Only if we all voted on a contract that gave us less…employers often emphasize that with contract negotiations we could end up with more, or less.
- “Did you know, that when a union enters negotiations, our wages could go up? Or they could go down.”
- “Wait my wages could go up?”
- “Or they could go down…”
- “But realistically it’ll probably go up, right?”
- “Or they could go down…”
But seriously, any contract we negotiate has to be voted on by union members to be approved. We wouldn’t vote to approve a contract that gave us less, and wouldn’t approve a contract that didn’t at least give us back at least the cost of dues in additional benefits!
- It is illegal for an employer to take away benefits in retaliation for unionization. Once a union petition is filed, our working conditions are ‘frozen’ as the floor – meaning you will not be working without a contract, and they cannot take away things like our health insurance which are already in our contract.