Security professionals working at Shearon Harris Nuclear facility in North Carolina had their voices heard on Thursday June 22, 2006. The result, 47 highly trained security professionals voted in favor of unionization by the SPFPA while 39 voted against with 11 challenges still to be determined in an upcoming hearing at the National Labor Relations Board.

"The irony of this whole situation is the fact that the National Labor Relations Board in North Carolina changed the eligibility date from December 8th 2005 to June 1, 2006 allowing Securitas to hire 12 new trainees on June 1, 2006 to be eligible to vote in this election. This is what the union calls stacking the deck in favor of the employer, since these 12 new trainees would be in favor of voting no". Stated Steve Maritas SPFPA Organizing Director.

Securitas’ underhanded tricks against its own employees at Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant are not new. Just prior to the first scheduled election on January 1, 2006; the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, SPFPA filed charges against Securitas with the National Labor Relations Board for violations of election laws during the first campaign. The charges included granting $1.00 raises prior to a scheduled vote on January 26, 2006, threatening employees that : annual performance- based raises would no longer occur because there was going to be a union vote; the employer could take away anytime they wanted, the $1.00 per hour across the board raise the employees had received starting January 1, 2006;

If the union was elected, that Securitas would take the $1.00 raise the employees had received on January 1, 2006; if the union was elected, the employer would start negotiations at zero and reduce the employees’ wages from where they were as of January 1, 2006; if the union was elected, the employer would stop employees from reading, watching TV, and listening to music-but if the union was not elected, the employer would overlook these activities; if the union was elected, employees would no longer be allowed to bring food in to the briefing room on New Year’s or any other time, as they had previously been able to do- that room could only be used for official business in the future; if the union was elected, supervisors would no longer help employees with their checks when they were shorted on time; and Securitas representatives engaged in surveillance of suspected union supporter employees and engaged in threatening, anti-union conversations in the presence of such employees. The union ultimately dropped these charges as well as other charges filed by the SPFPA so that a new election could take place on June 22, 2006.

At this time the SPFPA will have their day in court on behalf of these Securitas officers, hopefully in a couple of weeks before the NLRB in North Carolina. The arguments are clear:

q The NLRB had changed the eligibility date from December 8th 2005 to June 1, 2006 without the approval of the SPFPA.

q The employer had underhandedly hired 12 new trainees on June 1, 2006 to offset the yes vote in favor of Securitas.

q The NLRB had refused to accept the SPFPA challenges that these 12 new trainees were ineligible to vote based on the payroll period, thus forcing the union, SPFPA to challenge these 12 new trainees as supervisors of Securitas.

q Securitas threatened its employees with loss of benefits in a recent letter written by Deb Leatherberry during the critical period of the second election.

q During this hearing the SPFPA will ask the NLRB to open these 11 challenges. If the union is successful in receiving two (2) yes votes out of the 11 votes the union will automatically win based on the numbers.

In the end the SPFPA is confident that the union on behalf of every Shearon Harris Nuclear security professional will prevail! To accomplish this goal the SPFPA International President David L. Hickey has authorized our general counsel to do what ever is legally necessary to protect the rights of security professionals working at Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant.

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