The Workplace Labor Organizing Challenge

Working labor jobs and representing workers in the workplace is not an easy task. The real work begins with a strong desire by individuals wanting a quality of work life. You must join an organized group or association to bring about necessary changes or improvements. Organized labor is like a glove on the hand providing necessary protections to keep the working class strong. The workplace is not a democracy, but union and management associations are.

The American workplace is full of pressures to meet deadlines, and prioritizing the well-being of employees is not. Undue stress to achieve numbers leads to cheating, safety violations, and unethical behaviors. Ignoring workplace conditions is a stinging form of punishment that creates a dysfunctional environment. Without intervention, it’s a green light to disregard dignity and respect to get results anyway you can. Employees will relieve their stress by kicking holes in bathroom walls, shaking vending machines, stealing, sabotage, fights, personal property damage, and extreme violence.

If you seek a labor union or management association to represent you in the workplace it’s important to remember that the members must play an active role united as a group. Appointed spokespersons enforce all contractual agreements and violations directly to management. You must be more than a servicing grievance handler, and more of an organizer in concert with coworkers to inform the leadership about conditions of employment.

Don’t take out your frustrations with management on union officials, they are not an extension of management. Making a representative’s job difficult by being afraid to write statements about negative encounters doesn’t make the task of representing you any easier. Not willing to write a statement puts a heavier burden of proof on stewards. Stewards are not cops, they are your brothers and sisters in solidarity. Get familiar with the national labor relations board (NLRB), and the rules of the national labor relations act (NLRA) that offers protection of your rights, and what is considered illegal activities of employers, and unions.

Paying monetary dues to a union or association makes it a business. One that has extensive resources, product lines, and connections around the world. It should act as a professional organization, and if it isn’t in your opinion you should run for office and take the challenge to make a bigger difference. If you feel you are an outsider you just might have a better perspective than the experienced or entitled people with the unlimited mileage tickets. Find the best people to support your leadership team, bring them under your banner, and use available resources to raise the level of workplace union recognition.

Meet regularly with management and don’t be surprised if executives show little interest in accountability for unethical behavior. Achieving numbers is an addiction rewarded with organizational immunity. Managers intentionally violating workplace rules and labor agreements want you to gamble on a grievance settlement. Monetary settlements don’t come out of their pockets, and putting you out of work for an extended period of time is a badge of honor.

Try some of these alternatives to resolve workplace issues: File a grievance, get national union involvement, meet with human resources, discuss situations with employee assistance specialists, meet with district managers, do an informational Pickett, conduct an off-the-clock survey, petition, podcast, contact congressional leaders, or contact the media. Most importantly organize in concerted activities.

The late General Colin Powell tells the story of a time during the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln would sit in the telegraph office listening to the battlefield reports. Lincoln read a report about a captured brigadier general and one-hundred horses, he slumped over in his chair and mumbled “sure hate to lose those one-hundred horses.” The telegraph operator asked, what about the brigadier general? He replied, I can make a brigadier general in five minutes, but it won’t be easy to replace one-hundred horses. The morale of the story is to take care of the horses and make sure they are all pulling in the same direction.

Author

Ronald Williams, Jr. is a retired postal employee, and author of the 2021 book “Personality and Distribution Center (P&DC) Surviving A Postal Paradigm.’ He can be reached at PDC921@yahoo.com