What does it mean for employees to want to start a union? What’s a union? What does it do? Why do people want it and why do company’s fire you over it?
In: 2
So my friend belongs to a union with poor management at a college cafeteria. They had to renegotiate their new contract. Management wanted to take away their ability to cash out vacation at the end of the year. That amounted to something like 3,000 dollars all at once. Most of the workers hated that, and wanted to keep it.
Their union heads argued to keep that vacation payout, but at the cost of a low pay increase, and 0 Covid pay. It wasn’t really a big win, though, as many of them risked their lives daily during the pandemic, and some definitely got sick. If they had striked right as the school year started, they would have had the school over a brine barrel, and the school would have been forced to capitulate. Instead, the school “let them” keep a supposed benefit and got them to give up the promised covid pay and accept a small raise of only 25 cents.
The point is that a stronger union leadership could have gotten them everything. Unions are only as strong as the leadership heading them. However, without the union they would have been lucky to get even the 25 cents, as the company could have just taken the cash out option with 0 replacement, and the workers would have just had to accept it. Only the union prevented this from taking place.
Latest Answers