<p>The facility I work in is having benefit cuts and some changes to extra pay given to employees who work odd shifts. People are mad. There is a union that is now having informational meetings offsite. I’m going to go to one but I really don’t know what to ask. They represent a facility where I have friends that went through a bumping process when they were laying people off and it was really bad. What happened was people could bump someone out of their position because they had seniority. It didn’t really matter if you had experience in that area, just that you had been there longer.
I’m not sure what I think.
Please help!</p>
<p>I’m sorry that your working conditions are changing for the worse. I hope that someone with more knowledge of unions chimes in. My only suggestions are to ask how much the dues are, how much the union officials are paid, and whether they can put you in touch with workers at other companies where they are in place, who can talk about any positive changes the union was able to achieve.</p>
<p>Unions are all about seniority and very complicated rules. Very complicated. My husband is a member of two and let me tell you, there is a staggering amount of bullying and abuse that happens. He had a disagreement with his shop steward a couple of weeks ago about a work rule and had to borrow my brother’s car to get to work for a few days because the shop steward knows my husband’s car and hubs was concerned about retaliation. In this day and age, laws exist and are enforced to protect workers from employers, but unfortunately there is no protection for workers against unions. Unions are like vampires. If you invite one in, you could be very sorry.</p>
<p>In my limited union experience, I’ve never had a union object to an employee getting paid more than the contract requires. But that is only a small part of your post, and your questions. good luck</p>
<p>"The facility I work in is having benefit cuts and some changes to extra pay given to employees who work odd shifts. People are mad. "
-Just join the rest of us. EVERYBODY will pay more. We have voted for it and most do not have an option to whi…, well, cry on somebody’s shoulder about it. But anyway, if you do, all it is just re-shoveling cost. If employees refuse to pay more than it will simply be less of us working. Just a second grade arithmetic. There are certain business budgets, nobody can stay outside of them forever, well I say nobody becasue not everybody has an option to borrow from China indefinitely.</p>
<p>Well, I guess you could speak to people in the industries that have histrorically been the most heavily unionized - railroads, steel, airlines, autos…oh, wait…never mind.</p>
<p>I was in a union years ago. It’s a long story but I went through one strike and then a situation where I went from union to management during a strike. In my experience the union is not about you it is about the union. It isn’t about the best workers getting the merit raises or priority for advancement. It is about seniority and complicated rules. I don’t feel it helps morale, in fact just the opposite.</p>
<p>^yes, good examples, ear to ear, you made my day!!!</p>
<p>Ask to see the union’s financial statement and get a clear understanding of where your dues are going. As prior posters have said, many unions exist to provide wonderful lifestyles to their executives and do not provide many benefits to employees. Most of the pension plans underperform due to less than arms length relationship with small money managers. </p>
<p>Ask the Hostess twinkie bakers if they are happy with their union.</p>
<p>Is your liine of work one that can be performed elsewhere or is it something that has to be performed at your location? Are other employers who do similar work also unionized?</p>
<p>It can be financially rewarding to work at a union shop - but it can also cause the company to become unprofitable and go bankrupt. In occupations that cannot be done elsewhere (for example construction on a local road, hauling gravel to a construction site, shipping products via truck), there is no alternative to pay union wages and it becomes a cost of doing business.</p>
<p>If the work can be done elsewhere or if other shops don’t have to pay union wages, then it becomes very challenging to stay competitive for your employer and they may not do well.</p>
<p>I’m not a union fan.</p>
<p>If you are just starting, look into the local’s finances, and possibly get a comparison between locals. When we unionized years ago we chose between competing unions. We found the service employees union that wasn’t geographically the closest was still the better choice. </p>
<p>I live in a union town, and am the proud daughter of union workers. I was union at one point, and a former steward. I was proud of the work that was done in regards to favoritism, working conditions and collective bargaining. My DH and I live in a state that has tried to cripple the unions where he works, but he happily pays his dues voluntarily since he will have a voice when contract negotiations come up at the end of this year.</p>
<p>Where i can see a union helping is in cases where workers are expected to work off the clock, where someone with equal amount of experience & skill is being paid less than someone else in the same position, and where workers have unsafe conditions, including not being given breaks or days off.</p>
<p>They arent going to help you in cases of seniority if you don’t have it.
