In my union job (which I should add is related to law enforcement, but we are civilians) we only get 2.5% “cost of living” pay raise per year.
We have no paid maternity leave.
We have to use FMLA time of we can’t work more than 40 hours a week.
If you have to go off payroll for any reason (including covid) and for any amount of time (even an hour) you lose any longevity pay that was due to you.
These are just the few things I can think of off the top of my head but I’m going through my entire contract today to see what else needs changed. I’m not sure if there is anything I can do since my union reps are friends with management.
I’m not allowed to attend the meeting unless it’s my day off and I get it approved my management. So there’s no way to guarantee it will be talked about at all if I give my notes to the reps.
On one hand, I’m glad to be unionized, but they don’t help much if you have shit reps.
A large business I know of which I won’t say, is not union and they give their employees 3.2% cost of living a year. It fucks me so much that ours is even less than that.
Anyway rant over. If anyone has advice please feel free to let me know!