UNIONIZE
Unionize with UFCW 951
A union is a proven way to make your job better. When you have a union in your workplace, you and your coworkers get to have a say in your wages, schedule, vacation policy, retirement plan, safety and anything else that impacts your life at work.
Workers have elected to join UFCW 951 for a variety of reasons, including:
- Better wages and regular raises
- Guaranteed hours and stable schedules
- Affordable healthcare insurance
- Retirement benefits
- Extra pay for working additional hours
- Paid holidays and sick days
- Seniority rights when it comes to scheduling, vacation, and job security
- Paid vacations
- Dignity and respect at work
- Fair treatment from management
Oftentimes, workers fall victim to employer neglect. This neglect can include a number of incidents, violations, or outright abuse. Some of the most common workplace violations include wage and hour violations; safety and health violations; sexual, age, race, religion, and disability discrimination; and unfair treatment and favoritism to name a few.
Getting Started with Unions
Read the information below to help determine if you need a union in your workplace.
If you still have questions after reviewing the information, or if you’d like to speak to someone at the local, please call the union office at 1.800.999.0951 or email information@ufcwlocal951.com. Your information will be kept completely confidential.
Better Pay and Benefits
The union difference is more money in your pockets to buy a home, start a family, pay down student loan debt, and save for retirement.
Union members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren’t union members. On average, union workers’ wages are 11.2% higher than their nonunion counterparts.
Ninety-six percent of union workers have jobs that include employer-provided health insurance, while only 69% of non-union workers do.
Unions help bring more working people into the middle class. In fact, in states where people don’t have union rights, workers’ incomes are lower. Workers in a union have better access to paid sick days and retirement benefits than non-union workers.
The union advantage is even greater for people of color, women, immigrants, and others who have confronted workplace discrimination. A union contract is a potent weapon against unequal pay and structural racism because it establishes fair and transparent systems for hiring and firing, wages, and more.
Union membership equals higher pay for Black (26% more), Latino (39.2% more), and women (23.8% more) workers. Union contracts pay women and men the same for doing the same job. (Source: U.S. Department of Labor National Compensation Survey/AFL-CIO)
“The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair
into hope and progress.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Better Working Conditions
A union contract establishes job protections and conditions for the people in your neighborhood. A contract’s terms are not only a worker’s conditions of employment, but they also become the protections needed to seek affordable health care, work reasonable hours, work safely, and plan for a meaningful retirement.
Some of the many protections provided in a union contract include:
- Dispute procedure
- Working conditions
- Overtime and premium pay
- Holiday pay
- Lunch and rest periods
- Paid time off
- Health care benefits
- Seniority rights
These guaranteed protections have a significant and positive effect on the health and safety of a neighborhood. When workers are treated and paid fairly, they become a positive influence in their communities as well as boosting the local economy.
Job Security
The biggest difference between a worker with a union contract, and one without, is job security.
A non-union worker is considered an “at-will” employee which means your employer can fire you for any reason, at any time. Your employer can change your working conditions without your consent or knowledge. This includes your wages, benefits, time off, scheduling, and more.
A union worker has the protection of their union contract. Your employer must prove you violated a work rule that resulted in your termination. Your employer cannot change any working conditions without negotiating them through your contract and you. You are protected from arbitrary discipline and/or discharge by requiring your employer to have just cause to enact any discipline on a union member. Furthermore, an employer must prove conditions for just cause were met. During any meeting with management, you have a legal right to have a union representative with you by request. A union gives you peace of mind knowing you are protected by a legally binding contract that holds up in a court of law.
Your Rights to Unionize Under the Law
As an employee, you have rights through both federal and state laws that allow you to seek and form a union in your workplace. Oftentimes, employers attempt to stop your progress. Here are some of the most common scenarios an employer will use to threaten, coerce, or force you to stop educating others. All union communications at the workplace MUST occur “off-the-clock.” An employer cannot:
- Threaten to fire, discharge, or punish you for talking about a union to a co-worker.
- Change or eliminate your work assignments, reduce or change your work schedule, discontinue or threaten to end any benefits, or grant special favors to those opposed to the union and your efforts.
- Make inquiries about confidential union matters, including meetings, representatives, intent, purposes or goals you may have, about the local union itself, how you intend to vote, if you have signed a card, or if you support the union.
- Create a work environment that prevents you from engaging in union activity.
- If you feel you have already been subject to this treatment, contact a union organizer.
The National Labor Relations Act provides
legal protections to organize.
“It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to…encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and [to] protect exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.” – National Labor Relations Act.
Federal and state laws guarantee the right to form unions! Eligible employees have the right to express views on unions, to talk with co-workers about their interest in forming a union, to wear union buttons, to attend union meetings, and in many other ways to exercise their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and freedom of associations.*
Despite these laws, many employers strongly resist their employees’ efforts to gain a voice at work through unionization. So, before you start talking union where you work, get in touch with an organizer who can answer any questions or help you get started.
*Supervisors and a few other kinds of employees customarily are excluded from coverage.