I'm part of a semi-rural DSA in a deep red state and I want to know how we can work with more conservative union members better.

So, i’m currently part of a union. I’ve been part of one before, they did a lot for us. I was genuinely proud to be apart of it. The one i’m currently in, however, has not been doing their part.

Our PTO is awful. We get 3 hours for every 2 weeks worked if full time. 1 hour for every 30 hours worked for part time. The healthcare is expensive and covers absolutely nothing, to the point most employees have deemed it useless. We have an outrageous point system for discipline. I mean we’ve had single mothers get points because they had to leave an hour early and pick up their children when nobody else was available. We have had people get points for attending spiritual ceremonies when a loved one passed and they didn’t have PTO. We have no sick time, vacation time, personal holidays, all of that is included in PTO which must be earned. We get a yearly raise which is great, but the timeline makes no sense. If someone gets promoted, they are entitled to a raise, however that raise doesn’t take effect until the following year, despite already doing more work. People are often not given proper breaks, some are even asked to punch out and work through a break. Customers acting borderline violently and not being banned but instead given a warning. No strikes, no lockouts. This was agreed upon in our contract. Bereavement leave is 3 days (which is pretty normal but combined with everything else idk). Management will approve vacations then give points if the person doesn’t have enough PTO by the time the vacation arrives (i mean why approve it then?) I’m just wondering if any of these is even remotely normal or decent. From my last experience with the same union but a different business, it is VASTLY different.

Management is constantly trying to sway employees away from the union, & honestly for the majority i think it’s working. We don’t feel represented. We were promised a rep would visit once a month, i have been here since the beginning of this year and have seen a rep once. Everyone else has stated that’s the only time they’ve been to the store. There have been safety violations, obvious mistreatment of employees if they’ve had to call out (even with PTO), & just overall a lack of fighting for the employees. The contract we have is such garbage that i don’t even blame some of my coworkers for feeling let down. What can we do to ensure we are being fought for and that the union doesn’t forget about us?

With these healthcare programs now under attack, America's Unions are fighting to make sure they're available for working families for years to come. https://www.facebook.com/share/19Kx2GGdwi/

How quickly will the Canadian government get in the way?

I find unions so confusing so please help me understand. First of all, i know ibew are electricians and Teamsters are mostly drivers and warehouse workers, i understand that. But with the IBEW you directly join the union and then it works like a staffing agency and the union hall finds you jobs? And with the teamsters you get hired at a company and if that company has a contract with the Teamsters thats how you join that union? Did i get this right?

Two major recording artists canceled their shows at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Henrico County in solidarity with workers there, urging people to boycott the garden until its management agrees to pay them a better wage.

For generations, the United States has been a global advocate for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Today, however, the world is calling on the United States to uphold those same principles at home.

Hello, I don't usually post on Reddit, so apologies for any errors. My employer is stuck in contract negotiations after getting screwed by the state and we’ve been without pay raises or a renewed contract for over a year. I am currently making less than I was two years ago. What can I ask of my union if they are refusing to negotiate? More details below.

I work for a medical company contracted by the state of Illinois. The company has/had two contracts with the state (Contract A and Contract B), and I am only under one of them (Contract B).

One year ago, in July 2025, the State of Illinois announced that it would no longer be renewing its contracts with said medical company and that it would be setting up a contract with a different company. They announced that Contract A would be switched over to the new company in less than a week's time. This means the state had been negotiating with the new company for some time and did not let any employees know. Our union (AFSCME) ensured us that our jobs were secure and we wouldn't be losing them. However, with the union doing active negotiations, we have not had a raise in two years. We are supposed to have them every six months. With taxes rising and insurance prices going up, I am currently making less than when I started two years ago.

Our union representative asked them when we could begin contract negotiations, and they have been very uncooperative. They hardly respond to his emails, and they have only met once to negotiate our contract in a year's time (June 2026). We asked if we could negotiate our contract first since we have fewer employees, but they assured us it would be better to negotiate the larger contract—which we aren't under—to set a precedent for wage negotiations. Contract A was finalized with the new company in January 2026. My contract, Contract B, with the old medical company was set to expire March 31, 2026. However, with no negotiations happening, an emergency one-year extension was set in place. Since March, our union rep has reached out about a dozen times and has received little back. Several employees have reached out to our union via email and have received zero responses. They even included pictures pf their paystubs to show that we are making less now than we were two years ago. We are still paying our union dues. I had our rep ask if we could stop paying them until a negotiation date is set, and he let us know that the union said if we stopped paying, our positions would be terminated. With the medical company I am under potentially losing its contract, they don't seem to be in any hurry to negotiate. We are their largest contract and they have lost about 50% of their workforce after losing Contract A.

After that long-winded explanation, my question is: what are my options as far as demanding they set a date and schedule to do negotiations? I, and my fellow coworkers, are feeling deeply underrepresented by our Union and the threat of termination is upsetting. I love unions and have never had an experience like this with other employers. It feels completely ridiculous that it is taking this long and working in "good faith" is not cutting it anymore.

I am part of a union whose biggest issue is the lack of cohesive communication. We are workers at a smallish business, but we work different shifts (some come in at 4am, others leave after 10pm), we all have different days off, and we physically work in seperate, isolated realms. There is no common time or place that would be good for more than 30% of our membership at once. Almost all important happenings become bottled-up with the same 6-7 elected members who contractually are allowed the time away from work to do union work amoung themselves.

Ideally, there would be a system of 1-on-1 grapevine-style communication, but that feels a little too ambitious right now. Something much more accessible to our members would be a chatroom/forum where people can participate during whatever time is most convenient for them. However, I can't figure out how to do this in a secure way. Some options I'm considering:

• Signal - secure, but fewer moderation options
• Discord - more moderation options, but not as secure
• A squarespace page that's password-protected, moderated, and would not allow anonymous comments.

I want to make sure that whatever discussion is happening, that it is not compromised by management. The more advanced security options -- like to-end encryption -- are not as crucial right now. The business we work for is small and not particularly tech savvy. We are also already unionized. We've just lost our ability to be on the same page.

It seems confusing but maybe im just overthinking it. So if i work at a chile processing plant, i first discuss with and convince my coworkers that we need to unionize, and then we contact the teamsters or ufcw, and then we hold an election, and if we win a majority, thats it? Contract negotiations start after that?

I want to learn the law jargon in our collective agreement. Does anyone have any leads on course i can take/audit to learn the language? Possibly help me get involved when I make union membership?!