The Process of Forming a Union: What Employers Need to Know

Organizing a Committee and Developing a Plan

Task:

It has come to my attention that the employees of Green Branch Coffee have begun the process of forming a union and we need to become familiar with the process. To even begin the process our employees would have had to come together in small groups to discuss issues that they are unhappy about. If the issues appeared to be irreconcilable and everyone agreed the need to form a union was the right path then would get in contact with a local Union who would then send a local representative to come out and have a meeting with this group to develop a “comprehensive organizing plan” and answer any questions. The organization plan begins with organizing a committee.

The organizing committee will be composed of identified leaders representing all of our major departments, including all shifts. The identified leaders will also represent the racial, ethnic and gender diversities within Green Branch. The committee will be trained by the union on the union processes, policies, principles of democracy, rank –and-file control and workers’ rights. It will up to the committee to take this information to the rest of the staff and educate and warn them about management of anti-union campaign. The committee will be tasked with gathering information about workplace structure: all the departments, work areas, job descriptions and shifts. They will need to gather employee information: name, address, phone number, what shift they work and their job title. Committee members will also need to get the employers information such as: other locations, products, customers and the parent company.

Once all of the information is gathered along with the concerns of the rank-and- file the union and committee develops their plan of union demands. This plan highlights a strategy for the union to achieve the demands and will be carried out through organizing campaigns in the office. Next the committee will have to get as many co-workers to support as possible by signing membership cards, they will need to at least get a majority of the workers to sign. The next step is to win a Union Election, the signed card are required to petition the state or federal labor board to hold an election. This step will take several weeks and the workers will need to continue to get support, because if the union wins this election Green Branch will have to recognize and bargain with the union. The employees and our management staff will then need to sit down and negotiate everything from wages to how disputes will need to get settled. 

We have to appreciate this organization of employees and collective bargaining as if one of the workers attempted to come to us and negotiate all of these concerns it would be really difficult for them to their point across. Collective bargaining gives our employees a larger voice more unified voice. More often than not the uniting of workers result in companies paying higher wages and providing more benefits to the staff. Since employees know that non-union workers can be fired easier that if they were a member of the union, this gives an added advantage to joining. Collective bargaining encourages cooperation with the employee and the employer to operate in good faith finding beneficial agreements on both parties. Since both parties are bound to the collective bargaining agreements it creates a situation that if either party is not performing to the terms of the contract the other party can build a defense around that, this gives security to both the employer and employee.

The Unions today have to worry about the Right-To-Work bill that has been pushed several times to the House of Representatives. This bill has been sent before the House before but has not yet been passed however, with a Republican President this seems to be a real possibility. Right-To-Work laws prohibit unions and employers from requiring workers to pay the union dues as a condition of employment. This can be rough on the unions as non-union states workers can opt out of being a part of the union completely. The importance to that is the money for the unions. Union dues can cost an employee up to two hours of labor and with thousands of employees this is over a $108 million dollar a year entity that needs the support to keep making an impact.