So you want a union (Part I)

Originally published in the
Northland Reader
now the
ReaderWeekly
August 3, 2000

Peter Kellman (“Freedom of Association”, Northland Reader, July 6) makes several good points about the antagonism of many businesses towards unions and their often extraordinary efforts to block unions.  However, as with many issues, the decline of unions is the result of more than the antagonism of a single group.

I have been involved with unions at two points in my life: once as a supermarket employee while I was in high school and college, and a second time as a bus driver with private companies.

I joined the grocery chain Kroger’s in Cleveland, Ohio as a stock clerk and bagger in the mid-1950s while I was a junior in high school.  I started at $1.05 per hour working two evenings a week and Saturdays.  I also joined the Retail Clerks Union which was a condition of employment.

In many ways it was a great job.  In general everyone worked together to make the store a success.  The manager did his best to give every one a fair shake and a chance for advancement.  Everyone had regular hours week after week; none of this shifting schedules every week.  A regular schedule was also a bit easier to do because the store hours were limited; nine to six Monday through Friday, eight to six on Saturdays, and closed on Sundays.  Probably a quarter of the employees were full-time.

In about four years time I was making $1.75 an hour through a mix of seniority and a new union contract.  The last regular assignment that I remember is coming in at 6:30 to help stock the bread shelves and then relieving cashiers for the rest of the day, leaving with a broad grin at 3:30.

I don’t remember much about union activities.  I think I only attended one union meeting and didn’t find it very interesting.  I remember our excitement when the union’s contract proposal was released.  Some thought that we would get everything in the proposal, not realizing that it was only a negotiating position.  The union did however negotiate many improvements.

When I flunked out of Case Institute of Technology, I asked for full time work at Kroger’s.  Unfortunately, no full-time positions were available at that time.  I spent a few weeks looking for work, finally finding a job at a new supermarket being built by Pick’N’Pay, a local chain.

It was just about the opposite in employee relations that I had experienced in Kroger’s.  Other than Saturday’s, the work schedule was unpredictable, based more on when the trucks came on than anything else.  Even though I was nominally “third man”, the manager made sure that I stayed “part-time” by assigning me less than 35 hours per week of work.  Also, even though employees were required to be members of the Retail Clerks Union, Pick’N’Pay paid me less than I had been getting at Kroger’s.  Complaining to the manager did no good.

Whether it was deliberate or not, the store was designed to divide and conquer.  Like most supermarkets, the meat department was in its own section.  But, the produce and the grocery departments each occupied sections of the back room with little traffic between them.  With little traffic between them, there was little reason for employees of either section to get to know each other.  And produce was where the union steward worked.

Not knowing the union steward well, I turned to a former produce manager at Kroger’s whom I did know well and who was now a union business agent.  Although Pick’N’Pay was not in his jurisdiction, he saw to it that I received the correct pay rate and accrued back pay.

I left Pick’N’Pay in September to go to Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.  I applied for a job at the local Kroger’s and was accepted.  I worked Saturdays and a couple evenings a week as a stock clerk.  Again, I was paid less than I had been getting.

I spoke about this with the manager and he said he would look into it.  Nothing happened.  This time I knew the union steward and spoke to him about the pay rate.  He said he would look into it.  Nothing happened.  Finally, I called the union office in Columbus.  A business agent said that he couldn’t help me; it had been thirty days and they had nothing in writing.  I didn’t go back to Kroger’s the next school year.

The existence of a union does not guarantee good working environment.  A minimally functional union can negotiate wages, benefits, and working conditions.  But without strong leadership that involves itself with the union membership, the union is no more than a negotiating team.

To be really strong and work well for its members, a union must be just that: a union of its members working together.  If the members are not involved in their union, then the union becomes another “outside force” like management.  If the members are not involved in their union, then the employees’ interest are of concern only when they match the interests of company or union management.

In the next issue, I’ll draw on my experiences as a bus driver to examine some of the reasons employees don’t always vote in unions.  It isn’t just management antagonism.

So you want a union (Part II)

©2000, 2006, 2007 Melvyn D. Magree

So you want a union (Part II)

Originally published in
ReaderWeekly
August 17, 2000

So you want a union!  You are going to have to work for it.  Yeah!  I know that’s a bit redundant.  What I mean is that you are going to have to spend time beyond what you spend on the job.

First, you are going to have to convince a small number of your co-workers that a union is in their best interests and convince them to work hard to have a union.

Last, you are going to have to convince a majority of your co-workers that a union is in their best interests.

In between there will be many, many months of hard work passing out information, attending meetings, and talking one-on-one with your co-workers.  The antagonism of your employer towards a union will be only one of your problems.

As a school bus and transit driver I was involved in two organizing efforts with three unions.  Yes, three unions for two efforts, more later.

A year or so before I started with Medicine Lake Lines in Golden Valley, the Amalgamated Transit Union lost a certification vote by a few dozen votes.

