Advice on union organizing

[Fawkes]

I work at a restaurant with about 20 employees. There are a few other locations with the same number of employees (I can't be too specific). Last week, one of the people I work with began talking to me about his interest in organizing a group together to present a list of demands to our bosses. Of the 20 or so employees, there are at least 4 of us that are strongly in support of organizing together. They are probably more, but this is still in its very early stages, so we're not sure yet.

Our main issue is with the fact that, during the summer, the kitchen routinely reaches an ambient temperature of 115+ degrees (this isn't an estimate, we have a thermometer placed on the wall). If you're standing next to the deep-fryer or grill, the temperature could easily surpass that. Also, given that it's a kitchen, the humidity is always at an incredibly high level. Just last week, the thermometer measured a temperature of 105... and it's April.

Further, nearly everyone who works there could show you multiple burn marks they have all from the same spot, a spot that could easily be covered with insulation. I still have visible scarring on my arm from 6 weeks ago.

Also, the starting wage is $9 an hour. In one hour, a single person could easily make close to $1000 worth of food.

The restaurant is easily the most popular of its kind in the entire city, so we're forced to work at an incredibly fast pace. I'm talking a line extending out the door and down the block. The area we work in is incredibly small, so there is the constant risk of hitting someone carrying a hot or heavy object, not to mention the enormous stress levels this causes.

For the morning shift, we have two separate breaks of 15 minutes each. For the evening shift, we have one 30 minute break. Both of these are against the law (morning shift should have a 30 minute continuous break, unless all employees explicitly agree to another arrangement, and evening shift should have a 45 minute continuous break).

Also, though our location does not do it, the other ones offer delivery, meaning workers are forced to bike through fucking Manhattan, an incredibly dangerous thing to do. If they opt to walk instead, they're chided for being inefficient.





So I have a few questions for anyone with experience in workplace organizing:


- How should we go about approaching other employees about involvement? Too much secrecy leads to an exclusive, and ultimately powerless, group. Too much openness, at least at this stage, leads to us being fired before we have the support to prevent that.

- At what point should we seek affiliation with an official union? Should we at all? And if so, who? While a group like SEIU would have more to offer us materially, given the post-Occupy climate, the thing we need the most is revolutionary labor organizing.

- OSHA does not explicitly say anything regarding workplace temperature. However, these conditions are clearly unsafe by any definition of the word. Does anyone know of any past cases where workplace temperature was an issue? Also, does the legal route even make sense, or should we just say "fuck you, put in an air-conditioner by x date or we're going on strike"? Everything seems to point to the latter, but then again, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself.



I've never unionized before, but this is going to happen. I'm sick of these fuckers sending out e-mails saying "our recent award in x magazine is due entirely to your hard work" while pocketing all of the increased revenue that results. I'm sick of them responding to our individual complaints by saying "oh yeah, that's horrible, we'll get right on it" and then doing jack shit. Fuck these douche bags, I can't sit passively anymore and watch fellow workers quit because of their feelings of powerlessness in changing our shitty conditions.



ahem, so that was a bit more of a rant than I meant it to be, but yeah :blushing:

[Os Cangaceiros]

Well, perhaps you should get in contact with IWW.

I say that not so much because of their politics (although I agree mostly with their politics), but more to do with the nature of some of their recent organizing campaigns. They might be able to give you some advice.

That's all I've got. :crying:

[Fawkes]

Well, perhaps you should get in contact with IWW.

I say that not so much because of their politics (although I agree mostly with their politics), but more to do with the nature of some of their recent organizing campaigns. They might be able to give you some advice.

That's all I've got. :crying:

Thanks, yeah, they're the main organization I had in mind.

[citizen of industry]

I would definitely organize quietly until you declare your membership and demand collective bargaining. However, I would join a union immediately and get help organizing your coworkers, even if you are the only one interested at this point. If you are looking for a revolutionary union, I would see if there is a local IWW branch nearby. But I'd also consider that unions are structured a bit more democratically than say, a corporation, so even if you choose a union that isn't demanding an end to wage labor you can still influence it's direction if you become an activist and especially if you can organize your shop.

