I am union, a couple of bucks above scale. I have a GREAT relationship with the company I work at. I am one of the rop guys on the crew. I feel appreciated and I am busy, so I make sure the paycheck comes in, but I do not look too closely.
I was getting ready to have the 'inflation is 8%, I need a raise' conversation after hitting a few home runs recently. So I am going through my paystubs and see that my wage did not increase last September when the Union negotiated annual increase is set to hit.
I have a good repor with the management, so I send a 'I am quite sure it is an oversight, so get it fixed whenever, and lemme know when it is sorted out' email. Come to find out corporate pushed this down that everyone over scale is to get the cost of living increase taken from the overscale amount. So if I am $2 over the Journeyman rare, and the annual increase is 1.40, my wage does not go up, and instead I am at .60 over scale.
This gets explained in a conference call with the management and they says “alright?”
“No, not alright, you need to fix this.”
I am not a hot head, I am gathering my things in preparation for a departure (hope for the best and plan for the worst) and taking my vacations… I am not disrupting my routine to have a showdown at this moment. I will have the showdown at the time and place of my choosing. I interview well and have no doubt I will get hired quickly at another place, should it come to that.
But since I do not have this rate in writing it seems as though it is hard to prove wage theft. Any ideas from the peanut gallery here?
I spoke to a guy that says it happened to every Union guy making over scale. The majority threw a fit and got it corrected. A 'see what we can get away with' thing. It worked with at least some. It will NOT work with me. I will demand back pay and my inflation raise or I walk. Just looking at the wage theft angle….