My company recently (within the last year) hired an investment company and got a new CEO. They made promises that nothing would change. Since then, they've laid off ~20 workers and have decided that we are not making enough income to hire more employees, with the promise of tripling our business within 5 years. This has caused us to take on more work, including mandatory OT (alternating Saturday shifts).
I'm mostly worried about being understaffed and taking on extra work for the same amount of pay, constantly wondering if I'll lose my job if they decide to do more layoffs. This used to be a pretty good place to work until recent.
Could a union force management to have X amount of staff?
A union COULD benefit negotiating a 40hr week which would force them to hire more people to fulfill those Saturday shifts.
There's also the benefit of negotiating pay, raises, 401k, health care, job security, etc.
Are there any other things a Union can help with in my situation that I'm not even thinking about? If I were to try starting a Union, where do I even begin? Any good resources to help coordinate a plan of action? I live in the US in case that helps to answer the questions posed. At the very least, I feel like doing this could help others. It'd be a nice hoorah before parting ways if it means these new board members can't take advantage of the co-workers I've bonded with over the years, and any noobs that hop on board.