As for approaching others about involvement, nothing is better than friendship. Get people talking about the working conditions, what they don't like, etc. and talk to them about unionizing your shop. If you can get a core group of your friends to join the union with you it will help get the others who you are less friendly with to go along and reduce your own workload so you don't burnout. Joining a union asap also gives you credibility with your coworkers, an office to use, some resources, and legal protections. And there is nothing that pisses me off more than when people don't join the union for years, then come when they are getting fired as if it's some kind of service. Join a union, go to the meetings and demonstrations, give your time, etc. It's not a service.

Regardless of any law on temperature, a collective bargaining agreement supersedes any contract. So if you decide a reasonable temperature is one of your demands, and the company agrees to it, then it is their legal obligation to abide by the collective bargaining agreement. Typically here we quietly organize a branch, then declare our membership to the company and demand collective bargaining with management. Once you declare it becomes difficult for them to fire you, because if they do you can claim it is for union activities and sue them in the labor commission. Legally they must agree to collective bargaining. If they don't "bargain in good faith" you can sue them in the labor commission as well. Non-financial demands are good here, because it is hard for them to refuse if it doesn't affect their profits.

The rule of thumb where we are is after three collective bargaining meetings, if management doesn't concede to any of the demands, we can strike. Be careful though, if you get caught up in the labor commissions and courts, though you might win in the end, it takes years and by then you'll have probably lost your striking power and your branch will have frittered away. If you can organize a majority of your coworkers, use direct action as soon as possible.

Another thing in my experience, it is harder to sell demands to people after you've decided them. So when you first form the branch, don't decide any demands right off the bat. Get your coworkers to come to meetings, talk to them, and vote on demands democratically.

One more thing, most organizing drives end in failure, around 60%. You might get the ball rollling, invest years of your life in one dispute, lose your job, and not even win. The odds are stacked in favor of the corporation. But even if that happens, you will probably not regret the experience at all. Good hunting.

If you are thinking about SEIU, PM me. A friend use to be a full-time organizer for them. He has good and bad things to say about the organization. IWW would be my first choice.

[x359594]

1) How many workers are there?
2) What are the different types of jobs are there at your company? How many workers are there in each department?
3) Does your store/company have other shops or distribution lines in the area?
4) What percentage of your coworkers would initially be excited about a union? How many would be neutral or opposed? Do you think your coworkers at work need to know more about unions?
Here is some advice in the short term. You will want to keep any union talk, and general conversations about wages, benefits, hours, etc., out of the ears of management.
You will want to be a model employee because you do not want to give management any reason to fire you. Your job is worth defending and improving.
Start a workplace diary, noting positive and negative comments from supervisors and managers. Keep notes from meetings, schedule changes, etc. Make sure you note when, where, why, etc. Save company memos and pay stubs, ANYTHING that you think will help your case if you must use a government agency to fight the boss.
Lastly, it is legal to talk about union organizing and you have a legal right to organize to improve your working conditions.
But you should know that some of the most seemingly friendly companies have waged the most vicious union busting drives. The goal of keeping the campaign out of the ears of management is to do as much organizing as possible before your campaign goes public.
Mapping your workplace
What is mapping?
Mapping is a strategic tool to help you organize successfully. Mapping should provide you with a picture of the areas where you need to focus attention on recruiting members and activists so there are union contacts in all parts of the organization.
The information you gather will give you an accurate idea of the areas you need to focus your organizing and recruitment activity on so you can begin to develop a step-by-step approach to building the strength of your branch.
Mapping also provides your branch committee with an opportunity to get ordinary members involved in building the branch - providing a sense of shared ownership and responsibility.
How to map your workplace
There are a number of different ways you can map your workplace – from drawing up a floor plan and marking down the information about where people sit, to developing a spreadsheet to keep and update the information you gather.
What is most important is that you undertake the mapping exercise with the intention of collecting as much information as you can to help you plan your recruitment and organizing work and build a stronger branch.


Why do it?
Undertaking a mapping exercise will enable your branch to develop a coordinated strategy rather than recruiting on an ad hoc basis. It should provide you with a picture of the areas where you need to focus to recruit members and where activists are needed so there are union contacts in all parts of the organization.
The information you compile will help you work out what your organizing goals should be and help you measure the success you have in achieving them. Once you have completed your map, it will provide valuable data on the make up of your workforce and help identify areas that need attention.
A mapping exercise should be completed as part of the campaign process - to help identify target areas for campaigns and indeed help formulate the campaign itself. For example, if your map shows that your accounts department has a high percentage of young employees but very few of them are members you know where your focus should be.

