The Workers have spoken;

Brylane has gone UNION!

Indianapolis-At a time when labor could use a little good news along comes the story of the workers at Brylane and their struggle to become unionized.

Brylane markets and distributes apparel and home furnishings in Indianapolis, Boston and France. Until now only the Brylane workers in Boston and France have be unionized. UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) has been relentless in its quest to help the workers at the Indianapolis site to get Brylane to accept the fact that they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The campaign started in October 2001. Locally there were informational pickets at malls that sold Brylane products. A rally attended by supporting union brothers and sisters from a coalition of trade unions was held this past summer. The rally culminated in a march to the offices of the ICE MILLER, (the attorneys retained by BRYLANE). Members from UAW, Carpenters, IBEW, Teamsters, Steelworkers, OPEIU, AFSCME, Plumbers and many more came out to show Brylane that they were in a bigger fight than they bargained for.



There was national and international support. Jobs with Justice threw their full support into the fray. Richard Trumpka, Sec Treas of the AFL-CIO came all the way out from Washington DC to attend the rally.

Brylane wanted to detour UNITE and the workers by using the Forced Election Process. That process gives management time for union busting (or rather union blocking). Companies can get the process to drag on for months while they have time to scare, threaten and use all means to discourage the workers to vote for a union. …..That’s when management makes you "The offer you can't refuse"….
Richard Trumpka spoke at the UNITE Rally in August before the march to the Law Offices of ICE-MILLER.

But it didn’t work that way this time. Brylane already had 2 other plants that were organized and even those workers supported the Indianapolis workers. UNITE demanded a "Card Check". It’s the fairest , most democratic way to settle these situations.
Ken Zeller, President of the Indiana AFL-CIO at UNITE rally.


The NLRB denied Brylanes request for the forced election. It came down to whether it would be Brylane or the union. A neutral party was selected to administer the process and to count signatures of employees' on union cards. Those signatures alone would be the final factor which would end the 15 month battle.

On December 27th, UNITE and Brylane signed a joint statement of agreement that spelled out the process that would determine the fate of the workers. Attorney Paul Deignan, a third party neutral, would administer it. The Campaign period would span from January 9th through January 23rd.

In poker there's lots of ways to win, you can bluff to make the other guy fold, you can raise and make the other guy fold, but if you don’t have squat and the other guy has a full house, and you both know it, its all over. On January 29th the results were announced.




UNITE had the cards. Score one for the little guy.

But what did they win? How about the fact that now they can negotiate for health benefits, safety issues, guaranteed raises, the right to negotiate a contract in good faith, the right to file grievances when they think they've been treated unfairly. These are
Score one for the little guy,

Brylane is a Union shop.

fundamental concepts that all workers want, and what unions

have been fighting for since the 1800's.

The elated workers who had waited for the decision on the sidewalk in front of Diegnan's office jumped up and down, cheering, dancing, and generally not even trying to hide their happiness.

Its great they won, we all won. It's too bad we still have to fight so hard and so long for something that just seems so obvious. Congratulations UNITE, well done.


posted by Kelly Thursday, February 06, 2003

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