Why Organize?
- So you and your family get the dignity and respect you deserve and can enjoy life
- Medical benefits for you and your family
- Pension benefits because you and your family earn a decent retirement
- Safe working conditions
- Better wages for you and your family to make a living
UFCW Local 1564 is experienced and committed to helping employees improve their working conditions so you and your family can have more time and money with your family. UFCW 1564 has the resources and experience to assist you and your co-workers benefit from Union representation. Below are the simple and easy steps:
- Call UFCW Local 1564 to set up a confidential meeting with yourself and/or with you co-workers.
- Employees will sign a confidential card to be provided to the National Labor Relations Board. The Federal Government requires employees to show they wish to be represented by a Union. This showing does not go to your Employer.
- After a majority of the employees sign cards/petition, UFCW Local 1564 files a petition with The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) or reaches out to your Employer to let them know that a majority of the Employees wish to form a union.
- If your Employer is not willing to recognize that a majority of the employees want to form a Union, then a secret ballot election is scheduled within 2-3 weeks. The NLRB holds an election to determine if the employees wish to form a Union.
- You win the secret ballot election. The employees begin deciding what they want to address or fix in their contract.
- Employees are nominated and elected by the workers to sit and serve on the Union’s negotiating committee.
- The employees negotiate a contract with the experience and qualified assistance of UFCW Local 1564.
- Upon reaching any agreement, employees must vote a second time by secret ballot to accept or reject the details of this contract.
- After a majority of the employees vote to accept this contract, now you have an enforceable contract, you fill out a member application, and pay your first union dues.
- Newly organized employees are not required to pay or meet any initiation fees or back dues.
Your Rights
The National Labor Relations Act provides and enforces employees right to form, join or assist a Union in organizing a Union. For more information regarding your Federal Rights to Organize, please click here to visit the Federal government's website.
Unfortunately, many Americans do not understand or know that employees have the right to boldly and openly organize and form a Union at their work. When employees are working to form a union at your work location, there are certain things your employers cannot, by law, ask you about, threaten you with, or comment on. The National Labor Relations Act enforces any of the below illegal violations.
28 Things That Your Employer Cannot Do
Any of the acts listed below constitutes a violation of the National Labor Relations Act:
- Attend any Union meeting, park across the street from a Union meeting, or engage in any undercover activity which would indicate that the employees are being kept under surveillance to determine who is and who is not participating in forming the Union.
- Tell employees that the Company will fire or punish employees if they support or engage in Union activity.
- Lay off, discharge or discipline any employee for Union activity.
- Grant employees wage increases, special concessions or benefits in order to keep the Union out.
- Bar employee-Union Representatives from soliciting employees membership on or off Company property during non-working hours.
- Ask employees what they think about the Union or a Union Representative.
- Ask employees how they intend to vote in a Union election.
- Ask employees about Union matters, meetings, etc.
- Threaten employees with reprisal for participating in Union activities. For example, threaten to shut down a facility, or close the business, curtail operations or reduce employee's benefits.
- Promise benefits to employees if they reject the Union.
- Give financial support or other assistance to a Union.
- Announce that the Company will not deal with the Union.
- Threaten to close or actually do close or move a business in order to avoid dealing with a Union.
- Ask an employee, during the hiring interview, about his or her affiliation with a labor organization or how that individual feels about unions.
- Ask employees whether or not they belong to a Union or have signed a Union card for Union representation.
- Act in a way that might show preference for an anti-union employee.
- Make distinctions between pro-union and anti-union employees when assigning work assignments or overtime.
- Purposely separate pro-union employees and keep them apart from anti-union employees.
- Fail to grant a scheduled benefit or wage increase because of Union activity.
- Getting rid of a Union supporter.
- Changing an employee's job or rate of pay.
- Threaten a Union member through a third party.
- Threaten workers or coerce them in an attempt to influence their vote in a Union election.
- Promise employees a reward or benefit if they "vote no".
- Say that unionization will force the company to lay off employees.
- Say that unionization will do away with vacations or other benefits and privileges in affect.
- Start a petition against the Union or encourage its circulation.
