Like Many of you I have been pretty disillusioned with the company lately and feel super underappreciated and taken for granted. Whens the last time you had anyone in management say “good jog” or even give you helpful feedback? And I don’t kow about your houses, but a mine we are constantly running short and even wehn the scheduling hope was there for weeks in advance they make little to no effort to fill it. That’s extra work an effort put on us for no more pay, while the comapany makes extra profit. We all have many more issues but I just being these up to point out that we really aren’t appreciated by the company and they certainly haven’t earned us crusading for their benefit.

As for the union I’ve heard some concerns, the first was about the union dues. The union will take 1-2% of your pay. But its also working to get us raises. So if the union gets you more then a 2% raise, then you will be making more money over all, so no issues there obviously. Unless you’d rather take home less money then I can’t argue with you.

Also, some had issues with unpaid half half hour breaks. I don’t see it as a huge deal either way but the union made it clear that breaks would not be enforced if they would take us out of ratio. So thatt means that 99% of shift breaks could not happen anyhow. How often are we staffed over ratio? Also if the kids are popping off no one would expect us to just leave and take our break. Every job I have had in the past would just add an extra half-hour to the time sheet if we had to skip our break.

There was also some convern about senior staff taking positions from full time staff. Honestly that one confused me but they seemed to think a part time could just say they wanted a full time job and they would have to just kick less senior staff out of their position. That’s not how it works, as far as I know they would just offer new positions to the senior staff first.

Last compaints I heard was “its been a year and they haven’t done anything” and “they are gonna charge us for the last year” And its true the union hasn’t done anything yet but they have been trying, its the management that has been asking for the union to continually push back working on an agreement. So if your frustrated that no agreement has been reached that is not on the union. And early on in the process it was explicitly stated that the union would not being taking its dues until the first agreement was in place and we will not be back charged for any time since the unions formation.

So why not wait till our first collective agreement is reached and then decide whether you feel the union benefits you or not? There is literally nothing to loose and so much to gain. Pay raise, benefits, better mileage rates, overtime pay, sick days someone in your corner net time things go wrong or god forbid you get thrown under the bus. Among others. Honestly tho I’d like more discussion, if Im wrong or missed anything I want to be better informed as well, but I see zero reason to end the union now. And if you have concerns, please feel free to get more involved in the union, the more of our voices there the better it is for all of us. I mostly like my job and love being able to change the lives of our kids, but the state of affairs has been worse and worse lately and valuable staff have been dropping out at an alarming rate. Before you try to dissolve the union take some time and make sure it’s the best thing for you, and not for the benefit of those trying to make money off you.

Thanks for reading, a coworker