In advance of union election, Capital Bikeshare worker fired for organizing [View all]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/11/26/in-advance-of-union-election-capital-bikeshare-worker-fired-for-organizing/

By Lydia DePillis November 26

Fhar Miess has never considered himself a boss.

Sure, he coordinated schedules and served as a liaison to management at Capital Bikeshare, where he supervised a dozen people who roam around the city making sure the red bikes are in working order. He was paid more for the job, but says he didn’t really have any more power than the rank and file, who had chosen him for the role.


Fhar Miess, leader of the bike checkers at Capital Bikeshare, shows off his new status. (Courtesy Nichole Procopenko)


“Ultimately, in my department, we operate in a completely horizontal fashion,” says Miess. “It had more to do with the amount of paperwork I had to shuffle than anything else. It didn’t impute any singular authority as far as I was concerned.”

But that small amount of leadership responsibility was still enough to get him fired: Under the law, “supervisors” aren’t allowed to help “employees” organize a union. And well, Miess was trying to organize workers at Capital Bikeshare. Last month, he coordinated the signing of 56 union cards, or 87 percent of the workforce, which triggers an election. Alta Bicycle Share, an operator of bikeshare systems in nine cities across the country that was recently purchased by an investment firm in New York, warned him to stop.

FULL story at link.