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Starting a Union
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Posted by: armystud0911
I work for a Valet company in northern Kentuckey, we have about two dozen locations between Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton with maybe 300 total employees. I have been with them for about a year and I must say that I have never heard of a company that seems to shaft its employees as much as them. A year ago, all of the workers at our largest location got their wages reduced from $5.50 an hour to $2.15 an hour without any notice whatsoever (and believe me they were generating PLENTY of revenue). Also, they automatically take out half an hour of pay for every shift thats over 6 hours even though we never technically get a break at all. Furthermore, most of my paychecks mysteriously have a day or two of pay eliminated from them and then after I go to our financial director, the money appears on my check a month later. It seems like they go out of their way to exploit every financial loophole to give us the least amount of money. We were unofficially promised a 3% christmas bonus, but they decided not to give it to us this year. I could go on with all kinds of examples of maltreatment, esp with people getting fired for bogus reasons, ussually just to cover the backside of some manager who made a mistake. The only reason why they keep on doing this is because they know that we will not take a stand against them, we are pretty much just a bunch of college students and dropouts. The only thing I can say to their credit is that my location has a wonderful manager.
I am quite fed up with their treatment as are the rest of the employees, what I would like to know is this: is it feasible to start a workers union? I have never been a strong supporter of them, but in this case I can really see it helping us out by putting a little pressure on the executives to treat us better. I don't know how to go about this and am fairly certain that I will get fired if I do, but it really needs to happen. Any input at all?
Posted by: redwench
from a practical standpoint, you would need an established union to come in and do it. the yellow pages of a large city is a good place to start. there is at least one union that covers hotel workers, that might be appropriate.
on another note, you have a couple possible federal violations in your list, and some legal, but annoying practices. you should sort them out and address the former with the federal department of labor. you can get all federal (and most state) labor laws online with a bit o searchin.
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they automatically take out half an hour of pay for every shift thats over 6 hours even though we never technically get a break at all.
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that one would be the provence of your "wonderful" manager, not the company. its his/her responsibility to ensure that everyone takes their legally required breaks.
Posted by: armystud0911
I appreciate the input red, I will start searching for established unions in the area, however...
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Originally Posted by redwench
that one would be the provence of your "wonderful" manager, not the company. its his/her responsibility to ensure that everyone takes their legally required breaks.
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Ok, so "never" was too strong of a word, about 3 of the locations have managers that let you take a break, mine, fortunately is one of them.
Posted by: redwench
there is no let, is a federal requirement.
Posted by: Cettie
According to Federal minimum wage laws for the state of Kentucky, the rate is $5.15 per hour with a REQUIRED 30 minute break if you are scheduled to work for a minimum of 5 hours. According to law, the employer can choose to dock you 30 minutes pay but you must by law have the break that goes along with it. They cannot legally reduce anyone's pay to $2.50 per hour, nor arbitrarily cause days of pay to become MIA. The first step in your plan should be to contact the state department of labor in your state and go from there. When peons at any company try to form a union (and I speak from experience here) the first thing that happens is management immediately finds reasons to eliminate those employees. They fire a few as a warning to the others, if it doesn't work, the whole lot goes and newcomers are forewarned at the time of hiring. The things you've cited here are clear violations of labor laws. It is also important to document everything so you have proof. Names, incidents, frequency of occurrences, dollar amount the person was shorted and how long it took to resolve it. These are important things to have with you if it comes to a labor hearing. CYA, always.
Posted by: Shalome
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Originally Posted by Cettie
According to Federal minimum wage laws for the state of Kentucky, the rate is $5.15 per hour with a REQUIRED 30 minute break if you are scheduled to work for a minimum of 5 hours. According to law, the employer can choose to dock you 30 minutes pay but you must by law have the break that goes along with it. They cannot legally reduce anyone's pay to $2.50 per hour, nor arbitrarily cause days of pay to become MIA. The first step in your plan should be to contact the state department of labor in your state and go from there. When peons at any company try to form a union (and I speak from experience here) the first thing that happens is management immediately finds reasons to eliminate those employees. They fire a few as a warning to the others, if it doesn't work, the whole lot goes and newcomers are forewarned at the time of hiring. The things you've cited here are clear violations of labor laws. It is also important to document everything so you have proof. Names, incidents, frequency of occurrences, dollar amount the person was shorted and how long it took to resolve it. These are important things to have with you if it comes to a labor hearing. CYA, always.
