Indiana Brylane Workers Vote to Join Union
Workers at Brylane distribution centers in Indiana voted yesterday to join the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, the union announced.UNITE spokesperson Mary Kay Devine said 383 out of 738 cards were validated as being in favor of the union.
"We look forward in the next month or two to begin negotiations regarding pensions, health and safety issues and guaranteed raises," she said. "The workers in Indianapolis received, several months ago, raises of 7 or 17 or 21 cents, while the company's unionized counterparts in Massachusetts were getting 55- and 60-cent raises."
The vote affects workers at the Indianapolis and Plainfield, IN, distribution centers, Brylane's central Indiana catalog distribution locations.
The company and UNITE agreed in December that Brylane employees would be able to vote in a secret card/ballot mail-in procedure, supervised by a mutually agreed-upon neutral third party.
Brylane Chairman/CEO Russell Stravitz, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, said in a statement that the company "will move forward to establish a productive working relationship with the union and we will negotiate a contract in good faith."
Brylane, a subsidiary of Redcats, the home shopping division of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, markets and distributes apparel and home furnishings for various mail-order catalogs. It has more than $1.6 billion in sales.
