Thursday, November 2, a Card Check (a process to determine whether or not a majority of employees favor forming a union) was conducted at Central Reform Congregation by Rabbi Susan Talve. Rabbi Talve compared an employee list and signatures (provided by LSEM) with a stack of union authorization cards (provided by the United Media Guild). For the sake of maintaining secrecy, Rabbi Talve performed the check in a room apart from the parties and, when she returned, she announced that a union now existed at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and a crowd of LSEM employees (who had shown up to witness the event) cheered.
Legal Services of Eastern Missouri is dedicated to providing high-quality legal services to low-opportunity clients and communities. LSEM has advanced justice for low-income and marginalized individuals and families through free legal representation, education, and supportive services for over 65 years and The United Media Guild is proud to be associated with them.
For its part, after the Card Check process was completed, LSEM released the following statement:
“As a social justice organization that has stood for the rights of workers and the underserved and for racial and economic justice, while caring deeply about the well-being of our staff, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri respects and recognizes our valued employees’ decision to select the union.
We look forward to bargaining with the union in good faith as we continue to support our employees. We are dedicated to achieving our mission together as we zealously represent our clients.”