(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17 Business Manager Gary Swain said he was buoyed by the recent results of Workers United’s successful organizing campaign with Starbucks’ Partners - an effort that started here in Buffalo and now has spread like wildfire across the United States.

Swain told WNYLaborToday.com that he felt it “sent a message ‘out to all’” Workers and “that even though everyone thought there was ‘no way’ (Starbucks) corporate ‘would allow this, it gave the rest of us (in the Labor Movement) hope’ (to do the same and organize Workers).”

And just about the same time Workers United was knee deep working to organize Buffalo’s Starbucks’ Partners, Local 17’s Organized Bob Lough and Rebecca Holman were doing the same, working with 15 Workers employed at Csi (Canadian Silica Industries) Sands (N.E.) Ltd. - a sand mining company that operates a facility on Furhmann Boulevard in Buffalo and offers expertise in materials engineering including, concrete, asphaltic concrete, rail ballast, sand and various construction related materials and supply. 

“It was around the end of November.  (The Workers) ‘may have heard’ our (local radio) ads and they reached out to me via e-mail.  We put our Organizers on it,” Swain told WNYLaborToday.com.  “We started holding meetings over a couple of weeks and filed (Unionization) cards.  The (Workers) mailed in their ballots and then on (Wednesday, February 3th), on a Zoom call (the votes were tabulated by the National Labor Relations Board).”

When it was done, three-fourths of the Workers at Csi voted for Unionization with the IUOE.

The Workers at Csi were “tired of the company ‘repeatedly ignoring’ the lack of” safety precautions” that were not being taken on-site, “things ‘they should have been paying attention to,’” Swain said.  “Their Workers ‘just weren’t seeing anything happening.’  ‘This is something we will be bringing up’ at the negotiating table.  All ‘that played into’ their (decision to Unionize) - ‘it was their main concern, but they also wanted better’ wages and benefits too.”

Csi Sands, formerly part of Canada Silica Industries and the LaPrairie Group, specializes in mining and processing high quality silica proppant and foundry sand for the hydraulic fracturing and construction industries.  With trans-load and port facilities in Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit - and in Canada at Windsor and Thunder Bay in Ontario, and shipping access from Csi’s mines that are located in the Upper Peninsula near Brevort Michigan, the company’s end product aggregates supply can be shipped economically through-out the Great Lakes region.

Swain - who says he was “absolutely pleased with the end result,” tipped his hat to Local 17’s Organizers Lough and Holman, who “brought the (Union) Organizing Drive home.”

“They talked (to the Csi Workers) ‘on nights and weekends too.’  ‘It was a (24/7) run,”’ he said. “In the end, the Workers signed up for the ‘Union way of life.’”

The victory is one, Swain says, that he will continue to broadcast across the Western New York Labor Movement, which responded in congratulatory force to the organizing win that the Local 17 Business Manager posted on Social Media (pictured above).

“You ‘see people out there struggling and we need to post things like this because if Workers United can get Starbucks Partners to go (Union), then the sky is the limit,’” he added.