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Actually, in most states in a job where you make a significant portion of your income from tips, they can reduce your wage to somewhere around $2.15 an hour -- as long as you are making at least minimum wage per hour with your salary + tips. That's the way every waitress position I've ever had worked.
Posted by: Fury451
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is it feasible to start a workers union? I have never been a strong supporter of them, but in this case I can really see it helping us out
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capitalism r0X0rs
that is til u yourself become the victim eh ? 
afaik to start a union u gotta have the approval of your employers . plus the federal government must aprove as well .
if so then basically youre screwed . sorry 
Posted by: redwench
heh, you certainly dont need the approval of your employers, or there wouldnt be any unions 
Posted by: Cettie
My frame of reference is that In NY state where I live, valets are not considered being a part of the same category as restaurant workers. The minimum wage is also affected by state laws because if there is a disparity between state and federal guidelines, the higher wage prevails. In NY state the minimum wage just went up to $6.75 per hour, with 2007 bringing it up to $7.15. Waitresses here make a minimum of $3.75 although they make up the difference in tips. Unfortunately the NY state income tax also docks them 20% of their reported tips at tax time. The catch is that even if they don't report all their tips the government assesses a certain amount based on their employers gross income for that restaurant as determined on the employers' tax forms. Pretty much they have you coming and going.
As far as employers approval of starting unions----if that were the case there would never be a union in the history of the world.
Posted by: Bishop
This is why I refuse to work for a living, and instead maintain my paradise in idle luxury.
And it only took a year of hard work to make it happen!
Posted by: Cant Stop
ya also check with your local labor dispute office(unemployment office)
and see if you have a legit complaint and always take your 30 minute break by punching out for it if you get grief then you simply tell the boss you are taking your state mandated break
as for your wage you need to ask if you are considered a tipped employee if so then check with your employment office for the state minimum wage for tipped employees
as for unions call friends in other states that have unions and ask them to check the hotel valets to see if they have a union if so find out which one,
and finally you can always call your local teamsters office and ask them which union represents valets.
the state of illinois is very heavy into unions and you could call one of those offices and they could also tell you what union regulates the hotel valets
finding a union is easy getting a local hall established is tough, watch the movie norma rae to see how bad it can get.
on a final note i live in florida and we are classified as a right to work state and that makes it hard for unions to get a good foothold here
plus would all your co-workers be willing to go on strike and picket the businesses that use your company?
if not then find a new line of work.
Posted by: Fury451
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Originally Posted by redwench
heh, you certainly dont need the approval of your employers, or there wouldnt be any unions |
lol yeah i know that sounds crazy but :
http://www.answers.com/topic/labor-...d-states?gwp=19
( but i dunno if the site is reliable or not )
“To join a union, workers must either:
* be given voluntary recognition from their employer or
* have a majority of workers in a "bargaining unit" vote for union representation.
In either case, the government must then certify the newly formed union.”
so basicaly either your boss or the government ( state or federal govt ?  ) must approve
Posted by: redwench
lol. thats accurate, if rather brief. note that "or" is for voluntary or involuntary, not for certification, which is for all occasions. the govement criteria for certification are well established, its not a warm and fuzzy approval by a person.
Posted by: armystud0911
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Originally Posted by Fury451
capitalism r0X0rs
that is til u yourself become the victim eh ?
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The reason why I have never supported them was becuase the ones that I had seen in the past were no longer in place to secure the rights of employees but simply to perpetuate themselves. This ussualy took place as subtle annoyances, such as taking fees from employees that did not see their benefits in any way shape or form. However, they can take an extreme dive from time to time, for example, I worked a non-union construction site one summer that was vandalized three times by a local union, they were caught the last time. I also do not support unions that go too far with their benefits, my uncle works for chrysler and he was laid off for 9 months last year simply because they didnt need him and still made 95% of his normal wages.
I also want to clarify that my purpose of starting a union is not just to ensure that federal requirements are met, we have osha for that, but to give our employees a few benefits.
Posted by: Fury451
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Originally Posted by armystud0911
The reason why I have never supported them was becuase the ones that I had seen in the past were no longer in place to secure the rights of employees but simply to perpetuate themselves. This ussualy took place as subtle annoyances, such as taking fees from employees that did not see their benefits in any way shape or form.
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my bad
i never guessed unions could steal employees money . afaik theyre suppose dto defend them not rob them 
anyway i still think labor unions are a good thing as long as they dont go overboard 
Posted by: Cant Stop
find one that already exists covering your type of job and then talk to them about opening a "local" union hall where you are.
the gov't would have already recognized the union so it is simply a matter of opening a local chapter.
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