TLDR: manager thought they could fuck with me, until I reminded them they need me. Got a 13% raise and reduced workload! But will it last?
I currently work for a small-ish company that made near $60 million in profits last year.
It was ran by a couple, surprisingly, pro(ish) worker boomers, but then the owner died. His son took over, and fancies himself a great capitalist. Within a couple months, our pro union operations manager was ousted for requesting a raise after 35years with the company. Good guy. Along with him went all negotiations for better wages for all of us.
The replacement management decided to start off by specifically harassing me, as I was the newest, fully-established (not in training/awaiting licensure) employee.
He proceeded to, in both of our very first interactions, call me “A liar,” “thief,” that “does fuck all all fucking day, and produces nothing of value.” That was my queue to bring up the receipts.
I proceeded to show him how to find the records of all my work, and how efficiently I completed it. I wasn’t doing fuck all, I was going home early because I did my days labor in no more than the first 3 hrs of the day(previous management was cool with me having full control of my schedule so long as I finished my work). He said that’s why I wasn’t getting the raise promised me.
So after showing him that compared to my colleagues and HIS OWN record, it made him red in the face to see he probably shouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place, let alone berate me. He said I still wasn’t going to ever get that raise.
Fast forward to today when I remind him we lost the only other people in the branch that are allowed by my state to do my job. I had their balls in my hands and I gave the slightest squeeze. Instantly caved. I secured the bag today my dudes: 13% raise and a (slightly) reduced workload
The thing is it’s an easy job, so anyone motivated to get the license could replace me for cheap. Hence the tentative in the title. Nearly convinced the rest of the staff to go union, but I’m lacking in the knowledge of what to do when everyone is fired up. I want to get that done before I get fired for no reason