WHAT IS A UNION?
Here is how it works!
The IAM Union is a member-driven movement for democracy, quality patient care, and a stronger voice in the workplace,it is committed to building a model union by dedicating itself to the following principles.
Democracy: Union members elect union officers, executive board members, stewards, and rank-and-file bargaining team members; negotiate and ratify their contracts; and vote on changes to the union’s Constitution and Bylaws.
Workplace Organization: The union is strongest when workers elect a steward from every department and every shift and hold regular steward council meetings.
Training and Development: The IAM conducts regular training sessions for stewards to develop their representation skills.
Patient Advocacy: The IAM is committed to its watchdog role in the workplace. As the last line of defense for our patients, we must ensure that they receive the care they need and deserve.
New Organizing: Not only does organizing the unorganized bring new opportunities to more workers, but raising the wages and benefits of your employer’s competitors helps you win higher economic standards from your employer.
Political Action: Healthcare is financed and regulated by elected government officials. Healthcare and insurance corporations are heavily involved in the political process, influencing decisions that impact our industry. We need to be involved, too. We need to ensure that the voice of healthcare workers is part of the discussion.
Research: By investigating the standards and practices of employers, we equip ourselves with valuable information in negotiating fair, equitable contracts for workers.
Communication: A vital element of our work is getting the word out to our members, the public, and the media.
UNION CONTRACT
Responsive to you!
A union contract, sometimes referred to as a collective bargaining agreement, is the legal, binding agreement negotiated between the union — you and your co-workers — and the employer. It sets forth the rates of pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.
The contract represents what the union, through its collective strength, has forced the employer to agree to. Although management often implies that it would provide good wages and benefits without pressure from a union, history shows that employers rarely offer higher pay, better benefits, or improved working conditions beyond the bare minimum unless compelled to do so. The union is the institution that forces an employer to go beyond the bare minimum, and the union contract incorporates those improvements into a legally enforceable document.
A union contract is unlike other types of contracts, like those used to purchase a car or a house. If those kinds of contracts are violated, you have to go to court and then convince a judge to enforce them. By contrast, you and your co-workers are responsible for enforcing the union contract. Employers, in the pursuit of greater profits, often try to get around the contract. It is the union’s job to see that they don’t. If you and your co-workers do not vigilantly enforce the contract, then the employer has no reason to abide by it.
CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT
INSIDE LOOK AT YOUR CONTRACT
Union members enforce the contract through a variety of means: petitions, meetings, collective action, and through the grievance procedure. Effective contract enforcement requires union members to be well-informed, unified in purpose, and well-organized. To accomplish this, members in each department or unit of the workplace elect a well-respected co-worker as a shop steward. The workplace’s democratically elected shop stewards meet monthly to organize the workers collective power.
Through meetings and through actions democratically determined by the membership, stewards and rank-and-file members must work hand-in-hand to ensure that the contract is enforced and that the employer is held accountable to the contract. Collectively, the members assess problems and decide how they should be addressed, whether through a grievance procedure or some other means.
Member participation is vital. These are important decisions that require unity among the membership. In workplaces where members are active, the union is strong; where participation is low, the union is weak. It is only when workers actively participate in building the union that we have the power to force the employer to provide quality patient care, safe working conditions, and good pay and benefits.
equal rights
PROTECTING WORKERS
The power of the union comes from uniting all workers hired by the employer. The union must be truly democratic with room for everyone, including those with different ideas. The union should be the safest place in our society to disagree, a place where all workers and all ideas are welcome.
We do not choose who belongs to our union; employers choose who belongs to the union by whom they choose to hire. Collectively we must work with everyone the employers hire, including new hires and probationary employees, to create the unity and strength we need to win goals that we all support.
Workers make up a majority of the population, but employers and their administrators and managers, who make up just a small part of the population, exercise tremendous influence over the rest of us. To remain powerful, and to undermine the enormous power that workers have when they are united, employers continually attempt to divide workers — by job classification, education and training, and even by age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and legal status. Employers try to use our differences to divide and weaken our union.
The IAM fights discrimination in three ways. First, we support all movements that fight against racism, bigotry, and prejudice of any kind. Second, our contracts include strong language that prohibits the employer from discriminating based on the basis of race, creed, sexual orientation, age, gender, gender identification, and union activity. Third, we have a simple standard: all union members have the absolute right to be judged based on their own actions and behavior, regardless of what they look like, where they come from, what language they speak, who they love, or what religion they practice, if any. We believe that an injury to one is an injury to all, and that what unites us is good and what divides us is bad.