As the title says, upper management found out I was talking to coworkers about unionizing. Got called into the office by district manager and his boss. They started by asking if everything was ok, how I liked working here at the moment, all that jazz. I said it was fine.
Then they get to the real reason (I assume) they called me into the office. They asked if I had been talking about unionizing. I told them yes. They made sure to stress that I wasn't in trouble and that I was allowed to do so. Of course I'm certain they are aware they legally can't stop workers from unionizing or talking about it. Then they asked if I had talked to any unionizers or labor unions. I said yes, that I had contacted AFL-CIO to ask about what steps I should take.
They go on about how, in his experience unions don't really help workers. Well that's easy for you to say. You're above the district manager. As far as I'm aware, A: Corporate told you to have this talk with me and B: Us being unionized wouldn't affect you.
Lastly they asked me, a few times actually, “So what can we do to make things better?” Translation: What can we do to stop you from unionizing? I told them each and every time: pay us more. We need better pay. Some of my coworkers are living paycheck to paycheck. This company I'd say is slightly better than most retail companies in that the starting pay is higher than say Walmart or Target but it's still not a living wage. It pretty much ended with them telling me “Ok well we'll see what we can do about getting you guys better pay.” Ok yeah I'll believe it when I see it.
I still plan on continuing with the union efforts of course. My coworkers and I deserve better and I just wanted to share this story. If anyone wanted to give some advice for unionizing I'd be happy to hear it. There are always things I haven't thought about that other people would. Thank you all and keep fighting the good fight!