Going Union

I was twenty one years old and living in Leesville when I had my first experience with labor unions.  I was working for an extremely successful and profitable cable company.  I worked in the local origination department which was a branch of the company that produced programming for their local station. It was a new market and a new venture.  There were three of us in the department.  The department head, myself and another young man.  I was in charge of writing news stories,  running the camera and anything else that the department head didn’t want to do. The other guy was in charge of selling the programs to local sponsors.

I loved the job. It was creative and challenging.  I had been married for about three years at this time and my relationship with my husband was anything but harmonious.  And this job was very demanding of my time.  It wasn’t a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday job. It was when they needed me, where they needed me, doing what they needed me to do.  And I was told that I had no choice and that I would lose my job if I didn't comply.  I had little say in that which didn’t help matters at home.

This job while the schedule was flexible, the pay wasn’t. I was not allowed to punch a time clock. Instead our department head would turn in our hours for the week on a time sheet he created.  While I worked more than 60 hours a week most weeks, the time sheet that was turned in only reflected a 40 hour week.  I wasn’t considered salaried.  I was only 21 and naive to say the least. I never questioned it. I just believed that the company would do the right thing. 

After working there for nearly a year, I began to question their system when I was denied some time off. I thought that all of the overtime that I had put in could be easily exchanged for some much needed sick leave.  I had tonsillitis and was confined to my home for a week.  I didn’t get paid for that week and it was that action that made me question the integrity of my employer.

Around the same time that I began to feel a little taken for granted, I was visited by a ‘union man.’  He invited me to lunch along with some other executives who had become aware of my situation along with some of the other employees.  It seems their practice of not awarding overtime pay to anyone took in the line crew whose weekly hours exceeded a forty hour week, too.  These labor guys talked to me about heading up an effort to bring a union in.  I didn’t have much experience with unions but I did think that the company should have been more responsible to their employees and held accountable. I agreed to it and went about talking to the other employees about holding an election.  All was going well and it looked like the union was going to pass. 

Before the day of the election, I was approached by the general manager and asked to have dinner with him and a few other executives.  I was told by the union guys that the exes of the company were not allowed to speak to me about the election or try to persuade me to change my vote.  Well, our dinner was all about changing my vote.  They told me that I would lose my job with them and that they would see to it that no one in town would hire me.  They lied to me and told me that all of the employees were going to vote against the union and that I had created havoc and discord amongst the workers and they could not protect me.   It frightened me to say the least.  And there was no peace at home or a shoulder to lean on.  The threats from my husband were  just as real.  I felt alone and abandoned.

I proceeded with the plan to unionize because I thought it was the right thing to do. The elections were held and the employees voted overwhelmingly to unionize.  The cable management changed. A new manager arrived on the scene at the same time that I had decided to leave the company.  They asked me stay and offered me a raise. I declined.  In the weeks to follow, I realized how I had been deceived by the company.  I had come to understand how this all could have been avoided if they had just done the right thing by everyone. If they had just given a fair wage for a fair days work.  Instead they used and abused their employees and deprived them of time and money.  The company was investigated and was ordered to pay for those overtime hours to all of their employees.  Because there were no ‘real’ time sheets, the court estimated the lost wages.  It was far less than was expected but the real change came when the company was ordered to put in a time clock and new policies were set to protect the worker.  

I know that there is a lot of talk against unions these days.  But I must say that I’m not so sure that I agree with that.  I believe that the management of this company was corrupt and abusive. And they took advantage of me and many others.  Other than quitting, what else is there?  Who is out there to protect the worker?  I’m sure people will argue that the unions went  too far…asked for too much and as a result, companies relocated oversees or shut down.   And that may be true.  I think power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…no matter which side it’s on. 

So what’s the right answer?  Depends on what side you’re on.