Don't believe their promises.

Crazy how interested the bosses have suddenly been in our jobs, huh?  I don’t mean our direct supervisors, I’m talking about the Superintendents, OIMs and VPs. All of a sudden they’re concerned about our work loads and want to know what they can do to make our work flow better, want to know where they can spend money to make things easier, faster, safer or more efficient. Wow!  They care!    Don’t fall for it.  They care because they’ve realized they’re losing control- they care because if they don’t care we vote union.  If they  they convince people that they care and squash the union vote they will retain 100% control, and then they will not care; not about you, or me. If they win, they won't care our safety or pay or schedule or anything else that matters to us, just like they didn't care 2 months ago.  The only reason they care is because they risk losing control.  

Let me be clear on something here- some of our bosses are probably 100% genuine in their concerns and efforts to improve things with us.  Some of our bosses are absolutely serious when they look in our faces and say “we need to do better, we’ve made mistakes but we’re going to try to make this right”.  But this isn’t the whole picture-  ask anyone that’s been here for more than 5 years how many different superintendents and field managers they’ve had- they’ve probably lost count.  Maybe right now you have Mr. Nice Boss, but what about next year? Next year Mr. Nice Boss will get moved to Norway and you’ll have Mrs. New Boss. Even if New Boss is a great lady and 100% serious about working with us, how long is New Boss going to be here?  2 years?  3?  Then what?  Then we get Next Boss, then Future Boss, and so on.  It doesn’t matter what Nice Boss or New Boss promises us, because it can always be undone by Next Boss, and Next Boss can (and will) always blame whatever broken promises on New Boss, or Big Boss, or Town Boss, or HR Boss.  There is always someone to blame the failures and broken promises on.  

However, there is a way to stop this cycle- it’s the same mechanism that businesses discovered hundreds of years ago-  it’s called a legally binding contract.  That way it doesn’t matter if Next Boss or HR Boss thinks it's bullshit that Nice Boss let us work 3x3, Next Boss can’t unilaterally take that away because it’s written in a contract.  A union is the only way to get a written promise of our future working conditions, pay, and benefits.  Without a union and a collective bargaining agreement we are 100% at the mercy of Next Boss and Big Boss.  There is absolutely nothing that Nice Boss can ‘promise’ you that can’t be ripped away, especially when the price of oil drops.

Be nice to Mr. Nice Boss, be nice to Mr. Pretend-to-Be-Nice Boss, but when it’s time to vote- remember what you’re voting for:  you’re voting for protection against Next Boss and Bad Boss, you’re voting to control bosses that will always place the blame on someone else, you’re voting for protection against broken promises.