How To Start A Union Step By Step The Class Room ft Sohla Ham

more perfect union has covered lot of union drives and we know that the process can be both rewarding and extremely difficult so where do you even start we're gonna break it down for you step by step hi i'm sola and i'm ham and today we're gonna give you recipe for how to form union at your workplace we're also going to make cake don't worry it won't make sense welcome to the classroom for more perfect union you might have heard about some of the high profile union drives taking place across the country right now over the last couple of years record number of american workers have walked off the job recent survey found that 63 percent of workers who quit their jobs in 2021 did so because their pay was simply too low and 57 said it was because they felt disrespected at work does this sound familiar is there something happening in your workplace that you want to change we talked to some workers who felt the same way they live all over the country and have very different types of jobs but they all have one thing in common they were fed up at work and they decided to do something to improve their workplace what union is is just structure of workers it's really important to have union but union doesn't do anything by itself any more than an empty school educates people by itself we all come together around one decision and we go to the bargaining table and we get to make our demands known it's such an amazing feeling knowing that they have to actually take the time and listen to us it's not some quiz that you fill out every once in while at work like they actually have to hear this feedback there's no one-size-fits-all way to start this process but there are some key steps that most successful union organizers would recommend you take you need to have one-on-one conversations sometimes you might be the best messenger to talk to coworker sometimes you might need to identify someone who might be more effective it's useful to think of an issue or two that people care about like that crazy increase in health care premiums we have to pay or the loss of paid time off when first started talking with my co-workers we weren't talking about unionizing we were talking about the problems that we all had to deal with at work every day it's little bit of talking and whole lot of listening you need to talk to your coworkers about the real issues that are driving you to organize and what you want the union to help you win we distributed surveys to get an idea of what the working climate was in our different campuses more than 90 percent of uc workers are rent burdened more than half of us have experienced or have seen discrimination or harassment in the job you should map out your workplace who works at the company what are the different types of jobs they do how much are they paid as you have those conversations you'll need to keep track of who definitely wants to organize union who might need some more convincing or who has concerns once you develop this relationship with people you can kind of drop in there like hey what do you think of the starbucks workers unionizing hey what do you think of this similar job to ours that is union do you know other people that are in unions and then you can kind of feel out from there who's going to be on your side who's passionate and fighting for you who's going to probably vote for you but isn't going to work with you the whole way to make it happen and unfortunately you will find few people that are anti-union did hear people telling me things that this is not something that science students do kind of like this idea of us versus them but we have the same goals we're trying to improve people's lives knowing where you stand with your coworkers is key to successful organizing campaign when enough of your co-workers are on the same page you can reach out to union and decide how you want to organize if you work for big employer like amazon there might be other workers already organizing in your workplace or in your industry at large like most auto workers already organized with the uaw or many hospitality workers organized with unite here try reaching out to the relevant union and see if you can get plugged in previously like in october had reached out to starbucks workers united from fake email account that made up hey like we're watching you and we want to support you how do we do this and they actually responded back and they were like the best way to support is let's talk about unionizing so when it came time to the point of you know let's talk to michelle she's one that knows about the unions pulled that email back up i'm from the store in mesa like can we talk and that's how it started and you know two days later we we filed the uaw the united auto workers historically has represented auto workers however it also represents many other industries including aerial space agricultural implements and now more than 100 000 academic workers across the nation think it's great to be part of so many people coming from so many different industries because academia is is not alone in the world however you choose to affiliate with big union or independently you will work to develop an organizing plan for your workplace to demonstrate to your employer that you want union you'll have other workers sign union cards to show support and present those to management and ask them to recognize the union what that card says is that you want to bargain collectively with the company it's not something that you can do if you're impatient it's lot of just walking up to people on my break of course who don't know and ask them if they've signed card if not why i'm asking them to put their faith and their trust into an organization that they may not know anything about not every employer will resist you forming union your boss can voluntarily recognize your union and some employers do yeah voluntary recognition just means that they see that there is enough interest in forming union and they say great but what