Your Rights to Organize and Form a Union
Starting on page 170…
Fred Miller, a union organizer, gives a speech to workers on how to form a union.
Here are your rights, he began.
You have the right of freedom of association, meaning the right to meet, to form a committee, and talk about organizing with other workers on your breaks, on or off site—no matter what they tell you. And, they will tell you that you can’t do that. You can. Just don’t do it on their time.
You have the right not to be threatened, interrogated, or spied on for organizing or even talking about organizing.
You have the right to collectively bargain and hold an election to form a union if enough of you agree to do it. If you meet that threshold, they can’t stop you. Legally, that is.
If you do everything right and management stonewalls or sabotages the bargaining process, especially when you’ve negotiated in good faith, you have the right to strike.
Dario (TransChip Security goon) was taking notes from the back, including making a list of TransChip employees he recognized. The union organizer went on.
Those are your fundamental rights, Fred continued.
And it’s just as important for you to know how the company will try to stop you.
Before, during, and after unionizing, management is going to mislead you, spy on you, threaten you, and even try to bribe you with worthless perks and rewards while they continue to stuff their pockets with the fruits of your labor. You can expect that.
They’ll try to get you to talk but they won’t talk back or honestly answer your questions. Management and their representatives will constantly watch you, identify pro-union employees and get rid of them. They’ll also identify anti-union employees and reward them for spying on you.
They might give you shifts they know you can’t work, call you out in front of coworkers, and threaten your job.
Finally, and probably most importantly, they’ll bring in union busters to stop you from organizing and never stop trying to shut you down if you’re successful in doing it. Their tactics can be brutal. Do not underestimate them.