Our mission is to make life better for you and your family. We care deeply about our members and work tirelessly for a middle class lifestyle for all. Our job is to help you make your voice heard on the job by ensuring good jobs, fair treatment and that your rights are being protected.
“You have the right in the United States to join a union or help organize a union at work.”
Becoming a union member is the best way to improve your life and your family’s future. Union members earn substantially more than comparable non-union workers. The small amount you pay in dues brings large rewards not just in your paycheck but also in your benefits and working conditions. Your dues pay for union representatives who visit your workplace and make sure you are being treated fairly and that your legal rights are upheld.
Unions improve wages, benefits, and working conditions. You deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
We also provide experts who voice your concerns to state and national legislators.
“Unions have been the only powerful and effective voice working people have ever had in the history of this country.” – Bruce Springsteen
If you do not have a union contract, you have no guarantee that your employer will comply with all the rights and protections provided under federal and state laws. What if your overtime pay was calculated improperly? What if you were unfairly discriminated against? Without a contract it’s up to you to represent yourself.
Workers with a union, on the other hand, have a contract, a representative, and an organization standing behind them. Union workers also have much more than the minimum guarantees of federal and state laws – they have better wages, better pensions, better insurance, and a way of correcting inappropriate management actions. Union workers have guaranteed rights and guaranteed representation.
Your workplace can be organized if a majority of the employees want a union. Typically, workers authorize the union to represent them by signing authorization cards, which allows the union to bargain with the company on the employees’ behalf. Sometimes an employer will officially “recognize” the union when it sees that a clear majority has signed on. If the employer doesn’t recognize the clear majority, a union must petition the federal government’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for an election to determine if a majority of the workers want union representation. The NLRB then conducts an impartial secret ballot election. If the union wins the election, the way is paved for collective bargaining to begin.
Fortunately, we live in a society of laws – and organizing a union, like many other things in life, requires legal expertise. UFCW local 135 organizers are highly trained in the rules and procedures of the National Labor Relations Act, the law that guarantees workers the right to form unions where they work.
Organizing, is not something we advise workers to attempt on their own. Knowledge, experience and organizational strength make the job much easier. UFCW local 135 prides itself as San Diego’s foremost organizing union.
If you would like more information on organizing a union where you work, Contact our Organizing Department.
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