Complaint Review: UFCW 1189 - Duluth Minnesota

At the Augustana Oakview campus we were had by the UFCW. Our campus is divided into three houses. The third house happens to have two people a shift opposed to the other two houses that have one. The Organizer who suggested to bring in the union for the Home Health Aides went the the third house and did it behind the backs of the other two houses. This allowed for the necessary signitures to get the NLRB vote. Before the vote happened, things occured that scared those who were against the union greatly. Cars were getting keyed, people were harrassed, and things were getting stolen from the houses. Needless to say, plenty of the no voters stayed home. This allowed the Union to be voted in. Coercion allowed

the Union in the door. Shortly after the Union came in, all of those who had organized and voted in the union all quit. Leaving all of those who never wanted the union in the first place behind. Those who were left behind made it our business to try and get the union to leave us be. We didn't want them, we didn't need them. The UFCW was not budging. The acknowledged that we didn't want them there, but bluntly told us we had no choice, and that we were stuck with them. The campus looked up rules and regulations and decided together they would refuse all contracts until the one year period and then move to vote the union out. They refused a good contract, A very good contract, all in the name of

removing the union. The organizer of the union coming in had quit, but he had continued to go on campus to visit his mother who lived there, and he began to harass the staff further about the union. He used threatening language to coerce people into signing for the contract. After the contract was turned down, the union made a move to silence the voices of the small Augustana Oakview campus forever. From the start they had set it up so that Oakview could never remove them. They had combined Oakview with the next door care center's contract. This meant that the Larger care center would now over power Oakview in all voting decisions. Despite being seperate campuses with two very different needs,

they would now be able to decide what worked for us, what was good for us. Up to that point, we were able to vote on the issue on our own because the union claimed that what we were negotiating was exclusive to Oakview, and did not effect the care center so we were able to vote without them getting involved. When the contract got turned down, the UFCW, realizing that we didn't want them, decided that the next vote would authorize a strike vote, and that they wanted the care center to be involved in the vote. They claimed that the strike vote would effect them. They were alerted to Article ten of the contract for the care center stating that they were prohibited from striking and therefore this vote would NOT affect

them. We also alerted the UFCW that if we did go to strike vote we would refuse to strike. The UFCW did not care. They were more concerned with silencing the Oakview campus and FORCING us to consent to this contract by using dirty tactics. To top it off, they said if we turned down the contract, we would have to go to the press and tell them how bad Augustana treats us, even though it was NEVER Augustana that we had the problem with, they gave us a good contract, It was the UNION, and if it's anyone that we should strike against it should be the vile UFCW that takes away our voice and forces us to accept a union we do not want through coercion and dirty tactics!