I want to help the union get us a better contract, how do I do so?

[Estil]

Now, this is my first job where we have a union (and unfortunately, being in the union is MANDATORY in this state; more on that later) and we have our contract up for renewal about a year from now. Problem is that said contract is very weak; actually the benefits are great if you're full-time, but it's next to impossible to get full-time anymore. For those of you who have experience with being in unions (ours is UFCW), how can I help make a REAL difference in helping us get better benefits, like no "part-time cap" on hourly rates, 50 cent premium for office people/cashier supervisors (they currently get NOTHING), and so on?

Another big problem is that I'm a conservative libertarian (who tends to vote Republican on the national level) and from the UFCW's website and newsletters, they seem to be nothing more than a "liberal Democrats only club". That is, the spend the vast majority of the website/newsletter's space bashing anyone with an R next to their name, fawning over anyone with a D next to their name (regardless of their actual voting records) and let's not forget the ever popular Wal-Mart bashing. That leaves very little to no space for actual worker issues, such as getting better contracts/benefits. IOW, I'd love to go to meetings and such and do my part to make a difference, but not if it means having to hear my political ideology bashed for most of the meeting.

Frankly, I don't think neither management OR the union really has our best interests at heart. But you know what? After awhile you sorta get tired of just complaining about lack of benefits/low wages and such. I want to DO SOMETHING about it.

[lordlundar]

Well, to start off with, put the politics on the back burner. This is about worker rights, not political ambitions. If they want to get political, fine, but that's not what you're there for.

And be sure to start the meeting with that.

Next off, be assertive. If you sit there meekly trying to make your point, then you'll be ignored. Speak clearly and let everyone know you are there and you are not going to be bullied.

Get into the flow of the meeting. If they handle it orderly, then respect that. If they interrupt you, respond in kind.

[Estil]

Well, to start off with, put the politics on the back burner. This is about worker rights, not political ambitions. If they want to get political, fine, but that's not what you're there for.

And be sure to start the meeting with that.

Next off, be assertive. If you sit there meekly trying to make your point, then you'll be ignored. Speak clearly and let everyone know you are there and you are not going to be bullied.

Get into the flow of the meeting. If they handle it orderly, then respect that. If they interrupt you, respond in kind.

I absoultely agree they shouldn't worry about politics. And the assertiveness is what I definetly need to work on, especially towards management. I just don't like getting taken advantage of, you know what I mean?

[Retail Associate]

I despise the UFCW with every fiber of my being. I'd much rather find a way to get them OUT of my work place. They're useless, greedy bastards who continuously raise our dues while each new contract is worse than the previous one.

They do absolutely nothing for their members even when presented with facts and written proof. My employer owes me several hundred dollars in back pay because I was never given 3 raises due me during my first 29 weeks at the store. I've tried to get help from the union but they refused.

Also, starting at week 29 and beyond, we are supposed to get a raise after every 1,000 hrs worked. I was nearly half-way to my raise (459 hrs) when the minimum wage went up in my state in October. As soon as that took affect my hours were cut from 30/wk down to 18 and my total hours worked toward my raise were erased and dropped down to 0.

The fact that I am forced to give the UFCW money just pisses me off.

***Rant over***

[Geek King]

Well, there is one thing you could try. It would be scary, and possibly dangerous, if stories are to be believed.

Start your own union and kick the old one out.

[SuperDan]

My store and two others in our company have our own union primarily because the UFCW sucks so bad. It was an independent union and in place long before our three stores were acquired by our company. The UFCW tried to intimidate us into joining them, but we wouldn't stand for it. And had it happened, the union president at the time said he would have made a motion to dispurse the entirity of the union's checking account back to the members, pro-rated by length of service, because there is no way in hell the UFCW was going to be getting control of our money. We were able to ride out that storm, and the UFCW has left us alone since we affiliated with the National Federation of Independent Unions (originally affiliated with the LIUNA, but has since disaffiliated and is looking into either an affiliation with the Teamsters or a direct affiliation with the AFL-CIO). The NFIU supports its member unions like a national union would, but is organized from the bottom up--we do our own business how we want to at our local meetings and pay a small fee per member to the national union rather than sending all of our money to the national union and having them tell us what to do and how much money to do it with.

When the UFCW was picketing our stores and trying to get a vote to assimilate our union into theirs, they argued that as a national orgainzation they could get better terms in their contracts than we could as an independent union. That's a load of shit if I ever heard one. Our contract is far superior to the contract the UFCW has at their stores in our company. While I haven't seen their contract myself, I do know through talking to others around the company that our pay scales are much better than theirs, and their contract doesn't even have a length of service article. Yes, that's right, a protection as simple as making the company consider length of service when assigning the number of shifts worked, number of hours worked, and start of shift times is NOT something the UFCW is concerned about.

It may sound crazy, but if you want a better contract, your best bet is honestly to either convince your local union to disaffiliate with the UFCW and become independent (or affiliate with another organization) or find another union who you think will serve your needs as employees better, contact them, and see if they would be interested in starting the process of attempting to pick up your store (it's not the simplest of processes, they need so many employee signatures just to have informational meetings, then so many more to have a vote of all employees which would ultimately be what decides the status of the UFCW and the new union in the store).

Or the secret third option: quit and go somewhere else with a better contract.