Hi, I'm not sure if AntiWork is the best place to post this, but I'm not sure where else to find this information as I don't have a lot of labour movement ties, and I'm not happy with my own union.
My Local has two units, A & B. Important context to know is that people in my union are NOT active… it's really hard to get people involved, let alone just out to social events. Unit B is especially a problem, as the majority of contracts are short term & temporary, so there is a ton of turnover, and many people employed in this unit don't even realize that they're unionized.
We're overdue to bargain for new contracts. I was supposed to be on the bargaining team for Unit B, but I was recently promoted to a position in Unit A, and now everyone else who was bargaining for Unit B has left for other jobs, so the bargaining team has just totally fallen apart, and our Local leadership is not feeling confident about recruiting other Unit B members to bargain.
I spent 6yrs working in Unit B, I feel like I know their concerns well and would love to continue to fight for that unit's interests. However, our union has told our Local that keeping me on Unit B's bargaining team could jeopardize the process because not following procedures (bargaining for one's own respective unit, I guess?) could give the employer leverage to question the validity of our negotiations.
I don't really trust our union, as I feel they've been undermining and belittling our Local president during this entire process (plus they've been unaccommodating to my needs as a disabled member). So I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any insight into this particular situation? I find it hard to understand how keeping me on the team for Unit B would be questionable from the employer's perspective, given that 1) I was just recently a long time employee of Unit B and 2) both units are a part of the same Local.
TIA for any insight at all.