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Berkeley Bowl Union Response to Company Anti-Union Flier
This is the Berkeley Bowl Unions response, which is to say Berkeley Bowl employees working collectively with the UFCW and community allies to bargain, not beg.
Little Leaflet/Big Distortion
You Are Being Pressured NOT to sign a Union Card
Your fellow co-workers are asking you to sign cards allowing for Union representation. The UFCW(United Food and Commercial Worker's Union)is a NON-PROFIT organization.
Are you interested in better wages, broader health care, and enhanced job security? If so, know these facts. First, no paid(emphasis)union organizers have approached you. Secondly, you will not pay any union dues until The Berkeley Bowl and the union approve a contract that we have written and agreed upon. We, the employees, are the union.
1. Management said: "Union cards are binding legal documents."
With the union, you GAIN a voice. Each employee is allowed a prominent voice in establishing a contract. No concern shall go unheard.
2. Maagement said: "Don't believe someone who tells you signing a card is 'just for information'."
No one will approach you to sign a card "for information". The card authorizes tthe Union to represent us for the purposes of collective bargaining. Signing the cards does not mean you have joined a union, or will be paying any dues.
3. Management said: "Union promises are NOT guarantees... And we would not agree to any union demands that are not in the best interest of the Company."
While the union makes no guarantees, we do offer the opportunity to engage in collective bargaining with management in an attempt to improve working conditions throughout the store. The well being of employees SHOULD be in the best interest of the Company.
4. Management said: "If the union can't get the Company to agree to its demands, the union may decide to take you out on strike."
We are the union. WE decide whether or not we go on strike. A strike is not a favorable or likely option for anyone involved. Nobody will FORCE you to strike.
5. Management said: "Once you sign a card, it is almost impossible to get it back."
Why would you want to? You are protected Once you have signed a card, you have opened the possibility for appropriate wages, improved benefits, and equality and protection in the workplace.
Management will never see your card. This process is absolutely anonymous and is protected by law. Do not fear intimidation by your supervisors.
**Flier also available in spanish**
Currently working on translating literature into other languages.
You Are Being Pressured NOT to sign a Union Card
Your fellow co-workers are asking you to sign cards allowing for Union representation. The UFCW(United Food and Commercial Worker's Union)is a NON-PROFIT organization.
Are you interested in better wages, broader health care, and enhanced job security? If so, know these facts. First, no paid(emphasis)union organizers have approached you. Secondly, you will not pay any union dues until The Berkeley Bowl and the union approve a contract that we have written and agreed upon. We, the employees, are the union.
1. Management said: "Union cards are binding legal documents."
With the union, you GAIN a voice. Each employee is allowed a prominent voice in establishing a contract. No concern shall go unheard.
2. Maagement said: "Don't believe someone who tells you signing a card is 'just for information'."
No one will approach you to sign a card "for information". The card authorizes tthe Union to represent us for the purposes of collective bargaining. Signing the cards does not mean you have joined a union, or will be paying any dues.
3. Management said: "Union promises are NOT guarantees... And we would not agree to any union demands that are not in the best interest of the Company."
While the union makes no guarantees, we do offer the opportunity to engage in collective bargaining with management in an attempt to improve working conditions throughout the store. The well being of employees SHOULD be in the best interest of the Company.
4. Management said: "If the union can't get the Company to agree to its demands, the union may decide to take you out on strike."
We are the union. WE decide whether or not we go on strike. A strike is not a favorable or likely option for anyone involved. Nobody will FORCE you to strike.
5. Management said: "Once you sign a card, it is almost impossible to get it back."
Why would you want to? You are protected Once you have signed a card, you have opened the possibility for appropriate wages, improved benefits, and equality and protection in the workplace.
Management will never see your card. This process is absolutely anonymous and is protected by law. Do not fear intimidation by your supervisors.
**Flier also available in spanish**
Currently working on translating literature into other languages.
For more information:
http://www.berkeleybowl.com
Add Your Comments
Comments
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This is good info, to see how management responds at the early stages of this process, trying to intimidate people.
Can you please post the details of this issue so we can judge for ourselves who is saying and doing what? I am very interested in helping - for example, organizing a neighborhood boycott if necessary - but none of these postings are giving everyone good, hard.and complete information upon which to base such actions!
Please post:
What EXACTLY management has said
What EXACTLY the union has said or offered to the workers
What EXACTLY are the bad conditions currently being imposed on workers by management?
What EXACTLY are the legal commitments when signing a Union Card, for example?
Thanks!!
Odilon
Please post:
What EXACTLY management has said
What EXACTLY the union has said or offered to the workers
What EXACTLY are the bad conditions currently being imposed on workers by management?
What EXACTLY are the legal commitments when signing a Union Card, for example?
Thanks!!
Odilon
> 5. Management said: "Once you sign a card, it is almost impossible to get it back."
> Why would you want to? You are protected Once you have signed a card, you have opened the possibility for appropriate wages, improved benefits, and equality and protection in the workplace.
Maybe you would want to because of a corrupt union leadership wasting your dues while failing to address the real concerns of members of the union. Yes, you open the possibility for good things by signing the card -- but you also lock yourself in representation by an institution, over which from that point forward you no longer have control.
Unions organized around majority rule voting systems, like all official institutions of of authority, have their own official rules and regulations, leading to the development of power-elite, shrouded in officialdom, domination by various concentrated special-interest groups, and scores of other problems, which can also be seen in most of the democratic states of the world. Majority rule, or any other kind of rule-based collective decision-making is inherantly inegalitarian, by way of over-ruling the minority (or majority) and enforcing decisions upon people who disagree with them. It makes no allowances for strength of conviction, allowing important grievances to go unaddressed. Most voting systems also require some order of business, which necessitates a powerful leadership with the ability to recognize motions, set voting order (the agenda), and thereby tremendous power to manipulate decisions through parliamentary rules.
The only collective decision-making process which truly pays attention to all individuals is general consensus, and this requires that all individuals be allowed to leave at any time -- the exact opposite of a binding union membership.
International Worker's World is the closest to the kind of decision-making I would think would work in a union that I know of.
> Why would you want to? You are protected Once you have signed a card, you have opened the possibility for appropriate wages, improved benefits, and equality and protection in the workplace.
Maybe you would want to because of a corrupt union leadership wasting your dues while failing to address the real concerns of members of the union. Yes, you open the possibility for good things by signing the card -- but you also lock yourself in representation by an institution, over which from that point forward you no longer have control.
Unions organized around majority rule voting systems, like all official institutions of of authority, have their own official rules and regulations, leading to the development of power-elite, shrouded in officialdom, domination by various concentrated special-interest groups, and scores of other problems, which can also be seen in most of the democratic states of the world. Majority rule, or any other kind of rule-based collective decision-making is inherantly inegalitarian, by way of over-ruling the minority (or majority) and enforcing decisions upon people who disagree with them. It makes no allowances for strength of conviction, allowing important grievances to go unaddressed. Most voting systems also require some order of business, which necessitates a powerful leadership with the ability to recognize motions, set voting order (the agenda), and thereby tremendous power to manipulate decisions through parliamentary rules.
The only collective decision-making process which truly pays attention to all individuals is general consensus, and this requires that all individuals be allowed to leave at any time -- the exact opposite of a binding union membership.
International Worker's World is the closest to the kind of decision-making I would think would work in a union that I know of.
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