CUNA Mutual Employees Seek To Speed UnionSeparation

MADISON, Wis. - (12/08/04) -- White collar workers of CUNA MutualGroup have begun discussions with the Office & ProfessionalEmployees International Union aimed at expediting a vote to createtheir own collective bargaining unit. The two parties hope todefine which of the OPEIU Local 39's 1,400 Madison-based memberswould be eligible to join the new unit and the parameters for apotential vote on the rare separation initiative. "We've beentalking with the International, not the local, on trying to come tosome kind of a resolution but we haven't come to any resolutionyet," Dennis Krull, an IT worker at CUNA Mutual who has spearheadedthe separatist movement, told The Credit Union Journal. Theseparatists have submitted a petition to the National LaborRelations Board on their bid to split off from the main bargainingunit but the federal labor authority has set the petition asidewhile it tries to resolve outstanding complaints on unfair laborpractices lodged by the union against CUNA Mutual. The OPEIU hasbeen at impasse on a new contract for more than eight months andhas been without a contract since the March 31 expiration of itslast three-year pact.