from being organized by the Teamsters Union.

The organizing effort got off to a fast start in early December, when employee-organizers gathered 62 signatures in two weeks asking that the Teamsters represent them in collective bargaining. But the campaign was put on hold this month until Teamsters officials could hold an informational meeting.

That meeting occurred Sunday night at the Newport Beach Marriott, but as of Thursday, the union still had only 62 signatures.

Not that there hasn’t been any action. Organizers signed up eight additional employees since the meeting, sources said, but eight other workers asked for--and were given--their sign-up cards back after a meeting with managers.

To qualify for an election, the Teamsters need signatures from 30%, or about 90 of the stores’ approximately 290 workers. Bloomingdale’s operates two stores at the outdoor mall, a fashion store that employs about 250 and a home store that employs about 40. However, the stores are operated and being organized as one unit.

Workers are angry about what they say are erratic and high sales quotas that effectively eliminate commissions, expensive health-care benefits and high turnover. Employees said Bloomingdale’s seems to be focusing its efforts on the fashion store. Several fashion-store workers said they have had at least two one-on-one meetings with Bloomingdale’s managers in recent weeks.

About 40 employees--about 14% of the workers at the two stores--attended Sunday night’s meeting. Teamsters’ officials said they were thrilled by the turnout and remain optimistic that they will prevail.

To combat the union, the store has sent out no fewer than six memos to workers, the most interesting of which was a reprint of a report from the Teamsters’ Independent Review Board, which showed that two Local 848 officials had been indicted for taking illegal loans from the union’s pension plan. Manny Valenzuela, organizer for Teamster’s Local 848 in El Monte, acknowledged the charges at Sunday night’s meeting, but dismissed them as a technicality.

The union has countered by filing two complaints against Bloomingdale’s in federal court for allegedly harassing two employees involved in the organizing effort.