- Urge employees to try to induce others to oppose the Union
A Union gives workers the leverage and power to bargain for better wages, benefits, and a way to address or eliminate unfair or harsh work rules. For management, however, a Union means less power and control. As a result, many employers tend to resort to both subtle and drastic measures to keep workers from thinking a Union will benefit them at all. When workers understand they have rights to form a Union they overcome management’s tactics and take the steps to improve their job for everyone. Many employers respect workers’ rights and basic freedoms to choose when it comes to Union representation but sometimes they try to get in the way. Some companies who are opposed to allowing the employees to form a union resort to various tactics to prevent organizing.
Love Tactics and Scare Tactics -- While opposite in their approach, both tactics can have equally damaging affect for workers trying to make necessary improvements for them and their families.
LOVE TACTICS
- Give us a chance. Your boss may admit to making mistakes assuring that those mistakes will be fixed and will never occur again. Management may send out "love letters" which stresses they have an open door policy and watch out for these paid union sales person. They will pledge and promise a better future if you decide against forming a Union.
- Bribes. Overdue pay increases, promotions, enrollment for health care and new evaluations take place. Your company may implement temporary changes or improvements in reaction to a Union organizing campaign. These changes rarely last for any significant period of time and disappear shortly after the threat of a Union goes away.
- A Sudden Change in Attitude. The attitude of your employer towards you and your fellow workers will dramatically improve. Management is suddenly very concerned with showing you how much they appreciate and respect you and your work for the Company. Activities, such as lunches, dinners and picnics are organized for workers and their families - activities that did not exist before the Union began the organizing campaign. A simple “Hi” or “Thanks” begins to appear now that the employees want some rights in the workplace. If the company is willing to act so nice to you because a Union may represent you, just think how nice the company will have to act after you vote in favor of a Union, and have options you don’t have now!
Your employer might try to sway you from supporting a Union by saying or doing the following:
- Management will not listen to the Union. Management wants you to believe that workers coming together in a Union have little power and that should the workplace become unionized, management will not bargain with the workers or comply with the workers’ contract. What management does not want you to know is that, by federal law, they must cooperate when workers form a Union.
- Threatening your benefits. It is against the law to threaten your benefits as punishment for supporting a Union or to reduce your benefits in retaliation for forming a Union.
- Pressuring Team Leaders and Supervisors. Management may pressure your supervisors to subtly, or not so subtly; spread anti-union messages around your job site. Many times supervisors will use their personal relationships with employees to manipulate and harass. Again, under federal law, management is not allowed to promote, recruit, or fund any form of an anti-union committee.
- We’re a Family - We’re a Team. Management might organize a mandatory meeting in order to spread an anti-union message throughout your workplace emphasizing that the Company is a family and should stand united against the Union. It is not unusual for anti-union videos and other forms of propaganda to be shown at these meetings. The Company is allowed to hold mandatory meetings providing they pay you to attend. In most cases before the meetings start they have question and answer sessions with pre-arranged questions and answers.
- Union Busters. Management may choose to hire union-busters, or better known as Labor Management Consultants to roll out and implement a way to defeat the workers attempt to organize. These highly paid professionals sign a contract with your Company, and then work to prevent the employees from having a contract with your Company.
- Strikes. The reality of strikes is very rare. Unions will examine all other alternatives before a strike is deemed necessary. Statistically less than 1% of all negotiated union contracts end in a strike. The workers are required to approve a strike and must vote to authorize such action by a two-thirds secret ballot vote. The Union does not approve a strike, the workers do.
- $ Money, Money, Money $. Not one single penny will be paid towards Union dues unless the workers receive and vote to approve a contract covering their wages, benefits, and working conditions. Only the employees can accept or reject the terms of their contract. So why would you or your co-workers vote to accept anything less than what you currently have? Your employer may attempt to frighten you with talk about all the money you could pay in Union dues or Union fees. Employees who are present when your first contract is accepted have their initiation fees waived. No employee voting for that first contract will pay a single penny towards initiation fees nor back dues. Employees hired after a contract is in place will have to pay a low initiation fee of $25 to $150. Union dues bring large rewards in pay raises, benefits, job security, Union representation and guarantee of working conditions. The additional pay and benefits workers receive through belonging to the Union are much more than the cost of Union dues. UFCW Local 1564 dues range from $6 per week to $11 per week based upon the pay rate of the employee. The low weekly cost of Union dues is nothing compared to the savings on Health Care, higher wages and safer working conditions a Union provides.
