CUNA Mutual Employees Seek SeparateBargaining Unit

MADISON, Wis. - (08/11/04) -- A group of CUNA Mutual Groupemployees, frustrated at the current impasse on contractnegotiations, have begun an unusual effort to break away from theLocal 39 of the Office and Professional Employees InternationalUnion, in order to form their own collective bargaining unit. Thegroup, comprised mostly of employees in the insurer's ITdepartment, have begun circulating a petition asking whetheremployees want to create a separate bargaining unit, according toDennis Krull, a spokesman for the group. The group would consist ofas many as 600 of the Local 39's current 1,400 members, Krull toldThe Credit Union Journal. The new unit, if approved, could still berepresented by the OPEIU, he said. The highly unsual splintering ofthe Local 39 needs 30% of the employees in the proposed bargainingunit to sign the petition, which must be approved by the NationalLabor Relations Board.

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