In many ways, the question of whether to bring a union into the plant is the most important decision Team Members will ever make about their workplace.
Before you support a union, be sure you’ve considered all the facts.
One of the most important things to keep in mind is the downside of unionization.
Under the law, unions are able to promise almost anything and never deliver.
For example, they will promise higher wages, better benefits, and better schedules. But they cannot guarantee you will receive these promises—wages, benefits and schedules will be up for collective bargaining.
With a union in place, it will mean giving up your legal right to deal directly with our management team when it comes to your working conditions.
Under a union, workers may get higher wages, lower wages, or wages may stay the same. The same is true with benefits.
Even in Alabama, a right-to-work state, the union would become your exclusive bargaining representative, even if you voted against the union. With a union in place, it means giving up your legal right to deal directly with our management team when it comes to your working conditions.
And, it means giving the union the right to decide for you what’s most important to raise with management. You should always remember that unions have their own interests, and it’s hard for the union to make everyone happy at the same time.
Even if you disagree with the union position, there may be very little you can do about it. In fact, there are numerous examples of where employees at a union shop have spoken out against the union position and been fined by the union–sometimes thousands of dollars.
There is also the issue of union dues, which are automatically deducted from members after taxes.
A worker making $25/hour will pay nearly $750 a year in dues. Over the life of a union contract, that adds up to thousands of dollars. And, over the course of your career, that could be ten thousand dollars that you could have spent on things your family wants and needs.
A federal investigation found more than a dozen UAW officials used member dues to enrich themselves and support their lavish lifestyles.
Each year, the UAW’s legal filings show they take in hundreds of millions of dollars in dues and sometimes pay out as little as $0 on behalf of individual members.
So please remember, union organizers paint a pretty picture of the benefits you will receive from being a union member. But the reality may not be as attractive.