🚀 ELECTION UPDATE 🚀 Ballots will be mailed on Thursday, August 17th. The Regional Office must receive ballots before Friday, September 8th at 2 pm.
Read the full instructions here: Election Guidelines
Where We're At
The unionization process can seem complicated and confusing. Below, we have outlined the general steps toward unionization - the checkmarks indicate the steps we have already completed!
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Step 1: Build An Organizing Committee
Get together with trusted coworkers who want to improve their workplace, and get a sense of support and numbers. Then, talk to a union organizer, create a plan, and build support for the union. An essential component of this step is creating an organizing committee, who represents all major departments and reflects the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in the workforce.
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Step 2: Adopt an Issues Program
The committee develops a program of worker demands and a strategy for the union election campaign. A plan for highlighting the universal demands and widely-felt issues in the workplace is carried out through various organizing campaign activities and is generally called an issues program.
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Step 3: Majority Sign Union Cards, File w/NLRB
This means the majority of the workforce files for authorization with the NLRB for legal recognition of a union. They pledge their official support by signing union cards. If a majority of workers sign union cards, the company has the option to voluntarily recognize the union and the expressed desires of the workers without an election, but they can (and usually) refuse this and demand an election while they begin their own union-busting/boss campaign.
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Step 4: Win the Union Election
The signed cards are used (and required) to petition the state or federal labor board to hold an election. It will take the labor board several weeks to determine who is eligible to vote and to schedule the election. 50% of the votes cast in the election plus 1 are needed in order to win. If the election is won, the employer must recognize and bargain a contract with the union. Winning a union election not only requires a strong, diverse organizing committee and a solid issues program, but there must also be a plan to fight the employer's anti-union campaign.
We are here!
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Step 5: Negotiate a Contract
The organizing campaign does not let up after an election victory. The real goal of the campaign is a union contract (the document the union and the employer negotiate and sign, covering everything from wages to how disputes will be handled). Typically following the election workers elect a bargaining committee who work with union staff to bargain the contract. Usually the bargaining committee will conduct surveys and perform outreach to coworkers to identify the most pressing issues and work through possible solutions. Workers also have the option to push for "open bargaining." In this approach, negotiations are open to all workers. This helps keep management in check and lets them know they're being watched. In the event that management continually makes negotiations difficult, workers can use escalating tactics to put pressure on the boss and win the contract.
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Step 6: Continue to build and strengthen the Union!
The union is what the workers make of it and is only as effective as the workers empower it to be. Even after a contract is negotiated, the union continues to maintain worker solidarity and power, and effectively responds to any future conditions in the workplace that are unacceptable (through methods such as filing grievances or enforcing the union contract). Active worker participation in developing and steering the union is crucial for its democracy and strength. The uninoization process requires hard work! Many unions can take 1 or more years of dedication from the beginning to winning the first contract. IN THE END IT’S WORTH IT FOR YOU TO HAVE A VOICE AT WORK AND A SAY IN HOW THINGS GO!
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