It is now mandatory in the United States that you and your family are covered and enrolled for health insurance. If you are not enrolled under a Health plan you will pay a penalty each year when filing your taxes. The penalty will be increasing each year. Unfortunately, your employer’s plan and the state exchanges are expensive and the deductibles are very high with low levels of coverage. Union members get to negotiate over any changes and obtain far better coverage, with lower deductibles at far less cost than their non-union counterpart.
Filing GrievancesPlease Note: You must contact your Union representative directly if you wish to file a grievance.
Your right to file a grievance and hold your Employer accountable is one of the benefits of being a Union member. The grievance procedure is the cornerstone of any Union contract. The grievance process is used to enforce the contract and to remedy any change from the current practice. Without a grievance process, everything else in the contract would be unenforceable and thus meaningless. The right to file a grievance and hold the Employer accountable is a right only shared by a union organized facility.
The Grievance Procedure in your contract also contains an arbitration clause that calls for a final step if a grievance cannot be resolved between the parties. Arbitration is a non-formal hearing process before a neutral third party whose decision is final and binding on all parties involved. The vast majority of grievances, however, never get to that level because they are resolved in a satisfactory manner. One must consider that arbitration could go either way.
When the Union files a grievance on behalf of an employee, we ask that employee to submit a statement of all the relevant facts. In order for the Union to successfully move forward on a grievance, we need as much information as possible including potential witnesses that can be interviewed to further prove the case in favor of the grievant.
The Union’s goal is to resolve your grievances as soon as possible. Witnesses have to be found and /or interviewed, responses from your employer provide additional information, and we may need to research past cases of a similar nature. Not all grievances are resolved in a few months. A grievance heading to arbitration could take up to a year or more from the date of the initial filing to the receipt of a decision from a selected arbitrator. The quicker we receive information from the grievant and the more complete that information is, the sooner we will be able to resolve that grievance. If you want to file a grievance, you must call your Union Representative directly. The Union Representative's names, stores they are responsible for and how to contact them are on this website. You cannot file a grievance or notify the Union that you want a grievance filed through this website. Please notify them directly by calling the Union office or their cell phone.
HELPFUL INFORMATION
Protect yourself! Always keep a copy of everything you turn in to your employer. For example, if you take time off because of illness, make copies of any doctor’s notes that you turn in, as well as any paperwork that you fill out for the Company when you go on a leave of absence. This includes forms that you prepare under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Hold on to all of these copies for your personal records.
If you are called into your Manager’s office and asked to write a statement about something that happened, always ask if this could lead to you being disciplined. If the answer is “no” and they ask questions about something that happened involving a co-worker, request that you be allowed to make your statement in writing. As always, keep a copy of the statement for your records.
If the meeting may lead to you being disciplined, ask that your Union Representative be present. It is your right under Federal law to have a Representative present during any investigative meeting that might lead to discipline, but you must request it. It is not your Employer’s responsibility to make sure you have a Union Representative present.
If you are being issued discipline, such as a written warning, and the discipline is determined and prepared on a write up before you arrive without any further questions, then you do not need representation.
If you are called into your Manager’s office and people who you do not know such as “security” personnel are present, you need to request a Union Representative be present before you answer any questions by security or management. This is your federal protected right as a Union member. This is called your “Weingarten Rights”. You must insist upon wanting your Union Representative present before you answer their questions and not be talked out of this request. If you give in to their attempts to have the meeting without your Union Representative, then you gave up your federal right and what you say or do will be held against you.
What Is an Investigatory Interview?
An investigatory interview is any discussion with your employer that could result in discipline — for example, when management questions an employee to obtain information or when the employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what he or she says.
Weingarten Rights were established to help secure your job and prevent management from coercing members into confessing to mistakes or wrongdoings that they did not commit.
Not every discussion with an employer is considered investigatory. If your boss wants to specify certain job requirements or announce a warning or discipline, this is not considered investigatory.
However, the discussion can become investigatory if your employer begins to question you about the matter for which discipline is administered. At that point, you may exercise your Weingarten Rights and request a Union Representative to be present throughout the conversation. If your employer denies this request, the employer is in breach of your rights and you do not have to say a word.
If you request a Union Representative’s presence at the interview, do not discuss any issues with your employer before your Union Representative arrives! It is better to go home suspended than to proceed in a meeting that could result in your termination.
