So, a few of us have been unhappy for a long time and we have been working toward figuring out what it would take to unionize.
Last Saturday, someone came to the bakery and put flyers under everyone's windshield wiper on their cars. Naturally, some of those cars were management, and more importantly the owner.
Today we had a meeting where they tried to do that "you don't need a union, we can talk if anyone has any issues" thing and a bunch of us laid into the owner about a bunch of things and called him out for trying to stop using organizing.
We have a contact with the local union rep and we are setting up a meeting with them next Friday.
I was wondering if anyone has any insights into what we can expect to happen in the next few weeks. The boss wants to sit down with us troublemakers, and we figure we might as well. It's not going to sway us from our goal, if anything, it will be another chance to slap the boss around again.
Here are some of our issues. I don't know what things fall under the scope of what a union can do for us.
We work long, unpredictable hours in a non-climate controlled baking facility. It's often over 100°f in there.
Our manager uses her weapons grade incompetence to micromanage us into a state of absolute chaos every day, often to the detriment of the product, which we get blamed for and have to remake.
We never know when we are getting a raise, and it's all vibes based numbers anyway. Lower than industry standard.
We recently got into a position where a huge company got majority shareholder status and they want us to double our output.
The facility is unsafe and a lot of our equipment doesn't work, making the job very hard to do.
There is more stuff that I will bring up if I can think of it. I'm writing this after a 13 hour shift of standing in front of the oven. My brain is melted.
Any advice or experiences you want to share would be great!
What union is it? UNITE-HERE? UFCW? Is the employer owned by a chain/restaurant group or is it on its own?
You're safer if you sign a union card. I know it's counterintuitive but if it comes to it
the company has to prove they didn't fire you because you wanted to unionize if you sign it. They probably won't have to prove that if you don't sign it though.
The company will probably hire a legal firm. They might fire union supporters (but probably not organizers). If it's a small shop it might recognize your union and give in to paltry demands but won't negotiate a contract and will make everyone's lives hell.
Don't settle for a first contract. You'll never get a better one if you do.
BCTGM is the union. They work with a company that is bigger than us, but does the same thing we do. I'm sure they work with lots of other food production facilities. There's another one in town that has the same union but it would be a bit of a doxx for me.
I would be very surprised if they fired the five of us that are rocking the boat. We have perpetual staffing issues and they know there's nobody that can do what we do. It would be a seriously diminished bakery and all the work would fall onto people who dont know what they are doing or can't physically hack it. I think that's why they were so scared in the initial meeting when we actually spoke up
Okay so if they're not smart they won't hire a lawyer and they'll panic and do a bunch of unfair labor practices and hand you a Cemex bargaining order.
If they are smart they'll hire a union busting firm. The firm will direct them to have group and/or one on one meetings to try and identify every employee's relationship to the union and what the driving issues are. Asking these things directly is an unfair labor practice but they have ways of doing it that are technically legal. In the same way there will be an increased management/supervisory presence which is totally unrelated to the union campaign because that would be illegal.
After you've gotten recognition is probably when the union busting will begin. They'll enforce rules that they didn't really enforce before to discipline and maybe fire a couple of employees (no matter how understaffed you are). If they absolutely can't to any of the bargaining unit they might do it to a manager. They'll tell people they can't address issues because of the union and will generally just blame any issues on the union. If they think they can win one they'll probably try to sow the seeds of a decertification but that's uncommon.
Idk much about BCTGM because they have no presence where I live but try to get your organizers at the bargaining table. Don't just roll over for the union if something feels wrong about an MOU or the TA as a whole.
The biggest risk with a small shop is the owner selling it or closing it down. If they close it down and you can prove that it was closed because of the union then it's a ULP but if they sell it before you have a contract then the bargaining unit is effectively done and you all have to get rehired and while it's illegal to consider someone's union activity during the hiring process, it absolutely will happen.
Also know your rights in relationship to your union as well as your employer. The LMRDA sets standards for union representation and conduct and protects you from retaliation from your union if any issues every arrive.