Organizing Process 101

DB
by Danielle Buchanan10 views·Updated Nov 17, 2021
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Short recorded presentation

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  1. Hi, my name is Daniel Buchanan.
  2. I'm a lead organizer with I B E W District for thank you so much
  3. for taking this time out to watch
  4. this short presentation on the process of organizing
  5. his campaign workers.
  6. You may be involved in several campaigns a year, but no matter the campaign,
  7. there are certain steps that will remain the same
  8. and you can follow those steps to organize your group. So let's get started.
  9. I divided the presentation into three sections, one, how do you get started?
  10. Number two authorization cars that we can now do electronically
  11. And how you use those authorization cards to get to step three.
  12. The final step, the actual union contract,
  13. no matter where you are located in Canada or the United States,
  14. you can go to our website I B E W S dot com and there you can find an organizer.
  15. Once on our website, you can select organize your workplace,
  16. which is this picture here at the bottom
  17. or in the upper right hand corner, you will actually see the words contact us.
  18. So if you choose that picture or contact us.
  19. Either way, you will see a map of the United States and Canada
  20. for our purposes. Since we're in Virginia, let's just use Virginia.
  21. So you will click here on Virginia
  22. And once there you will see that you have five organizers available at your disposal
  23. myself.
  24. Lead organizer dale Mcrae. Lead organizer, Patrick Kelleher.
  25. Lead organizer Andy chapman and our
  26. leader regional organizer coordinator for McDermott.
  27. This is also the place where you fill out
  28. an authorization card by signing and submitting this card,
  29. you're telling us that you want a union at your workplace that you desire, I B A W.
  30. To basically do what we do best.
  31. We work hard on your behalf to secure better wages,
  32. employment benefits and improve other working conditions.
  33. There's even an icon there,
  34. did you click on if you wish to learn more about authorization cards
  35. and it looks like this,
  36. we have these and flyers.
  37. So if you need these,
  38. just contact us and we will be more than happy to mail some out to you.
  39. It is necessary to get 70% of your unit to sign authorization cards and there may be
  40. some confusion or some questions about who is
  41. actually in your unit or who is eligible.
  42. It is important to contact your organizer on the
  43. first day to help you figure this out.
  44. Remember your organization process is going to
  45. be fast tracked because your assignments may
  46. only last a couple of months or sometimes maybe even a couple of weeks.
  47. So it is never too soon to contact us and we can help you go through this process
  48. Now. Again 70% is what is necessary.
  49. But our true goal is 100% and we have several reasons for that.
  50. If we get 100% of the card signed,
  51. it sends a message to management that you mean business,
  52. that this is something that everyone wants,
  53. management is less likely to try to point someone out to try to change their mind
  54. and basically you're starting to act as a union getting 100% of the card signed.
  55. So even if you get 70% through the process,
  56. still try to get those authorization cards signs until we get to 100%.
  57. Once the car is assigned your employee, you can go either one of two ways.
  58. They can respect your decision and forming a
  59. union and give you guys voluntary recognition.
  60. Or they can force us to go through the process of filing a petition
  61. and having an election.
  62. Of course we prefer the first way and there's a couple of reasons why
  63. when you have voluntary recognition it is quicker you
  64. can get to negotiation contract process that much sooner.
  65. It shows the company is usually more reasonable.
  66. And again it sends a message that you are all on one accord. You are all one mind
  67. filing a petition is a longer process that longer time frame.
  68. Sometimes it's more stressful on the employee.
  69. And then when you actually go to the election,
  70. you're not guaranteed that you may win that election.
  71. Before we get to this final part contract negotiations.
  72. Your representative will give you a survey and ask you guys many
  73. many questions on what you want and problems that you wish to tackle
  74. what the order of these problems are and list them in order of importance.
  75. This is because we're not interested in giving you a cookie cutter contract
  76. was problematic at one campaign may not be an issue at another campaign.
  77. However, for those of you have worked a campaign, you know that it's very,
  78. very important to have everything in writing.
  79. We had I B E W do not want to leave anything to chance and
  80. we want you to focus on the job that you were hired to do.
  81. We don't want you to use your energies to
  82. deal with broken promises that you may have been given
  83. when you're higher or deal with housing issues or
  84. how to handle sick days or things like that.
  85. Remember, it is your legal right to organize a union at your workplace.
  86. It is the best way to have your voice is heard.
  87. I've noticed many times that you may be working for
  88. a candidate and that candidate may even be pro union.
  89. However he or she may not be aware of the day to day work issues that you're having.
  90. We also feel that a union contract guarantees fairness,
  91. You will be surprised on how many people are offered different things when
  92. they are higher and they are all doing the exact same job.
  93. We are not grown to talk about wages and other benefits. Let I B E w do that for you.
  94. That was it for me. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
  95. My email address is Danielle underscore Buchanan at I B E W dot org.
  96. Phone number 2404442304. Thank you.