Understanding your rights is just as important as having them. Weingarten Rights protect you and your valuable job.
Again, always get a copy of everything that you put in writing and give to the Company or its representatives, including security personnel, even when you are not going to be disciplined.
Weingarten Rights Statement
I refuse to submit to this interrogation because I fear that I will suffer severe discipline or termination of my employment and I demand my right to have Union Representation present on my behalf before this proceeding continues and if my demand is not acknowledged, then I refuse to participate in this process and you may take whatever action you deem appropriate.v
- So you and your family get the dignity and respect you deserve and can enjoy life
- Medical benefits for you and your family
- Pension benefits because you and your family earn a decent retirement
- Safe working conditions
- Better wages for you and your family to make a living
UFCW Local 1564 is experienced and committed to helping employees improve their working conditions so you and your family can have more time and money with your family. UFCW 1564 has the resources and experience to assist you and your co-workers benefit from Union representation. Below are the simple and easy steps:
- Call UFCW Local 1564 to set up a confidential meeting with yourself and/or with you co-workers.
- Employees will sign a confidential card to be provided to the National Labor Relations Board. The Federal Government requires employees to show they wish to be represented by a Union. This showing does not go to your Employer.
- After a majority of the employees sign cards/petition, UFCW Local 1564 files a petition with The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) or reaches out to your Employer to let them know that a majority of the Employees wish to form a union.
- If your Employer is not willing to recognize that a majority of the employees want to form a Union, then a secret ballot election is scheduled within 2-3 weeks. The NLRB holds an election to determine if the employees wish to form a Union.
- You win the secret ballot election. The employees begin deciding what they want to address or fix in their contract.
- Employees are nominated and elected by the workers to sit and serve on the Union’s negotiating committee.
- The employees negotiate a contract with the experience and qualified assistance of UFCW Local 1564.
- Upon reaching any agreement, employees must vote a second time by secret ballot to accept or reject the details of this contract.
- After a majority of the employees vote to accept this contract, now you have an enforceable contract, you fill out a member application, and pay your first union dues.
- Newly organized employees are not required to pay or meet any initiation fees or back dues.
Your Rights
The National Labor Relations Act provides and enforces employees right to form, join or assist a Union in organizing a Union. For more information regarding your Federal Rights to Organize, please click here to visit the Federal government's website.
Unfortunately, many Americans do not understand or know that employees have the right to boldly and openly organize and form a Union at their work. When employees are working to form a union at your work location, there are certain things your employers cannot, by law, ask you about, threaten you with, or comment on. The National Labor Relations Act enforces any of the below illegal violations.
28 Things That Your Employer Cannot Do
Any of the acts listed below constitutes a violation of the National Labor Relations Act:
- Attend any Union meeting, park across the street from a Union meeting, or engage in any undercover activity which would indicate that the employees are being kept under surveillance to determine who is and who is not participating in forming the Union.
- Tell employees that the Company will fire or punish employees if they support or engage in Union activity.
- Lay off, discharge or discipline any employee for Union activity.
- Grant employees wage increases, special concessions or benefits in order to keep the Union out.
- Bar employee-Union Representatives from soliciting employees membership on or off Company property during non-working hours.
- Ask employees what they think about the Union or a Union Representative.
- Ask employees how they intend to vote in a Union election.
- Ask employees about Union matters, meetings, etc.
- Threaten employees with reprisal for participating in Union activities. For example, threaten to shut down a facility, or close the business, curtail operations or reduce employee's benefits.
- Promise benefits to employees if they reject the Union.
- Give financial support or other assistance to a Union.
- Announce that the Company will not deal with the Union.
- Threaten to close or actually do close or move a business in order to avoid dealing with a Union.
- Ask an employee, during the hiring interview, about his or her affiliation with a labor organization or how that individual feels about unions.
- Ask employees whether or not they belong to a Union or have signed a Union card for Union representation.
- Act in a way that might show preference for an anti-union employee.
- Make distinctions between pro-union and anti-union employees when assigning work assignments or overtime.
- Purposely separate pro-union employees and keep them apart from anti-union employees.
- Fail to grant a scheduled benefit or wage increase because of Union activity.
- Getting rid of a Union supporter.
- Changing an employee's job or rate of pay.
- Threaten a Union member through a third party.
- Threaten workers or coerce them in an attempt to influence their vote in a Union election.
