What Foremen and Supervisors Cannot Do!
1. Attend any union meetings, park or stand in close proximity to the union hall to see which employees enter the hall or engage in any undercover activity which would indicate that employees are being kept under surveillance to determine who is participating in union activities.
2. Threaten, punish, lay off or terminate employees for engaging in union activities during non-working hours in non-working environments (break rooms, lunch rooms, locker rooms, employee parking areas etc.). (*See below!*)
3. Transfer employees on the basis of their known or suspected union affiliations and/or activities.
4. Select employees to be laid off with the intent to weaken the union's strength or discourage membership in a union.
5. Promise or grant employees wage increases, promotions, benefits or any other special concessions if they do not participate in union activities, withdraw from an established union or vote against unionization.
6. Discriminate against union members when disciplining employees.
7. Discipline union employees or those known to be engaging in union activities for a particular action while permitting other employees to go unpunished for the same action.
8. Deviate from company policy for the purpose of getting rid of a union.
9. Threaten employees with economic reprisal for participating in union activities. For example, threaten to move the plant, close the business, lay off employees, curtail operations, reduce employee benefits, eliminate overtime and/or premium pay or otherwise reduce or eliminate privileges which are presently enjoyed by employees.
10. Announce that the company will not deal with a union.
11. Purposely team up non-union employees to isolate them from those the company believes are affiliated with the union.
12. Become involved in arguments that may lead to a physical encounter with an employee over the union question. (**See below!**)
13. Start a petition or publication against the union or encourage or take part in the circulation of such a petition or publication if started by employees.
14. Ask employees about confidential union matters, meetings, etc. (Some employees may, of their own accord, volunteer information on such matters. It is not an unfair labor practice to listen, but management must not ask questions to obtain additional information.)
15. Ask employees what they think about the union or a union representative.
16. Ask employees whether or not they belong to a union or have signed up for a union.
17. Ask employees how they intend to vote.
18. Threaten or coerce workers in an attempt to influence their vote.
19. Give financial or other assistance to a union or to employees, regardless of whether or not they are supporting or opposing the union.
20. Ask a prospective employee during a pre-employment interview about his affiliations with labor organizations.
21. Visit the homes of employees to urge them to reject the union.
*You are protected by law from any type of harassment or disciplinary action from your employer for talking to fellow employees about the union as long as you do so in the above mentioned non-work areas *and* provided that both you and the employee you are speaking to are on non-work time. That means that both of you must either be on break or lunch time or are conversing prior to or after punching out. In short, so long as the company is not paying either of you for the time you are spending discussing union matters and so long as you are not in a designated working area, you have the right to freely discuss the union. IMPORTANT! The company has the right to prohibit union materials from being brought into and/or distributed on their property at *all* times! Therefore, you are *not* protected by law if you are caught distributing union materials on the company's property at *any* time. If someone wants such materials, and you have them, be certain that you step off company property before you provide such materials to them.
**At the height of our meeting activities at GYY last winter, one of the key organizers of the meetings was confronted in a very belligerent manner by a coworker who seemed to be spoiling for a physical confrontation with him simply because he had invited someone to the meeting within earshot of the "offended" employee! While I would hope that this was simply a case of a hotheaded anti-union employee, there *is* another possibility... Union officials have told me that companies sometimes stoop to the tactic of encouraging employees to become confrontational with union activist employees in the hope of goading such activists into some sort of unacceptable conduct such as swearing, threatening or actual physical contact! I am not saying that FedEx management has stooped to this level, but as our drive towards organizing increases in magnitude, it would be wise of all of us not to leave anything to chance. If you find yourself in such a situation, WALK AWAY! If your antagonist pursues you, proceed directly to the nearest manager and notify them of the situation. You will not win friends and influence people by being belligerent in return to such attacks and you may find yourself in a bad situation quickly deteriorating to worse! Don't let yourself fall into such a trap. Always be courteous and professional with your peers no matter what their stand on unionization is.