Unfair treatment of employees who have no recourse has lent momentum to the FPE/AFT-affiliated Professionals Guild of Ohio's organizing campaigns over the past eight months.

The Guild's most recent victory was delivered April 11 when some 35 teachers, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel working at the Aurora Academy, a charter school in Toledo known for its work with autistic children, voted for union representation by the Guild, a local of the Ohio Federation of Teachers.

For nearly a year, the Guild has been organizing pockets of county employees throughout the state, ranging from librarians to correctional officers to health care providers. The organizing efforts continue with additional campaigns under way in Richland and Clark Counties.

"There is a great need for union representation, particularly once you get out of the major metropolitan areas," says Chuck DeGrove, the Guild's executive director. Noting that, because unfair treatment--firings without just cause and reassignments without consideration of seniority or qualifications--is a common workplace problem, "the need for a grievance procedure that works" is one of the Guild's top priorities in contract negotiations, DeGrove says.