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On the heels of a successful union drive by restaurant workers at the Berkeley marina, another group of employees in the city has called for a union. 

They are the 25 people who work for the 27-year-old nonprofit Community Conservation Center, charged by the city with disposing of its residents’ recyclables. 

The organizing drive is spearheaded by the Industrial Workers of the World, the same almost-century-old union with which the Ecology Center recyclers organized about a decade ago. 

The workers, who are asking for better pay, more vacation time, specific skill level definitions and more democracy on the job, have called for a “card check,” by which a union is automatically established once a majority of the workers sign cards. The employer must agree to the card check. 

But the CCC management has rejected this form of balloting. 

Board secretary Pam Belchamber said a National Labor Relations Board-sponsored vote by secret ballot is the preferable alternative. This method “assures everyone gets to voice their opinion that is confidential,” she said. 

IWW organizer Steve Ongerth, however, argued that a labor board vote could take a year or more. “An employer can delay” the vote, he said. During that time, management might try to fire workers who want to join the union or cut employee hours, Ongerth said. 

“A supermajority signed the cards. They all feel it is in their interest,” he said. 

Belchamber, whose son Jeff Belchamber is CCC manager, said the board had no intention of holding off the election more than a month or 45 days. The board had to look into what unionization would mean for the company, she said, explaining that the concept of their workers joining a union was “new territory.” 

“It’s prudent to take a little time,” she said. “We need to talk about what our responsibility is.”  

Belchamber said the board planned to meet with the workers and a third neutral party to move the process forward.  

“Under no circumstances do we want to delay this.”