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Dealing with Unions/Corporation Politics
Wezoin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, this might get a bit confusing but here goes nothing. I work at a University, as a student-staff member. There is a union, but I am not included as part of it. The reason is as follows:
Originally the union included only full time employees, excluding managers. At the beginning of the summer they tried to bring in the part time and student staff members, but the vote came back negative. I believe this mostly to be due to the restrictions this union keeps pushing on the groups that aren't part of it (reducing our hours, pressuring the university to fire us to make room for more full time staff, etc.) During the summer student staff were originally allowed up to 44 hours per week, after the vote failed the union insisted that they reduce this to 35 hours per week, but allowed to pass this a certain number of weeks per year (I believe it was like 5 or 6.) Today the union insisted that we be reduced to 23 hours a week, with no exceptions, year round. Essentially, they want to bring in more full time staff again so are trying to make it difficult to run without hiring full timers.
Next allow me to explain the rest of this situation, the part of the university I work at is a small bookstore/copy centre. The student staff are the only people on staff who can actually work a computer, do the photoshopping/whatever. There are 6 student staff members, 1 part time older staff member, 2 full time staff members, and the manager. This means that at our store only 2 people are part of this union (they think this is ridiculous too.) Essentially, the union is ignoring the needs of 8 staff members, thinking they are helping the 2 staff members, who disagree with what they are doing to begin with. The main store that is in charge of our store, however, seems to just give in to the union.
I (as well as the rest of the staff at my store, the other store really doesnt communicate with us enough to know how they feel abonut it) want to try to resolve this, because it really is getting ridiculous and I do feel as though my job security is threatened by the union. My options are as follows:
1) Let the union do this and just work less hours and wait until they bassically demand that part time staff be crucified.
2) Go speak to the "main boss" (ie, my boss's boss's boss) about it since he is the only one with any power to decide. Naturally, being polite and professional while still getting my point accross is important here. He is a very fair man, and would at least take into account what I have to say.
3) Our other option was to try and start our own union, essentially forcing the store to consider both sides of the issue before just giving in. This is in Canada, and I'm not sure about the legal requirements for doing so, but I'm pretty sure for something on this level all agreeing to walk out and quit at the same time is about all it takes, is it not?
I understand that the store is limited in its decision making power here because of the pressure of the union, but as I'm not, and a large portion of their staff, are not part of the union, shouldn't this union have limited power over these staff members? I just feel like our needs are being ignored because "o noes union will strike" and before anyone asks, yes we are critical and hard to replace staff. The number of times we've been hiring and gotten resumes with stuff like "spent a week on vacation in the dominican" listed under "skills" is ridiculous. I am actually leaning towards number 2 right now, 3 seems a little extreme and like alot of work that I just dont have time for right now, and 1 seems too relaxed and bassically letting ourselves get screwed over.
Originally the union included only full time employees, excluding managers. At the beginning of the summer they tried to bring in the part time and student staff members, but the vote came back negative. I believe this mostly to be due to the restrictions this union keeps pushing on the groups that aren't part of it (reducing our hours, pressuring the university to fire us to make room for more full time staff, etc.) During the summer student staff were originally allowed up to 44 hours per week, after the vote failed the union insisted that they reduce this to 35 hours per week, but allowed to pass this a certain number of weeks per year (I believe it was like 5 or 6.) Today the union insisted that we be reduced to 23 hours a week, with no exceptions, year round. Essentially, they want to bring in more full time staff again so are trying to make it difficult to run without hiring full timers.
Next allow me to explain the rest of this situation, the part of the university I work at is a small bookstore/copy centre. The student staff are the only people on staff who can actually work a computer, do the photoshopping/whatever. There are 6 student staff members, 1 part time older staff member, 2 full time staff members, and the manager. This means that at our store only 2 people are part of this union (they think this is ridiculous too.) Essentially, the union is ignoring the needs of 8 staff members, thinking they are helping the 2 staff members, who disagree with what they are doing to begin with. The main store that is in charge of our store, however, seems to just give in to the union.
I (as well as the rest of the staff at my store, the other store really doesnt communicate with us enough to know how they feel abonut it) want to try to resolve this, because it really is getting ridiculous and I do feel as though my job security is threatened by the union. My options are as follows:
1) Let the union do this and just work less hours and wait until they bassically demand that part time staff be crucified.
2) Go speak to the "main boss" (ie, my boss's boss's boss) about it since he is the only one with any power to decide. Naturally, being polite and professional while still getting my point accross is important here. He is a very fair man, and would at least take into account what I have to say.
3) Our other option was to try and start our own union, essentially forcing the store to consider both sides of the issue before just giving in. This is in Canada, and I'm not sure about the legal requirements for doing so, but I'm pretty sure for something on this level all agreeing to walk out and quit at the same time is about all it takes, is it not?
I understand that the store is limited in its decision making power here because of the pressure of the union, but as I'm not, and a large portion of their staff, are not part of the union, shouldn't this union have limited power over these staff members? I just feel like our needs are being ignored because "o noes union will strike" and before anyone asks, yes we are critical and hard to replace staff. The number of times we've been hiring and gotten resumes with stuff like "spent a week on vacation in the dominican" listed under "skills" is ridiculous. I am actually leaning towards number 2 right now, 3 seems a little extreme and like alot of work that I just dont have time for right now, and 1 seems too relaxed and bassically letting ourselves get screwed over.
Wezoin on
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Am I right?
Sorry I don't have any advice for you though. I'll chime in by saying that I thought the unionizing deal from last year was a terrible idea, and saw shit like this coming.
Nah, its not Waterloo. I won't say which it actually is just to stay on the safe side incase someone is reading this right now.
Honestly, I would suggest looking for another job off-campus if need be to avoid the strictures imposed on you by the union.