Your employer might warn that with a union, there will be new rules and less flexibility. They might also play on workers’ emotions, making you think just talk about a union has made them realize there are problems and they should treat you better or institute “open-door” policies. They might even say they’ll do things similar to what unions do, like institute grievance procedures.
Your employer might circulate stories about violent incidents involving unions, even though they have nothing to do with CWA. They might also hire extra security guards around the time of the union election to plant the idea that “there might be trouble.” Sometimes they even encourage someone to take acts of violence against the workplace and workers’ property — vandalism, tire-slashing — and blame it on the union.
Your employer might suggest that soon after you vote for union representation, you’ll be forced out on strike whether you like it or not. They might try and scare you about how you’d survive on-strike, without your income.
Employers do things like distributing “documents” or news clippings that are supposed to show that the union needs your money to survive. They might also pass out phony checks with union dues “taken out” and bring in a bag of groceries with the label, “What you could buy with one year’s union dues.”
Here’s management starting to show their cards: They’re mad, and they simply don’t want to deal with a union. (It has nothing to do with their “worrying” a union will be bad for workers.)
Management often tries to convince workers that they’ll start getting orders from “union bosses”; that union officials will control job assignments and working conditions, and that workers will lose the ability to talk directly to management.
Unbelievably, some employers go as far as to park empty moving vans near the job site just before the election — to give workers the idea that the company will leave if the union goes through. Companies also frequently hint at taking action against those who support the union.
