Haunted houses. Horror movies. Terrified shrieking. Halloween could be scary. But what is scarier than Halloween? Let’s start with these 5 things!
1. No voice at work
This is pretty scary because you don’t have a say on anything. A safer workplace? Nope. A process to voice your concerns? NO. Fair compensation? Blank stare.
2. No paid sick leave
“Paid sick leave is for the weak,” says no one ever, or maybe just some bad employers. The truth is, having to come to work sick is not only bad for the employees but for customers – and possibly the company’s bottom line. After all, who wants to go to a restaurant where cooks and waiters look like candidates for the ICU? No, we don’t want E.coli with our burgers.
3. No retirement benefits
We’ve been surfing the amazing AARP website, but what we’ve found is rather terrifying: a large number of seniors have to go back to work, at least on a part-time basis, just to make ends meet. America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but our seniors can’t afford to retire. To many, retiring at 65 is a stretch.
That’s because companies for decades have moved away from traditional pensions, which provide lifetime benefits, to 401(k) plans, which aren’t large enough to provide for a comfortable retirement. Their CEOs, on the other hands, are enjoying their golden parachutes even after they have driven their companies into the ground. With low-wage jobs that provide zero or near zero benefits, workers can’t afford to save for their retirement. As a result, Social Security is the lifeline of a majority of our seniors. And yet politicians are trying every single year to cut Social Security benefits. Even now – two weeks before the mid-term elections – GOP leaders announced they’re cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
4. Bad bosses
The movie Office Space is funny, but if you have Bill Lumbergh as your boss, not so much. Yet this is what the American workforce is facing. More than one in two Americans say their boss is toxic, and approximately the same number of people have left a job “to get away from their manager at some point in their career.” Toxic bosses are damaging to both employees and organizations, and without unions, the situation could get much worse.
5. Bad laws
Corporate America has declared war on unions because when workers join together, we are powerful. That’s why politicians bankrolled by these special interests have enacted bad laws like Right to Work for Less to systematically kill off unions. Anti-union lawmakers are doing the same thing at the federal level, hence bad laws targeting federal employees and our rights to come together and protect our workplace rights.
The good news is…
Workers who belong to a union have a voice at work to shape their working lives and address their concerns on workplace issues like health and safety, compensation, and abusive managers. Union members are more likely to have paid sick leave, retirement benefits, health insurance, and due process against wrongful disciplinary actions, retaliation, and discrimination.
So yeah, you may want to join a union.
When we join together, we also have more political clout that can influence policymakers on Capitol Hill.
If you are a federal employee, join our union now. If you’ve already joined, ask a co-worker to join so we are bigger and stronger.
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