Union Victory at the Los Angeles Times

Wow, this election was watched from around the country by many with 761 page views yesterday to the blog. I tuned out for a day to allow the results to sink in, pondering what will come next?

Yesterday prior to entering the NLRB Jesse, Jacob, and myself stopped for breakfast across the street at the Pantry, then headed to the 9th floor of the NLRB offices.

Thought the room would be an overflow crowd, but there were only twenty-eight people at the count, with a few seats remaining empty. The room resembled a courtroom, just much smaller.

Before the ballots boxes were opened, both parties examined the boxes to insure to their satisfaction nothing was tampered with. The ballots, once removed from the boxes, were co-mingled into several piles. And the counting began.

Everyone in attendance had paper and pens in hand, to keep track of the votes. The vote went back and forth many times, with yes votes leading at first, and no votes overtaking the yes votes near the end. At one point the no votes had a lead of twelve, but the yes votes overtook and eventually won with the last thirty ballots counted.

Once the counting was completed, many in the room headed to the hallway to send text messages or make phone calls. Times management departed rather quickly from the building, not saying much.

The pro union members handled themselves as gentlemen and did not jump for joy or scream out that they had just pulled off something we could not many years earlier.

Before departing we spoke with the winners downstairs, and Jacob interviewed those remaining for his video blog.