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Organization Department |
Answering Non-Members’
Doubts about the Union
Martha Shunn-King
Organization Department Director
(This article by first appeared in the May/June 2012 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)
When do you organize? Every chance you get. Whose job is it? Everyone’s.
It is important that rank-and-file members — not just union officers or stewards — ask their co-workers to join the union. You may have a better idea about how to approach the people you work alongside every day.
It is not an easy task, but the more members we have, the stronger the union will be. In these tough times, that’s crucial.
The following are suggestions you can use to respond to common questions. Expound on these answers from your personal experiences.
Why should I join the union?
The union is our voice — at the bargaining table and on Capitol Hill. With consolidations, post office closures, and threats to our healthcare coverage, we all need the union.
Won’t I get the same wages and benefits without joining?
Yes, but aren’t you interested in protecting — and improving — you wages and benefits? Aren’t you interested in winning stronger contractual protections? We can only protect our rights and win new ones if enough of us want them and are willing to work together to get them.
If every worker refused to participate, we would have no union at all to bargain for us or speak on our behalf in Congress. The union needs you!
I can’t afford to join the union.
Everything of value has a price. Did you ever stop to think how much less money we would be making if it were not for the union? You owe it to yourself and your family to become a member of a union that protects our jobs and our livelihood.
You can’t afford not to join. It pays in the form of job security, better wages, and improved benefits.
I don’t believe in unions.
Unions are made up of workers who have banded together for mutual protection and benefit. Everyone joins together today in groups or organizations to get what they want, and they increase their effectiveness with numbers. Why shouldn’t workers do the same thing?
A large union presence in an area can raise wages for all workers, which in turn builds a stronger community and economy. In fact, a Harvard University study revealed that rising inequality in income over the past 30 years is directly correlated to a decline in union membership.
Before unions, people worked long hours, under terrible conditions with little pay, and no benefits. Workers were fired at the whim of management.
Do you know why the break room is called the “swing room?” Before 1971 and the Great Postal strike, postal employees qualified for public assistance because their wages were so low. They punched off the clock and waited for more mail. Learning a scheme was done at home on their own time. If given the opportunity, management would surely go back to the old ways of managing workers.
The union doesn’t do anything for me.
Working together, we have won job security, decent wages, and good benefits. Today, we are in the fight of our lives to protect everything we have fought for. This struggle benefits all of us, but we can’t win it without you.
Regarding complaints about individual grievances, insist on specifics. Check out the problem and report back to the non-member. Concede that the union can make mistakes, but point out the many grievances that have been won.
I don’t like the people who are running the union.
You are the union. Get involved and help change the things you don’t like.
