GET ORGANIZED!

- The Five Basic Steps To Organizing a Union

Although every workplace is different and the needs of workers vary, there are some basic steps involved in winning a union voice on the job. Here's how it happens:

To begin organizing a union at your workplace there’s a simple starting point before going through the steps listed below: quietly talk to a few of your co-workers who you think may be interested in organizing.

This small group starts to privately discuss workplace issues, what is involved in organizing a union, and making plans to contact the Laborers. When you’re ready, contact us and a LIUNA representative will meet with the small group to answer your questions and help you develop a comprehensive organizing plan.

• Step 1: Build an Organizing Committee
  Leaders are identified and an organizing committee representing all major departments and all shifts and reflecting the racial, ethnic and gender diversity in the workforce is established. Organizing committee training begins immediately. Committee members must be prepared to work hard to educate themselves and their co-workers about the union and to warn and educate co-workers about the impending management anti-union campaign. The organizing committee must be educated about workers’ right to organize and must understand LIUNA policies and principals of democracy and rank-and-file control.
  
  Also at this step basic information about the workplace must be gathered including:
  • workplace structure: departments, work areas, jobs, shifts
  • employee information: name, address, phone, shift, job title, and department for each worker (employee list)
  • employer information: other locations, parent company, product(s), customers, union history
    
• Step 2: Adopt An Issues Program
  The committee develops a program of union demands (the improvements you are are organizing to achieve) and a strategy for the union election campaign. A plan for highlighting the issues program in the workplace is carried out through various organizing campaign activities.
  
• Step 3: Sign-Up Majority on Union Cards
  Your co-workers are asked to join LIUNA and support the union program by signing membership cards. The goal is to sign up a sizable majority. This "card campaign" should proceed quickly once begun and is necessary to hold a union election.
  
• Step 4: Win the Union Election
  The signed cards are used (and required) to petition the state or federal labor board to hold an election. It will take the labor board at least several weeks to determine who is eligible to vote and schedule the election. The union campaign must continue and intensify during the wait. If the union wins, the employer must recognize and bargain with the union. Winning a union election not only requires a strong, diverse organizing committee and a solid issues program, but there must also be a plan to fight the employer’s anti-union campaign.
  
• Step 5: Negotiate a Contract
  The organizing campaign does not let up after an election victory. The real goal of the campaign, a union contract (the document the union and the employer negotiate and sign, covering everything from wages to how disputes will be handled), is still to be achieved. Workers must be mobilized to support the union’s contract demands (decided by you and your co-workers) and pressure the employer to meet them.
  

WHAT LIUNA PROVIDES TO YOU!

Through its over 100 years of existence LIUNA has developed the skills and resources necessary to represent its members at the highest level. Through great leadership from our General President, Terrence O’Sullivan to our over 800,000 members, LIUNA has proven to be a driving force in giving employees a voice in the workplace. Below is a list of reasons why you deserve the Laborers’ as your collective bargaining representative:

• A Union Contract - After union recognition is established a Representative from the Local Union and the District Council will hold a series of meetings to talk to the employees about what THEY would like to see in their contract. Always remember that EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE. We are not promising you anything, but we are guaranteeing that we will work as hard as we can to negotiate a contract that you will be happy with. Whether it is a pay raise, medical benefits or a pension we will fight as hard as we can to get a good contract. Without the Laborers’ you have no Law Binding Contract. Your employer can promise you everything, but he/she does not HAVE to give you anything. With a union contract the employer MUST abide by the terms and conditions of the contract.
  
• A High Standard of Union Representation - Through our highly trained Field Representatives we will assist you in all matters concerning hours worked, working conditions and wages. We will stand behind you in ALL grievance and disciplinary actions to ensure that you get the fair treatment you lawfully deserve. We will make sure that all steps of a contractual grievance procedure are followed and we will represent you through out all of those steps.
  
• An Army of over 800,000 members strong - Through our over 100 years of existence we have grown to be one of the strongest and powerful unions in North America. We are well respected within the AFL-CIO and our bargaining strength is where it is at today due to our ever-growing membership.
  
• A Voice in Politics - We have fought on the floors of Congress to influence our legislatures to pass bills that will make America’s work force more safe and more profitable for both the employees and the employers.

29 THINGS YOUR EMPLOYER CAN NOT DO!

YOUR EMPLOYER CAN NOT:

1. Attend any union meeting, park across the street from the hall or engage in any undercover activity which would indicate that the employees are being kept under surveillance to determine who is and who is not participating in union activity.
2. Tell the employees that they will fire or punish them for engaging in union activity.
3. Lay off, discharge or discipline any employee for union activity.
4. Grant employees any special concessions or benefits to keep the union out.
5. Ask employees about union matters, meetings, etc.
6. Ask employees what they think about the union or union representative.
7. Ask employees how they intend to vote.
8. Promise benefits to employees if they reject the union.
9. Announce that the company will not deal with the union.
10. Threaten to close, close or move a plant to avoid dealing with the union.
11. Ask employees if they belong to a union or if they have signed up for union representation.
12. Ask employees, during an interview, about the union or how they feel about unions.
13. Make anti-union statements or act in a way that shows preference for a non-union employee.
14. Purposely team up non-union employees and keep them separate from pro-union employees.
15. Transfer workers on the basis of union affiliation or activity.
16. Layoff employees to weaken the union’s strength and discourage others from union membership.
17. Discriminate against union employees when disciplining employees.
18. Fail to grant a scheduled benefit or wage increase because of union activity.
19. Deviate from company policy for the purpose of getting rid of the union.
20. Take action that adversely affects an employee’s job or pay rate because of union activity.
21. Threaten workers or coerce them in an attempt to influence their vote.
22. Promise an employee a reward if they decide “no union.”
23. Threaten to cut overtime if plant goes union.
24. Say unionization will force the company to layoff employees.
25. Say unionization will do away with any benefit currently in effect.
26. Promise employees any benefit if they refrain from joining the union.
27. Start a petition against the union or encourage employees to take part in the circulation.
28. Urge employees to induce others to oppose the union.
29. Visit the homes of employees to urge them to reject the union.

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE LAW: “SECTION 7. EMPLOYEES SHALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO SELF-ORGANIZE, TO FORM, JOIN, OR ASSIST LABOR ORGANIZATIONS, TO BARGAIN COLLECTIVELY THROUGH REPRESENTATIVES OF THEIR OWN CHOOSING, AND TO ENGAGE IN OTHER CONCERTED ACTIVITIES FOR THE PURPOSE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING OR OTHER MUTUAL AID OR PROTECTION…”

YOUR PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW: “SECTION 8. (A) IT SHALL BE AN UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE FOR AN EMPLOYER – (1) TO INTERFERE WITH, RESTRAIN OR COERCE EMPLOYEES IN THE EXERCISE OF THE RIGHTS GUARANTEED IN SECTION 7. (2) BY DISCRIMINATION IN REGARD TO HIRE OR TENURE OF EMPLOYMENT TO ENCOURAGE OR DISCOURAGE MEMBERSHIP IN ANY LABOR ORGANIZATION…”