question about unions. i want a union to come to where i work.

[dempartisan23]

how do i go about that. i work in a call center with more than 1000 employees and we need to have a union come in to protect us. how do i ask a union to come in?

[LakeSamish706]

1. Decide which Union that you want to have, then find there phone #...

Give them a call and they will have the Union Rep. contact you. Do others that work there feel the same as you do?

[dempartisan23]

3. yes

its a very oppressive environment

[LakeSamish706]

4. A recommendation: keep it as low key as you can and tell your fellow employee's...

the same. You don't want owners/managers to be forewarned and cause you any grief.... Been there and done that.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

15. Keep us posted. You're doing the right thing! N/T

[Juche]

2. The SEIU might help

I'm guessing a local chapter of SEIU might help you guys organize.

http://www.seiu.org/lookup/index.cfm

[nosmokes]

5. Contact your local labor council if you're unsure

what union you might want or how best to go about trying to organise. There should be something listed under your county or region in the phone book. The unions most relevant are likely to be either CWA or as above poster stated maybe the SEIU, although depending on the call center, you might want the teamsters or someone else. Good luck! and solidarity is power. Up the rebels! And keep us posted om your progress please.

[dempartisan23]

7. thanks

and i will try to keep it as secret as possible.

[LiberalFighter]

6. You will have to be very well organized to succeed.

You might have 50% +1 to win the right to belong to a union before the vote. But it could end up with 30%.

If your petition is going to be successful you will need to have at least 60% of the eligible workers sign a card to get the 50% +1 final vote.

A union organizer also cannot be on company property without the owner's permission. That means you and whoever else favors a union will have to the the in-plant organizers getting the message out. That can be a risk to you and those involved.

[dempartisan23]

8. that sounds unfair

the employer has all the advantages.

[LiberalFighter]

9. It's their place of business.

Consider that the owners can also require every employee to watch videos that are contradictory of unions. They can lie about unions without retribution. They can take down any union organizing notices. They can require one on one meetings to "discuss" union organizing activities or other related issues.

They are not suppose to fire any employee that is trying to organize but if they feel it will be to their advantage they will.

Any protected in-plant organizing can only be done during breaks and even then there may be other limitations.

The union does not have access to any mailing lists of employees until about 10 days before an election. They have to determine the number of employees that the company has and whether they are eligible to be in a union. The company could decide that certain employees are supervisors and therefore not eligible to be in a union. They could change the duties of certain employees that were part of the organizing drive to make them ineligible. They could hire new employees when it gets closer to an election resulting employees that have not had time to learn the necessity of a union. And thereby increasing the number needed for a union vote.

There might be some co-workers that do something they were educated not to do resulting in difficulties in the drive.

It will involve a lot of work on your part and co-workers involved and the individual assigned by the union making as few mistakes as possible.

[dempartisan23]

10. thats a little scary

will a union mail me all these rules and regulations so i dont get in trouble?

[LiberalFighter]

20. Most likely you attend the meeting and the organizer will explain it all.

[kentuck]

11. Unless you live in Colorado?

You would want to get a list of names of people you work with that will agree to vote for the union. In CO, it takes 75% to agree to union representation. In most states, 50% plus one. But, you would be wise to have at least 75% before you call for an election. The company would then have a secret ballot election. You vote for the company or you vote for the union. A representative for the company would count the votes for the union and a union representative will sometimes count the votes for the company. If you get the most votes, you have union representation. However, you would probably be wise to get a sensible group together with factual information and numbers before you approach a union rep. That's the way we did it - but that was quite a few years ago. :-) However, please be ready to have some companies shut the business down if they are not ready to work with union restrictions.

[dempartisan23]

12. i live in virginia

[Virginia Dare]

21. Right To Work state, UPHILL climb unfortunately...n/t

[Canuckistanian]

13. I helped start a union in my workplace

Actually, I initiated it.

The reason? Our boss. He was the personification of Montgomery P. Burns. I kid you not. He once offered to pay our receptionist to have an abortion because he didn't want to keep that position open for her.
He liked to loan money to employees (even to hold their mortgages at "resonable rates"). He picked fights with people he thought were disloyal - and I mean physical fights.

We had lousy pay, we were watched constantly and the atmosphere was poisonous. You either sucked up to the boss or you paid the consequences.

A bunch of the saner employees decided to do something about it. So one day I just walked into a union hall and asked the first person I saw how to start a union in our company. I never saw people who snapped to attention so fast. They were great.

We were organizing fine until one guy found out about us. He alerted the dickhead boss, I was fired on the spot.

That's when the union stepped in with the big guns. We went to the labor board. We won. I got my job back, the certification was granted automatically and I became the union steward. We improved a lot of things and the boss backed off his assholish behavior.

Shortly after that, I left the company, mainly because I hated the work. But we made things better for the people who decided to stay.

[dempartisan23]

14. great job!!

[Canuckistanian]

17. Thanks

Things might be lot harder for you, since I organized here in Canada, where it's more labor-friendly.

And it was almost 15 years ago as well.

A few tips:

Keep working hard

Don't talk union while working - keep it quiet, outside and on breaks or after work.

KNOW who you're organizing with - keep the "need-to-know" information within your oraganizing leadership group. And don't accept new people you don't know.

Work closely with your union sponsor and do what they say

Make sure you have a good lawyer who's available at all times (the union will probably have one)

KEEP RECORDS - of every infraction, every injustice - names, dates, places. You'll need them.



Good luck!

[kentuck]

18. Usually the work conditions have to be really terrible...

before employees even think about a union.

I worked at a place where the boss would come into the break room and turn the lights out on you 1 minute before your break was over. A few of us employees went to talk to a union rep and got an election held - whether to have a union or not. It was unanimous. The employees wanted me to be the union steward but I left the place immediately after the union was formed. It was not going to be a friendly place for me to work and the job wasn't that great anyway. I was much younger then. But, it makes you feel proud years later that you were able to accomplish something like that...

[Critters2]

16. You might want to cross-post this in the Labor Forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=367


I'd guess there are people with organizing experience there.

[1]

19. this effort is a bit trickerier....

i've been trying to to think of a way to state this in a way that won't get me completely flamed and banned...

and i can't. so i'll just say it.

to do this, you have the additional burden of getting the COMPANY to buy into the union concept as well. not just your workers. the COMPANY too.


a "call center" is the easiest thing to offshore to another country. to save money. its not millions of dollars of machinery and workers that they might lose to a union effort. its just telephones and cubicles in their mind. i know, the intellectual property, what you know and what you do is worth so much more than that. but they don't.

so your task will be double-y hard.

and if you go this course, just know you have to convince both sides.

first the workers. then the company. the workers will probably be cool with it. the company will probably be willing to kill you all off.



think about this from both sides (one good, one evil, i know).

that is your task...