Fatima Hussein

fatima.hussein@indystar.com

Ashlie Baire works more than 60 hours a week at two part-time jobs, with dreams of buying her stepfather's house when she can save enough for a down payment.

Splitting her 12-hour workdays between being a cashier for Aramark at Eli Lilly and Co.'s Technology Center South campus and Target in Avon, the 26-year-old Monrovia resident said she wants access to employer-based health insurance since she recently lost coverage through her stepfather’s insurance.

“That's really all I want,” Baire said. For this reason, she has quietly worked with 120 other Aramark co-workers at who are based at Lilly to form a union. The workers joined Unite Here Local 23 in Indianapolis this past week after a long campaign that organizers say had to operate "under cover."

Aramark is a Philadelphia-based services corporation that provides contract food and facilities services to businesses, airports, nonprofits and schools.

Lilly is one of many local organizations that contract with Aramark, including schools and universities.

And they are part of a growing unionization effort that has grown to represent more than 1,000 Central Indiana workers, using methods somewhat different from those employed in the past.

Karen Cutler, a spokeswoman for Aramark told IndyStar, "We have a great deal of respect for our employees and fully support their democratic right to organize."

Culter said Aramark looks forward to bargaining in good faith and "will comply with the law."

A representative of Lilly did not respond to IndyStar's requests for comment.

A new union for a growing industry

The Unite Here union, established in 2004 and affiliated with the AFL-CIO, represents more than 270,000 hospitality, food service, gaming and airline catering workers in the United States and Canada

While Unite Here Local 23 didn't sign on its first member in Indianapolis until 2010, it now has union members under Aramark contracts for Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, Marion University, Butler University and Warren and Pike Township schools.

Stuart Mora, organizer at Unite Here Local 23, said locally, the union has grown five times over since its establishment in Indianapolis in 2006. That growth is unique in Indiana, where statewide union membership has declined from 16.1 percent in 1996 to 11.4 percent 20 years later, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Unite Here's growth may be in part because of changing labor demographics.

Service industry jobs are the fastest growing sector nationally in both percentage and absolute terms, adding 2.9 million jobs for an 18 percent gain between 2010 and 2015, according to the BLS.

As a result, there is a larger pool of workers to unionize, said Marquita Walker, a professor of labor studies at IUPUI.

Walker said as manufacturing — which made up a large portion of union membership in prior years — has slowly declined, those jobs are being replaced with low-income service positions, primarily filled by women.

"Because we've turned into a service economy," Walker said, "there's a focus on trying to organize as many service workers as possible." And they would do well to become union members, she said, "because they don’t make as much as the building trades once did."

Respect, security and representation

When asked why they joined a union, service workers interviewed by IndyStar often responded with one word.

For Doris Jones, it was “respect.”

The Lawrence resident who works as a custodian at Lilly Technology Center South campus, is a member of the Service Employees International Union. She also works as a home health aide.

She helped Unite Here Local 23 start its union at Lilly "because we're all trying to get through this work with a little bit of respect," she told IndyStar.

Doris said she joined the SEIU because the job can sometimes draw indescribable disrespect from white-collar workers.

"I can't even tell you how disgusting people can be," she said, detailing examples of corporate workers smearing feces on bathroom walls.

She said the union has stood up for workers on matters of safety. "Being in a union, they keep you from having to break safety codes," she said.

Mike Kurtz, an Aramark maintenance tech at Marion University said he joined Unite Here for the ability to negotiate the terms of his employment.

Baire, one of Unite Here’s newest members, said health care is a major driver for her. She makes $9.50 an hour working just under 40 hours per week for Aramark and $10.50 an hour working just over 25 hours per week at Target. Neither job provides health benefits.

"I want to have kids one day, and I save as much as I can," she told IndyStar. "But having health care would help a lot in planning for the future."

Cutler at Aramark told IndyStar that the corporation’s employees receive health care coverage, but Baire said she does not qualify for insurance coverage based on the number of hours she works every week.

Mora said the union plans to have a contract convention, where members will express what they want out of their contract, at Butler University. Baire will be seeking health care coverage.

How right to work draws workers underground

Organizers and experts say there is a level of difficulty in maintaining a union in a right-to-work state.

"It isn't much harder to organize, so much as it is harder to sustain," said Lee Adler, a professor at Cornell University's School of Industrial Labor Relations.

Right-to-work laws, supported largely by business groups and Republicans, prohibit unions from mandating that nonmembers pay fees to the unions for representing them. There are fiscal difficulties in maintaining a union that does not mandate dues, Adler said.

In 2014, the Indiana Supreme Court upheld Indiana's "right-to-work" law, reversing a Lake County ruling that found the law violated the state constitution.

The political environment has made organizing drives far more secretive than they used to be, experts say.

"There is a lot of fear in the workplace whether justified or not justified," Mora said, as most service workers are low-income women who are vulnerable to poor treatment at work. "The place to have that honest conversation with folks about what they want out of their job is in a place where they feel safe and comfortable."

Jones explained that organizers of various unions visit prospective members at their homes.

"We'd get in the car, ask to come in, and if we could get in the door, we'd tell them the benefits of joining the union," she said.

Adler said in performing home visits, union members might "profile," a prospective member "and research who their friends are, what kind of things they do outside of work, what their community relationships are, their religious affiliations. ...

"Then they seek people of similar affinity, and ask that union supporter to speak to the other one," Adler said.

Home visits alone won't do it, however, he said.

Walker said organizers will spend a great deal of time cultivating relationships and building committees with community groups to build momentum for union-building.

"We're seeing a lot more talk about collectives from various industries coming together," she said.

The future of unionization in Indianapolis

How the process will change under a Trump administration favorable to right-to-work legislation "is the million-dollar question," Mora said.

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump expressed his preference for right-to-work laws.

Robert Brookins, a professor of labor law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, said the challenge moving forward will be that turnover in the service sector is much higher than in manufacturing,

"It is very hard for unions to do what they have done traditionally when they have that kind of turnover," Brookins said. "But that’s what they are going to have to face."

Especially since "relatively young workers have not shown an inclination as attached to unionism as their parents."

Watson suggested there likely will be less presence of traditional labor unions and an increase of workers represented in different industries uniting for certain causes.

Researchers at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, argue that a majority of unionized workers have no say in who represents them at the collective bargaining table.

Only 6 percent of current workers represented by unions under the National Labor Relations Act voted for the union that represents them, according to a recent study conducted by James Sherk, a researcher at the organization.

This happens because unions do not have to periodically stand for re-election, can win elections with support from less than a majority of workers, often pressure employers into foregoing secret-ballot elections and because it is difficult for workers to request a decertification vote.

Baire disagrees. She said she is hopeful that being a member of a union will be beneficial to her in the future.

"I can already see a change. They're starting to respect us more," she said.

Call IndyStar reporter Fatima Hussein at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @fatimathefatima.