happens when they don't voluntarily recognize the union well one option is to keep pushing it is after all your choice and if there's clear evidence you and majority of your co-workers support unionizing your employer should respect that choice otherwise you'll need to file for an election with the national labor relations board know this is getting technical but stay with us once you know that majority of your co-workers are ready to vote yes for union you'll file for what's called representation petition or rc this process will also involve determining who will be part of your bargaining unit bargaining unit just means the group of employees who will be represented by the union and by the contract with the employer then the nlrb will set date for the election up until the election you will keep campaigning and your employer will probably keep pushing back workers will submit their ballots and then it's time to actually count the votes traditionally this election would happen in person at the workplace with in-person observers sent by the nlrb to make sure that the rules are followed and everything is fair the nlrb board agent counts them and reports out the results when your employer hears that you or coworkers are talking about organizing and forming union they're probably going to fight back one 2020 study noted that employers spent 340 million per year on union avoidance consultants that means they might make you attend anti-union meetings so you can learn all the facts or they might have supervisors try to convince you that the union will be bad for you and your coworkers but they're counting on the fact that you don't know your rights when you're in an organizing drive the the company has home court advantage they can do all the union busting they want on the clock they can put you in what's called captive audience meetings the union busters they're going to come in and they're going to say we're we're so sorry you're so unhappy we didn't know if you only would have told us we could have fixed this you don't need third party to come in and help you those are direct quotes from the union busters essentially wish could sit here and tell you that it never happens because it's illegal but got fired from verizon for unionizing so it does happen but the upside is that because it's illegal there are consequences to the company doing that if you're scared that just means that there is someone that's making you scared and the reason that the company is making you scared of unionizing is really that they're scared of you unionizing once you get recognition or win your election you and your co-workers will engage in collective bargaining with management collective bargaining is the term for the process of workers as group negotiating with their bosses things like pay benefits hours and other working conditions right now we currently are in the collective bargaining process and would say that this is probably my favorite part we're sitting across from the company and we're actually getting to say hey this is this is what we want then you come to an agreement or contract which is the legal and binding result of that negotiation what we're fighting for is strong contract contract that guarantees that srs are protected at the workplace that noes are faces housing and security or food insecurity once you have contract you're going to pay very small amount of your paycheck and dues what does that pay for while it pays for the organizing of the next stores that are going to go union don't get us wrong because of the way our labor laws are set up and because workers have to be ready and willing to take stand to form union it can be very difficult to win this process is fundamentally tilted in favor of employers but that's not reason to give up that's even more of reason to unionize the facts are clear workers represented by unions have higher wages than non-unionized workers more access to on-the-job benefits better job security better training and professional development opportunities and more the future's gonna look great am optimistic that big changes will will happen and they will happen because of our our solidarity but other than the specific financial gains that unionizing can have for individual groups of workers it can also provide an important voice to make our society more democratic and more fair people could actually have happier work-life balances they could make livable wages they'd have safe working environments forming union can also be an empowering and even fun experience for you connecting you more with your fellow workers all this is fun like like speaking now like talking to people at work like getting people excited organizing this union it's meant the world to me think found my new calling in life it's hard to work together to make change unions provide an opportunity to put that into action on the scale of your workplace it's pretty obvious to me that the force in american life that is truly controlling us are these big corporations that have swollen in size swollen in profits while we get less and less benefit and what i've learned is that can channel this urge to do something this urge to fight back in productive direction by not doing it alone can form alliances with everyone at work with people that are workers all across the country and together we can fight back mean guess what wish could have told my past self before we started this organizing drive was just to get it started sooner especially right now it's in the zeitgeist so if you're ready think about what you want at work think about which of your co-workers you're ready to talk to and if you think you'd like to take another step contact the union organizer to find out more you are not alone there is power in union there is power in union there is power in union there is power in union there's power in union there is power in union there is power in union thank you for joining us in the classroom series by more perfect union don't forget to like and subscribe and check out our previous videos you