Education workers are signing union cards to win job security, fair job posting and hiring processes, health and safety protection and a strong voice at work When workers organize unions, it is common for the boss to use a few tactics to try and scare workers.
MYTH: “The union” will come between you and us, and hurt your positive relationship with the administration” OR “The union” will make changes to your job in ways you don’t want, and you won’t have a say; you will lose your ability to negotiate one-on-one
TRUTH: In CUPE, there is no “union” separate and apart from you and your co-workers. With a union you and your coworkers are united and stronger together. United, we have more power to win the changes that WE decide WE want to win together. How well does one-on-one negotiations between a worker and their boss work anyway? Not usually very well, on the big issues.
MYTH: “You will pay dues and lose more than you gain”
TRUTH: Union dues are determined by the local and are 100% tax-deductible.
Upon certification, RVS education workers will join an established CUPE local, Local 40 – Calgary Board of Education. Local 40 dues are set at 1.85% of regular wages.
Dues are the resources that workers pool together to build strong campaigns and contracts that win improvements to wages, staffing, benefits and working conditions.
MYTH: “The union can’t promise anything”
TRUTH: This just isn’t true. While terms of the local contract must be negotiated, joining CUPE means having strong representation if/when you need it, not having to face management alone, a collective voice at work and the power to win improvements to your job.
Joining a union means you can raise issues without fear of reprisal and have a set of rules that your employer must follow. Right now, for non-union employees, the employer gets to set the rules regardless of how they might affect the workers, and they can apply them unfairly or change them whenever they want.
When you join a union, you have “just cause” protection meaning you can’t be disciplined or terminated without just cause.
That’s a promise.
MYTH: “Unionizing will result in wage reductions or layoffs”
Wages don’t go down when workers organize a union. Unionized education workers have job security, in terms of seniority recognition, and layoff language including layoff and recall processes, that non-union education workers do not enjoy.
MYTH: “Unions force workers to go out on strike”
TRUTH: Workers never go out on strike without a vote – it’s a collective decision to use union power to win and there are legislative parameters in the Alberta Labour Relations Code that need to be met before workers can engage in job action. Strikes are a last resort, but one we use if and when we need to win a hard battle.