I just found out the union I worked hard in convincing my coworkers to vote in favor of just betrayed all of us. Our rep knew about mass layoffs a week in advance and told nobody. I figured the employer would lie. But this betrayal fucking hurts man. I put my neck out for this union and worked hard to get a near unanimous victory.

I guess the first red flag was the director of my local talking about how he and his family enjoyed his vacation home in Mexico last year when discussing negotiations for a contract.

And it was a dogshit contract. Almost no concessions from the employer. "The first raise is just to pay for the dues, we can always get more on the next round of negotiations" I was told. This is how resentment for unions and apathy breeds. I live in an area with extremely high unemployment and awful paying jobs, and every one of my coworkers will have severe difficulty finding a job with similar pay. A week could have bought a lot of us more time to prepare.

And now we're supposed to trust that the union is negotiating our severance in best our interest. I'm not a betting man, but I'd put money on this union taking a cut of our severance. Granted, I've never even had a severance. But if there's one thing I've learned about America is that you should never underesterminate disappointment and the greed of the middleman.

Thanks for the 25 cent raise and now allowing our employer to sack us on FUCKING APRIL FOOLS DAY WHEN YOU KNEW ABOUT IT A WEEK BEFORE. Can't trust any god damn institution in this country. Fuck UFCW

P.S. is there no dedicated labor community on this site? Dafuq?

  • Capt_ACAB [none/use name]
    hexagon
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    Yuuuup we would have been better off without the union. Aside from the security afforded by no longer being at-will, which is a hugely significant factor no doubt, almost everything stayed the same or got worse on wages and benefits