I have come face to face with the Employee Free Choice Act today and I walked a way uneasy and worried about my job.
I need information
Let me explain. Today at my place of work, a mandatory meeting of all supervisory staff was called. There are meetings like this all the time. I am a supervisor but usually get to get out of attending those meetings because they are usually tedious, team building, corporate speak type affairs with little value to me in my job. My boss always attends and then gives me the run down.
Today's meeting was of quite a different nature. When my boss got back from his meeting he seemed preoccupied and didn't really want to discuss the meeting. This is unusual because he is a blabber mouth. Finally he mentions it was a meeting about Unions. I flippantly said something like "glad I wasn't there for that B.S.". My boss stopped and took a pretty serious tone with me. he said something to the effect that I probably should have been there because it was important that a union not form here at our place of business. I shot back by saying that unions were not a bad thing and people have a right to organize. We went back and forth like that for a few minutes. He was clearly spitting out the anti-union info he had been told and clearly believed and was in favor of that position. I was spitting out what little I knew about unions and frankly the conversation was tense. We had more pressing matters to attend to at that point so we kind of just parted ways for the time being.
My concerns are two-fold
First, I am not worried about my boss being mad about having a heated conversation. That is a part of our dynamic and it works for the most part. What I am a little concerned with is I have identified myself as "pro-union" to my superior.
Second, I did not feel like i was arguing from a wealth of knowlege. I was basically spitting out talking points.
Here's where the help part come in.
Do I need to worry about my job now. Not that I think my job is in immediate danger but do I have any protections. Am I allowed to express my opinion about unions at work. Can I be fired for this.
Now, can somebody please explain to me in simple terms why the free choice act is helpful. Not that I think it isn't but I am not well informed enough. I have googled some and most of the information I get is extremely partisan. I want to be intellectually honest about this issue. If it's good for employees, why. If it has some downside what are they and do they outweigh the benefits.
I haven't always been a Democrat. I have always been pretty liberal but you can thank old Georgie boy for making me a full blown Democrat. The reason I say this is I am not willing to just follow a party line. I believe a pragmatic approach to life is the best way for me and I don't do party dogma. So if the employee free choice act is good for workers great, if not i am going to STFU at work and mind my own business.
this diary is not snark or meant to be inflammatory. I genuinely would like answers. I am not a great fan of policy minutiae so these type of issues can be difficult for me to wade through.
please help and be kind. It's my first time so be gentle.