[Unions:</a> Do They Help Or Hurt Workers?](<a href=“Unions: How Do They Help Workers?”>Unions: How Do They Help Workers?)</p>
<p>I also am shocked by zoosermoms story, a union member who is being threatened at work is regulated by laws to protect his rights just as a non union member would be.</p>
<p>I’m not a great fan of unions. They are usually a lot better than ownership. They are only as good as the members who participate in them.</p>
<p>What my husband’s union does is use threats and intimidation to force employees to stay ON the clock to rack up as much overtime as possible. What that means is “leaving work out” for the next guy to get the overtime even when it’s completely reasonable to complete the tasks on straight time. Heaven help you if you have no interest in doing that. You will be taught a lesson.</p>
<p>Both my parents were in unions and I think for them, at the time, it was helpful. I’m not sure about my situation now. It’s a healthcare facility and it’s for the nurses only. Management has been very flexible with allowing department managers to run their staff. For example, they have allowed different work schedules (ie 12 hour shifts) when a dept wanted it but didn’t make all the depts go to 12 hours, they allow managers to keep jobs open for employees that are on leaves for various reasons beyond what is required by the govt. The cuts came in place of layoffs. Personally I’d rather have less per hour than no job, but that’s just me. I’ve been laid off before and it’s no fun. I’m really really concerned about the bumping issue. My friend got bumped (she was an emergency nurse) by a maternity nurse and my friend ended up bumping someone out of CCU. She was crying all the time because it got so vicious. I love the department I work in and would hate to be forced to work in a different one just to keep my job.</p>
<p>At my wife’s work place (she is a nurse), the non-profit “Catholic” health care provider attempts to make uniltateral take-backs of insurance benefits, change retirement rules, reduce seniority increases, change assignment rules (and have them done by a company affiliate out-of-town which does not even know the patients), etc., etc. The only thing that stops them is the union - and the membership’s active participation (without that participation, the union is useless.)</p>
<p>"I love the department I work in and would hate to be forced to work in a different one just to keep my job. "
-Peopla do whatever, when asked to jump, they ask “How high?”. I am not sure if everybody knows that. Just sharing in my wisdom. Yes, you do whatever is told to keep your job. If you have to work some straight 32+ hours, you do it too. If you can sleep only 3 hours, you do it and if you cannot keep awake after that, it is also your personal responsibility. You take care of your own health so that you do not take sick days. If takes 2 hours of exercise, you do it. If it takes reading foreign language without having any background, you do it, use whatever resources, it is your personal responsibility. As I said, just like everybody else and, almost forgot, retire at 66, not 55…and many other things. But if you want to be a part of mangement team, welcome to pursue your education and join the team. I do not know anybody who says NO, you cannot do it. If you do not like your place of employment, you also have a great VETO power, the right to walk out the door, it is wide open, nobody will stop you. I was forced out many times, I walked out by myself many times, but THANK GOODNESS, I did not need to deal with union…and they came at one of my places, so pushy, came to my home, I was p----ed, I had only one work for them and repeated it many times: “NO”.</p>
<p>Ask the Hostess employees whether they are happy with the company management that awarded themselves huge increases ranging up to 300% while driving the company into the ground. Ask whether they are happy with the ownership that loaded the company with debt but didn’t put any money back into the business.</p>
<p>As mini said, unions can have their issues, but they can also be better than management. From what you say, the management of your hospital has been flexible, far more flexible than a union could be. Has your hospital been forthright about the reasons for these cutbacks? Are they needed to keep the organization on a sound footing, or are they being used to siphon money out to a corporation that owns the hospital or to provide a bigger profit windfall for certain people or whatever?</p>
<p>In a large company, management speaks for ownership’s financial interests. Who speaks for yours? You may like management decisions or you may hate them, but you can be assured they didn’t make them particularly with your interests in mind.</p>
<p>The story of the backstabbing between the Teamsters and the Bakers Union is utterly fascinating in a car wreck sort of way.</p>
<p>Mini, unions don’t always make decisions with the membership in mind. If the members’ interests are served, it is completely incidental. Sometimes the members’ interests conflict with each other or with the union. Individual members will never win out against the union.</p>