Update: at least one of my friends is reaching out to their national union branch. Sounds like there’s someone organizing them to all do so. Literally this move would kill this union at this workplace. So fingers crossed they can do something about it.
Is there anything I can tell them to do? It impacts me, but I feel helpless as they don’t seem to want to try. Their union is a big one, and just got done negotiating a new contract like a year or too ago. I don’t think it’s toothless (it’s a nation-wide union), as they did have some striking and Biden had to get involved to help mediate. Idk if it’s just because these jobs are more administrative rather than field-related. So maybe they don’t feel as connected? Or like they are expendable? Idk. I feel the same way about folks at my non-union workplace lol. We CANT do much, but they could, and it frustrates me to see them act like they’re as helpless as the rest of us when it comes to corporate manhandling.
Question about union-busting reorg
So, I’m not in a union, sadly, but I know folks who are, and I’m having trouble understanding something that’s going on with them. Their employer is “reorganizing” jobs. They are going department by department (mostly office stuff afaik, not men in the field) and laying off union workers. They then cut the number of those jobs (if they keep them at all), and re-categorize them as “managerial”/non-union. Then people have to reapply to a pool to maybe get that now-non-union job back (or be assigned to a different managerial position).
As far as we know, their union rep was present when this stuff started. So he’s aware, and seemingly fine with it. This makes no sense to me. Isn’t this a form of union-busting? Isn’t this why they have a rep? The company seemingly waited till right after their last union meeting. So it’ll be a month before they gather and can say anything that way. Most of the union folks I know just seem to shrug as though there’s nothing they can do since their rep is