I recieved a letter from my union (Teamsters) about the contract renegotiation currently taking place with my job. Prior to now our contract had a no-strike clause in it, which was fine by me, I've always felt very well taken care of by the company since I started working here a few years ago. In the letter, it stated that the terms that are being offered by the company are “a flat out insult”.
I am making more money than I ever have in my civilian career (I'm also part time military), and over the course of the last three years I have gone from making around $33 an hour to making over $40 an hour, plus the company has bought me about almost $1000 in personal tools (I'm a mechanic and I keep the tools). My boss is amazing, probably one of the best supervisors I've ever had, he literally will bend over backwards to help us out, even driving to my house in a snowstorm to plow the driveway out when I was deployed overseas last year and my snowblower broke.
Back to the letter, basically the union has voted to authorize striking if the company doesn't concede to the terms they're demanding, and this is where I have a sticking point. I'm all in favor of of doing what it takes to ensure we are treated fairly, however, I don't feel like we're being treated unfairly. When the union told us a few months ago the terms that were being offered, everyone I know in the shops was more than okay with it. Then this letter appears this week so now I'm torn.
I don't want to be disloyal to the union by continuing to work if they do decide to strike, but I also dont want to make my boss' life any harder, all of this is way above his level and he has no control over it. What do I do? I, along with the rest of the local shops, am perfectly content with what we're getting now, so why would I go on strike? Does anyone have any similar experience with this?