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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by OldSoulHippie@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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!

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[-] Dimmer06@hexbear.net 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

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.

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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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chapotraphouse

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