My store is going union
Our company was bought by another grocery store about a year ago and since then the companies have been merging. Our ordering system, their delivery system, our in house products, etc. Well, one of the things their company has that ours didn't was a good relationship with the union. Ours gave us extras to keep us from joining: health insurance after one month instead of three, two floater days (paid days off) instead of one, raises every time the union got one to keep us making a few cents more an hour. The combined company doesn't.
So the union guys came in and I resisted by asking questions. I asked everything I could think of about raises and health insurance and dues and vacations. The more I heard the better it sounded, but was it right for me? Did it matter? They were going to keep recruiting people until they go over 51% (all they needed for force the rest of the employees to sign up or quit).
But I finally checked out how much I pay in health insurance ($66+) a week compared to how much I'd pay under the union ($15), how much my pension was ($7k) as opposed to what I'd get (just under $30 dollars a month times how many years I worked for the rest of my life with the prospect of even more). So even without the 50¢ raise I'd be bringing home $40 more a week (after dues) and spend less per doctor visit ($10 rather than $150.82), and end up with a bigger pension if I live more than twelve month after retirement (if I work for ten more years). And the best gift my parents have ever given me was making sure they didn't need my help financially (because I couldn't afford it).
So on Thursday, I told them I'd sign last Saturday, and I did. Only since I waited until I was enthusiastically for it, I've been helping recruit others (the sooner we get 70%, which is 51% with a couple more in case of quitting or transferring) the sooner we can get our health benefits (one of the women I work with has a bum ankle and she can't afford to see a surgeon). Another coworker would save $450 a month by removing herself from the exempt list, which was easy because her work title says she works the front end (checkers, and the people who put things and tags on the shelves). But it turns out Floral managers can't go non-exempt, so if my manager leaves and this woman gets the job, she'll lose her union benefits. So few floral departments are union that we have almost no power. No wonder I've only gotten one 25¢ raise in the last six years.
Now just a month ago I would have been upset at the idea of someone pushing to get all the floral departments non-exempt, but now I like the idea that managers could chose to save themselves a great deal of money and if we had greater say in the union, we'd get more raises over in my corner of the store.
I like my job, but I'd like it more if I my paycheck was bigger.
And the union is saving the company money. Right now the company spend $10 on my pension and $330 on my health benefits a week. They will be spending $18 on my pension, but only $200 on my health benefits. We all might win from this.
So this made me wonder what kind of person I am that I didn't join until I was well into it, that I made the choice to choice for myself rather than let it happen to me. Am I the turn and fight/reason kind of person? Or, like my husband says, the kind that wonders what kind of person I am?
So the union guys came in and I resisted by asking questions. I asked everything I could think of about raises and health insurance and dues and vacations. The more I heard the better it sounded, but was it right for me? Did it matter? They were going to keep recruiting people until they go over 51% (all they needed for force the rest of the employees to sign up or quit).
But I finally checked out how much I pay in health insurance ($66+) a week compared to how much I'd pay under the union ($15), how much my pension was ($7k) as opposed to what I'd get (just under $30 dollars a month times how many years I worked for the rest of my life with the prospect of even more). So even without the 50¢ raise I'd be bringing home $40 more a week (after dues) and spend less per doctor visit ($10 rather than $150.82), and end up with a bigger pension if I live more than twelve month after retirement (if I work for ten more years). And the best gift my parents have ever given me was making sure they didn't need my help financially (because I couldn't afford it).
So on Thursday, I told them I'd sign last Saturday, and I did. Only since I waited until I was enthusiastically for it, I've been helping recruit others (the sooner we get 70%, which is 51% with a couple more in case of quitting or transferring) the sooner we can get our health benefits (one of the women I work with has a bum ankle and she can't afford to see a surgeon). Another coworker would save $450 a month by removing herself from the exempt list, which was easy because her work title says she works the front end (checkers, and the people who put things and tags on the shelves). But it turns out Floral managers can't go non-exempt, so if my manager leaves and this woman gets the job, she'll lose her union benefits. So few floral departments are union that we have almost no power. No wonder I've only gotten one 25¢ raise in the last six years.
Now just a month ago I would have been upset at the idea of someone pushing to get all the floral departments non-exempt, but now I like the idea that managers could chose to save themselves a great deal of money and if we had greater say in the union, we'd get more raises over in my corner of the store.
I like my job, but I'd like it more if I my paycheck was bigger.
And the union is saving the company money. Right now the company spend $10 on my pension and $330 on my health benefits a week. They will be spending $18 on my pension, but only $200 on my health benefits. We all might win from this.
So this made me wonder what kind of person I am that I didn't join until I was well into it, that I made the choice to choice for myself rather than let it happen to me. Am I the turn and fight/reason kind of person? Or, like my husband says, the kind that wonders what kind of person I am?