Myth- If I sign a union card, or vote for the union and the vote fails they will target me.

“I’m in support of unionizing and I know on paper that retaliation for showing support for unionizing is illegal, but I really don’t want my name associated with any union drive.”  Boy have I heard this one a lot this week!  And I have great news for you-  your name doesn’t need to be associated with any union drive, not now, not ever.  Your support of a union will be kept hidden from the company and bosses every step of the way, seriously.  

“But what about the vote? They’ll know how I vote.”  Wrong! The National Labor Relations Board requires that employee voting is done in secret.  They will have no idea which way you’ve cast your vote.

“OK, but I researched this a little and it seems like we have to sign ‘a petition’ or ‘union authorization cards’  in order to force a vote…. If I sign an authorization card and then the vote fails I’m screwed…. They will find ‘a reason’ to fire me.”    

 You’re partly right, they WILL find a reason to retaliate IF they could know who signed authorization cards, but the employer never gets to see the authorization cards, the employees remain unknown to the employer.

A quick rundown on the Union Authorization Card Process:

 How the process works is like this- employees who are involved in a union drive will give you a card, or a link to a 'digital card'. You sign that card indicating you want to be part of a collective bargaining agreement, once more than 30% of the work force has signed authorization cards, we (with the help of the Union) contact the National Labor Relations Board and petition for an election.  The NLRB contacts the company and a mutually agreed 3rd party can verify that the required minimum number of eligible employees have indeed submitted cards, but the employee identities remain confidential throughout the process. 

The same is true for the union vote- they don't see who's name is 'yes' or a 'no'.

What this means for you, dear anonymous sloper, is your support for a union, or for a union vote will NEVER be known by the company unless you want it to be known.  This won’t affect your future chances for advancement, this won’t negatively impact your current job and your boss won’t be able to ‘find a reason’ to fire you because they have no way of knowing who is in support of the union process.  

Now one more quick thing about Union Authorization Cards- Management is going to try to scare the shit out of you to keep you from signing it. They are going to push all sorts of lines about "your signing away your voice", and "just by signing the card you can become part of a union without even getting to vote"- just wait- you will hear those things. Those half truths and lies are coming.... stay tuned to UnionOnTheNorthSlope.org for the whole truth. We will talk about all that, just not right now... the import thing to remember right now is you can do this whole thing 'under cover'.