Union members calling households in labor fight

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.coshoctontribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080719/NEWS01/807190328/1002/NEWS01

July 19, 2008

CINCINNATI (AP) - Thousands of households are getting phone calls from striking workers at a nursing home in northern Ohio seeking support in their labor fight over wages and benefits.

Long used by politicians, automated or "robo" calling is gaining momentum in the labor movement, experts said.

The 90-second calls on behalf of workers at Hillside Acres nursing home in Willard - voiced by the union steward - urge people to call the home's owner "and tell her to do the right thing" and negotiate with strikers.

Jeff Stephens of UFCW Local 911 in Toledo said pickets have told him that a few people have gone to the picket line to show their support because of the calls. The local represents 31 employees at the nursing home, including the 21 who have been on strike since May.

A sister union in Cincinnati used the robo technique in a contract dispute last year with grocer Kroger Co.

Robo calling on nonpolitical issues is a new idea for labor that could prove very effective, said Harley Shaiken, a labor specialist at the University of California-Berkeley who had heard of the tactic being used in a West Coast grocery chain dispute.

FULL story at link.