Who does it?
As mapping is about gathering information, you need all of your activists (and hopefully some interested members) to participate. Try to ensure that the people involved have knowledge of a wide range of different work areas.
You can build your team by getting lots of people involved in the mapping. The very fact that you are out there mapping as a team, talking to people, seeking information and asking their opinions means you have started to tackle the fundamentals of organizing.


How do I do it?
You may be able to begin your mapping exercise at your desk - but remember that mapping is essentially something that can only be done by getting out and talking to people. Get your activists together along with a list of employees. Spend a minute discussing what you know about each one of them.
You don’t have to collect the information in one go. You can build up your database over time, extend it as necessary and amend it as and when the information needs updating.


What information should we collect?
Your map should be tailored to your workplace and what you want to learn from the information. You can decide what information you need but there is some key information that you should include.
For each work area:


Who works there? (including gender, race, age)
What is their working pattern? (are they full or part time, permanent / contract / casual/ agency temp?)
What is their grade / pay / job?

Are they:


A member (are they active or potentially active - ie. would they distribute information?)
A non-member (and what their attitude towards the union is)
A rep.



How do we collect the information?
You can collect the information however you want. You may find it easier to complete each section or work area using a floor plan then transfer the data to a spreadsheet after you have collected it.
You'll find a list of employees useful especially if you also have a list of members so you can cross-reference. Many employers will provide this information either on request or routinely depending on their agreements with PCS.
Although it may seem like a big task, if you get members and reps in each section involved collecting the information for you, it won’t be so onerous.
Clearly define what you need done and why, so that members have a set task to undertake. Explain that, once you have collected the information the first time it should be relatively easy to keep it up to date and will not be such hard work.

Analyzing the information
There are a number of questions you can ask once you have collected the information on your workplace and identified your members and representatives.
In the first instance you will probably only want to focus on identifying the areas where you have lower membership, a lack of representatives, or where there are particular issues.
Over time however, you should use the information you collected in your mapping exercise to carefully target your campaigns and recruitment efforts, and to build your representative structure. The following questions should help you identify areas that you need to focus on:


How does the membership in different areas compare to the staffing in those areas – consider gender, working patterns, grade, ethnicity etc?
Is your membership spread evenly across the organization or concentrated in a few areas? Are these the areas that you have active reps in?
Are men and women recruited in proportion to the gender balance within the organization as a whole?
Are all grades / jobs represented or are you recruiting from certain grades /jobs and not others
Are you recruiting part time and contract or temporary staff as well as full time staff?

You should ask the same questions of your rep structures to gauge the strength of your branch.
Grading

You may find it helpful to grade the staff you have identified as working in each area. A useful way to do this is to grade staff as follows:


those who have already joined the union - 1
those who will probably join easily or have previously indicated that they will join - 2
those who you think will join over a particular issue or will take some persuading – 3
those who will probably not join - 4
hostile staff and management - 5.

Be careful how you share this information paying attention to the Data Protection Act as mentioned above.


Structure
This process can help give your campaign some structure. For instance, you could ask all those who you have graded as 1 to try to recruit those you have graded as 2. This should not only result in more members but also will help encourage others to become active. Make sure you set up an opportunity for the 1s to come back and tell you how they did and what they learned from it.
When acting on this information, start by addressing the 2s, then the 3s. If you have been successful, you may want to talk to some 4s, but you may need to accept that the 5s will probably never join.

[Rusty Shackleford]

Unite Here! represents hotel, hospitality and restaurant workers. all the hotels in manhatten(sp?) are 100% density organized by them and im sure restaurants(some!) are as well.


www.unitehere.org/fs/ (http://www.revleft.com/vb/www.unitehere.org/fs/)


Local 100 might be the one you would want to get in contact with if you're interested.

http://www.unitehere100.org/


for one, SSP america has union shops, skychefs, and various local restaurants around the country are organized by them.


they are a pretty good union, probably the reason ive been helping them for over a year now with stuff whenever i can at the local in my area.



EDIT: im currently at the beginning of giving it a crack at my work place.