There’s a lot of talk going around my workplace that we will soon be union. CWA, to be exact. I’ve been a member of that union, in a former job, and if my prior experience is at all representative of the way a union shop works, I don’t expect to be having my job in 6 months.
The reasons given by a lot of my coworkers for why they’re signing union cards is mainly money. I’ve heard some people in my building bitching about the pay rate, others about the insurance premium copays, and others about benefits & whatnot. (One thing that surprises me is that I’ve not heard complaints about Oregon being an “at will” state – in other words, you can be laid off or fired from your job for any reason or none at all, if you aren’t union.)
The coworkers I’ve heard complain about their wage apparently thought that wage was just fine when they were hired…but now, arbitrarily, they feel entitled to more – but for no apparent reason, since their job duties & responsibilities won’t be increased. (That sounds like the public school system, actually…”go ahead & do nothing but be a place-holder, we’ll still promote you even though you haven’t earned it.”) The coworkers I’ve heard complain about the changes in the insurance plan might want to consider that a sizeable percentage of workers in Oregon have no insurance, or pay a hell of a lot more (my recollection is that I paid $290 a month at my last job – just for the monthly premium, not even counting office visit & prescription copays). I wonder how many of them have even bothered to ask what the union dues will costs yearly, what exactly the union will “do” for them specifically, and what sort of job market is out there right now. It’s not a great job market, I know that much – and the union is not going to help you get another job when the one you’ve got is downsized or you get fired for cause.
As far as I can see, the people at work who have rushed to sign union cards, and are eagerly awaiting the official word that we’re now a union shop, are basically greedy and incredibly short-sighted. Promises of a buck or two an hour more on the paycheck, a lower copay on the insurance premiums – I guess that’s what they figure is worth an interfering union and an antagonistic working atmosphere. My experience is that when a shop is union, the workplace environment becomes “us against them” – the hourly-paid vs. the salaried, the workers vs. the management. Hey, I don’t like my boss’ boss; and I highly doubt that he would have gone off on me like he did several months ago over my attendance record if I’d had a union steward present, instead of just my supervisor.
But I responded professionally, and counted on my performance to speak for me instead of a union rep – and I still have my job, my supervisor likes my work and continues to be as encouraging as ever, and his boss hasn’t said one negative word toward me in the months since. I really think that, in the grand scheme of things, my boss’ boss doesn’t really notice me – and that’s the way I like it. If we’d been a union shop back when he threatened my job, instead of a talking-to (during which he told me the main reason he wasn’t firing me was my supervisor’s recommendation to keep me on the payroll), I almost certainly would have just gotten a summary dismissal after a formal review of my attendance.
I’m no happier than anyone else about the proposed increase on the insurance premium & prescription copays, that will take effect at the end of the calendar year when the pre-merger benefits expire. I don’t like the idea of paying $120-$160 a month for my prescriptions (which is what I will be paying), instead of the $30 a month I pay now. I don’t like the idea that my free unlimited cell phone plan is going away, to be replaced by a 1000-minute maximum (I can rack up those minutes!), and probably having to pay for sending the couple-hundred text messages I usually send a month, instead of getting them all free. Geoffrey won’t be able to have his cell phone plan after a few more months, because they are no longer allowing employees’ relatives to have service without a credit check (with deposit) and without an annual contract, so pretty soon I’m going to have to switch his phone to a prepaid plan (which costs more & is a lot less convenient). Yes, my monthly overall costs due to the changes are going to be a minimum of $150 a month more than I’m paying now.
But it’s still better than being a union shop. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-union across-the-board! I believe that, like all else in life, there is a time and a place for union representation of workers. In some states, or some industries, I firmly believe that a labor union is decidedly needed and beneficial. But not in my industry in my state. Nobody who works in my building is being taken advantage of by management, or coping with a hostile work environment.
I don’t like the idea of paying union dues, either, when what I’ll be getting in return is probably far-stricter company policies on departmental standards, attendance, review procedures, and quite possibly the eventual loss of many jobs through “downsizing” as the corporate offices slash positions that they no longer consider cost-effective at union wages instead of our current ones.
Hell, this is Portland, Oregon. If they want to fire a significant minority of the employees, all they have to do is start popping random drug tests. When I was hired there was no drug-testing, and as far as I know, there is no drug-testing now, but I’m certain that will change under a union because the company will be grasping for any reason they can find, to get rid of unreliable employees who might not be cost-effective, instead of giving them a bit more time to become reliable, as is the current practice. I’m pretty certain that at least 10% of my coworkers like to smoke out occasionally. It will probably be the company’s first step in trying to fire those they consider “trouble-makers” – and not even the union will be able to save your ass if you pop positive on a drug test, not the way that America is insanely anti-drug these days.
And for all the supposed “improvements” that I’ve heard many coworkers claiming will happen under a union umbrella, I haven’t heard a single soul ask…”What do they get out of it?” I’ll tell you. The union gets several hundred more members, which translates into more money and more political clout in a state which is not heavily unionized. Those idealists who think the union gives a rat’s ass about any given employee at my company are going to be in for a shock when the company starts the downsizing, and the layoffs for cause…all documented, nice as you please, to discourage the union from making noise about it. Considering that the only firings I’ve seen at my company in the almost 2 years that I’ve been there were for either a serious attitude problem or a serious attendance problem, I don’t think for one second that the union is going to be protecting jobs.
Even if my particular department isn’t downsized (which I suspect it will be, since technically we’re a “duplicate” of a pre-merger department in the parent company’s offices elsewhere), I have little to no hope that my working conditions and camraderie with the management team in general will continue to remain pleasant. I have little hope that the general atmosphere in the building will remain upbeat, or that the company will reward employees for their effort instead of for nothing more than tenure (which is what I’ve observed is the case in union shops). It’s fiercely disheartening that, at some point in the forseeable future, I probably won’t look forward to going to work every day anymore.
Guess I’d better get my resume updated and polish up my interview skills.
