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!
Okay so also I will address your specific questions.
The temperature is working conditions and a safety issue. Both 100% things for a union to negotiate. Unpredictable hours is something a company lawyer will argue are a management decision necessary for the company to function. It will be a demand to bargain and is winnable. Innoculate people from management's rhetoric on this.
Whike you cannot write, "fire Karen" into a contract, you can bargain for working conditions that prevent her incompetence and may end up with her being fired. Really, your productivity doesn't really matter unless you are really into bakes goods or something, from the workers' perspective. The company should care about that instead. But what you may want to bargain is for predictable schedules, professional development opportunities, and a reliable, respectful workplace. Once you have a union you can also just have constant meetings with this manager and your rep and exhaust them.
If you enumerate exactly what her problems are re: your conditions you can create a list to imoroce them. This becomes an article for bargaining. As always, you will demand more than you expect to get.
This is 100% a union thing. This is what you will absolutely win. This is what you strike for. Every contract you will get a raise and it will be above industry average because you will demand more. This is the one thing where you will stick hard to your demand and not negotiate once the demand is public. This is your centerpiece. Something like, "35% raise!". Emphasize that you are underpais but that you perform well. Gather stats about other similar workplaces to prove it.
That's their problem. They try to make it yours. The union will make that distinction by setting a baseline for working conditions - pay, hours, etc. You can bargain for positions to be full time and regular hours. Then it is on them to hire more people if they want more output.
If they try to change working conditions between contracts, you can simply say that violates the contract and they need to bargain at the next one. Whilee facility is unsafe and a lot of our equipment doesn't work, making the job very hard to do.
PS this may just be a ploy for layoffs
This is a commom thing to bargain and very difficult for them to argue without giving you fodder to strike. "They won't even make X safe! They think your life/hand/eyes aren't worth a few thousand dollars!"
Good stuff! It's helping me narrow down what we can reasonably bring to the table next week
Nice! What do you mean by "bring to the table next week"?
We have a meeting with both the union rep and the owner (different meetings) next week.
Might all be moot for me though because I just had a good interview at a different bakery today. I had the interview lined up before everything blew up at my job. It would be a pay cut but also a stress cut. No matter how the union thing shakes out, it's still going to be a soulless bread factory with miserable workers, so I'm kind of thinking about pulling the rip cord just for my own sanity.
I wonder if you are in what's called a hot shop.
I'll Google it. I'm not familiar with that term
Ah, nice.
If you are interested, you can always continue organizing a previous workplace. Most meetings happen outside workplace hours and there is a lot of planning work to do.
I'm a little interested. The job I just interviewed for won't get me to retirement. I would be interested in pivoting to working for union organization some day
Depending on which union you associate with it can be possible to turn your organizing experience into a position at that union (obviously I can't say much with certainty). Especially if you perform well or your workplace is large / has potential for expansion. For example, your workplace was bought out. Maybr there are more bakeries in this company now and you would be the expert at unionizing them. Are you talking with UFCW? Some locals / regional teams are pretty good. UNITE HERE is better but has less money.
The people telling you that the union can't get your manager removed are not correct. Unions usually cede management rights to the company but there's absolutely no reason they have to and there's no reason they couldn't demand a manager be removed in negotiations.
There is zero chance you can get, "fire Karen" into a contract. But you can get Karen de facto fired by requiring working conditions that prevent her influence and make her a problem for the company. The company will only care when it is clear she is expensive dead weight, not just because workers complain about her.
Also the worst middle managers are nepo hires.
Good to know. Honestly just getting her demoted or relegated to office work would be enough for us to get what we want. Maybe we will ask for her to not be in charge of production. She has such a tenuous grip as it is