Labor laws require a minimum of two years between certification elections.  In 1996 a group of drivers approached the United Steelworkers for help in forming a union.  When I learned of the effort, I was lukewarm partly because I didn’t see how the Steelworkers could represent bus drivers.

I attended one organizing meeting and asked lots of questions.  Meanwhile the company went on the offensive with a series of “mandatory” meetings (with pay) in which they presented their case.  I asked lots of questions.

Some activist employees started an inflammatory newsletter.  I counseled that it would turn more drivers off than it would gain.  At one of the mandatory meetings, two of the editors harassed management instead of presenting reasoned arguments against management points.  Many, many drivers were embarrassed by their tactics.

Unfortunately, the Steelworkers lost the election, and I never heard from them again.  Maybe the more active did, but they didn’t relay that to me.

Moving forward two years, Ryder Student Transportation Services had bought Medicine Lake Lines, and instead of 400 drivers to organize, there were now 1500.  Those activists who still were around and not burned out approached the Teamsters.

At the first meeting at Teamster headquarters that I attended, the organizer in charge said she would make an agenda and stick to it.  She never did.  A great part of the meeting was spent with Harold Yates, the President of the Joint Council, interrupting with tales of his connections and how much he would use them for us.  Some drivers became less enthusiastic about the Teamsters.

The next time I attended a meeting, only three of us went.  We found out that the meeting had been cancelled and that the Teamsters were putting a hold on their activities on our behalf.  I suggested that they at least send out a letter to those on their mailing list.  Several weeks later they did.  I never heard from them again.

One activist driver who now drove for a school district encouraged some of the remaining activists to contact his union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The first meeting that I attended was at the home of Dutch Fischer, an organizer.  Present were two other organizers and four drivers, including the driver who had left.  Over the weeks, the number dwindled until it was often just Dutch and I.  The SEIU had another organizing effort going and wasn’t too happy about stretching their resources.  However, between my continually meeting with Dutch and Dutch spending many days a week talking one-on-one with Ryder drivers, the SEIU decided to go ahead with a full organizing effort.

The SEIU brought in additional organizers to help.  The organizer in charge had already worked on several successful campaigns; she was sure that this one would be successful too.  Her enthusiasm alone should have made it successful.

Management of course began its counterattack.  The meetings weren’t mandatory and weren’t very well attended.  Our terminal manager sounded so reasonable but his arguments were laughable.

Ryder put up posters that if the union did not win they would have a drawing to send one or two families on a vacation trip.  Although they backed off on the condition, the damage was done.  The SEIU filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.  It is still in abitration.

But I don’t think that is the real reason the union lost.  Many drivers really believe that a union will help improve pay and other working conditions.  But many other drivers think that all a union will do is take their dues money.  I heard that argument from drivers who had been in other unions for decades.  I heard that argument from drivers who had little respect for management.

The last time that I heard from Dutch he was still keeping in touch with some of the drivers.  But many of the really active have moved on to other jobs.  Many new drivers have started who have no memory of the past campaigns.

Will the arbitration get through an understaffed bureaucracy in the union’s favor soon?  Will the SEIU make another organizing effort in 2001?  I don’t really know.  I don’t care except sentimentally.  I have moved from the Twin Cities and moved on to other interests.  Like many other workers in many other occupations that could be unionized.

How will unions succeed?  When a majority of employees really believe that a union will be in their best interests.  For that to happen a significant minority of employees must be willing to show up at meetings, willing to write the newsletters and pass them out, willing to talk and talk to their co-workers.  For that to happen the large unions have to support those whom they would represent year after year, not just when success seems likely.

So you want a union (Part I)

©2000, 2006, 2007 Melvyn D. Magree

Pain for the low, gain for the high

Labor unrest and union activity seem to be gaining.  Some workers even they feel they have to sacrifice their jobs so that others may have it better.

"[We] know we will probably lose our jobs, but if we accept these concessions, standards for bakers and other workers will keep going down. We are taking it on the chin for workers all over." - a striking Hostess employee

"Some companies need to make cuts to say alive. Firms don't always have a choice about how to run themselves and closings and concessions are part of business," said Kurtz. ""You can't just have a visceral reaction. Both sides need to be involved in a thoughtful process." - Dave Kurtz, a partner in the Edwards Wildman's Labor & Employment Group.

"And workers are saying to companies, 'why do we have to take cuts when other parts of your business, like suppliers are not. Why is it on our backs?'" - Jim Matthews, a partner at Fox Rothschild and co-chair of the firm's Labor and Employment practice

Have you heard of many cuts in the executive suite?  How many $4,000/hour executives are willing to cut their pay by even ten percent.  That cut would provide twenty $10/hour jobs (assuming that overhead costs may match direct pay).

The above quotes are from "Beyond Twinkies: Why More Workers Are Striking", Mark Koba, CNBC, 2012-11-16.

The article also has a link to an interview with Colby Harris, a protesting Wal-Mart employee in Dallas.

See also "So you want to join a union", Part I and Part II.