Union organizers can and will promise you anything to get you to vote for union representation. However, what you're unlikely to hear from them is the downside of joining a union and how it directly impacts you, your family, your job and our company.
Union representation has a hefty price tag. Here are a few examples of the financial obligations you may encounter with membership:
Union dues (click here to calculate your union dues)
Initiation fees
Reinstatement fees
Union assessments
Union fines
In collective bargaining, EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE, including things like wages, tuition reimbursement, paid parental leave and your 401k match.
If voted in, the union then only has the ability to ASK the company's negotiator to agree to put things in the contract.
But, remember, the company is not required to agree to anything that the union asks for and the union simply can't guarantee you anything.
At the end of the process maybe the things that are important to you will get better, maybe they will stay the same or maybe, just maybe, things that are important to you will get worse or disappear altogether.
It is completely lawful for a company to consider the added cost of operating a union facility as it negotiates a contract and to factor that in to what it is willing to agree to in the contract.
The bottom line is that the union can't tell you what it will get you. The union can really only tell you that it will ask for things.
Do you want to subject all of the benefits you have now to the uncertainty of collective bargaining?
Unions often create conflict and a less friendly, more formal work atmosphere.
Many former union members can attest to the "us vs. them" mentality that often comes with having a union.
Unions can stand between you and PBNA and between you and your manager when it comes to trying to find common sense solutions to routine issues that inevitably crop up during the workday.
Despite all of the above costs and disadvantages, you have no guarantee that you will get better wages, benefits or working conditions through the negotiation process.
In fact after negotiations things could go up, they could go down or they could stay the same.
In cases where the union is unable to achieve what it has promised at the bargaining table, unions sometimes draw employees into costly and unsuccessful strikes.