- Promise employees a reward or benefit if they "vote no".
- Say that unionization will force the company to lay off employees.
- Say that unionization will do away with vacations or other benefits and privileges in affect.
- Start a petition against the Union or encourage its circulation.
- Urge employees to try to induce others to oppose the Union
A Union gives workers the leverage and power to bargain for better wages, benefits, and a way to address or eliminate unfair or harsh work rules. For management, however, a Union means less power and control. As a result, many employers tend to resort to both subtle and drastic measures to keep workers from thinking a Union will benefit them at all. When workers understand they have rights to form a Union they overcome management’s tactics and take the steps to improve their job for everyone. Many employers respect workers’ rights and basic freedoms to choose when it comes to Union representation but sometimes they try to get in the way. Some companies who are opposed to allowing the employees to form a union resort to various tactics to prevent organizing.
Love Tactics and Scare Tactics -- While opposite in their approach, both tactics can have equally damaging affect for workers trying to make necessary improvements for them and their families.
LOVE TACTICS
- Give us a chance. Your boss may admit to making mistakes assuring that those mistakes will be fixed and will never occur again. Management may send out "love letters" which stresses they have an open door policy and watch out for these paid union sales person. They will pledge and promise a better future if you decide against forming a Union.
- Bribes. Overdue pay increases, promotions, enrollment for health care and new evaluations take place. Your company may implement temporary changes or improvements in reaction to a Union organizing campaign. These changes rarely last for any significant period of time and disappear shortly after the threat of a Union goes away.
- A Sudden Change in Attitude. The attitude of your employer towards you and your fellow workers will dramatically improve. Management is suddenly very concerned with showing you how much they appreciate and respect you and your work for the Company. Activities, such as lunches, dinners and picnics are organized for workers and their families - activities that did not exist before the Union began the organizing campaign. A simple “Hi” or “Thanks” begins to appear now that the employees want some rights in the workplace. If the company is willing to act so nice to you because a Union may represent you, just think how nice the company will have to act after you vote in favor of a Union, and have options you don’t have now!
Your employer might try to sway you from supporting a Union by saying or doing the following:
- Management will not listen to the Union. Management wants you to believe that workers coming together in a Union have little power and that should the workplace become unionized, management will not bargain with the workers or comply with the workers’ contract. What management does not want you to know is that, by federal law, they must cooperate when workers form a Union.
- Threatening your benefits. It is against the law to threaten your benefits as punishment for supporting a Union or to reduce your benefits in retaliation for forming a Union.
- Pressuring Team Leaders and Supervisors. Management may pressure your supervisors to subtly, or not so subtly; spread anti-union messages around your job site. Many times supervisors will use their personal relationships with employees to manipulate and harass. Again, under federal law, management is not allowed to promote, recruit, or fund any form of an anti-union committee.
- We’re a Family - We’re a Team. Management might organize a mandatory meeting in order to spread an anti-union message throughout your workplace emphasizing that the Company is a family and should stand united against the Union. It is not unusual for anti-union videos and other forms of propaganda to be shown at these meetings. The Company is allowed to hold mandatory meetings providing they pay you to attend. In most cases before the meetings start they have question and answer sessions with pre-arranged questions and answers.
- Union Busters. Management may choose to hire union-busters, or better known as Labor Management Consultants to roll out and implement a way to defeat the workers attempt to organize. These highly paid professionals sign a contract with your Company, and then work to prevent the employees from having a contract with your Company.
- Strikes. The reality of strikes is very rare. Unions will examine all other alternatives before a strike is deemed necessary. Statistically less than 1% of all negotiated union contracts end in a strike. The workers are required to approve a strike and must vote to authorize such action by a two-thirds secret ballot vote. The Union does not approve a strike, the workers do.
- $ Money, Money, Money $. Not one single penny will be paid towards Union dues unless the workers receive and vote to approve a contract covering their wages, benefits, and working conditions. Only the employees can accept or reject the terms of their contract. So why would you or your co-workers vote to accept anything less than what you currently have? Your employer may attempt to frighten you with talk about all the money you could pay in Union dues or Union fees. Employees who are present when your first contract is accepted have their initiation fees waived. No employee voting for that first contract will pay a single penny towards initiation fees nor back dues. Employees hired after a contract is in place will have to pay a low initiation fee of $25 to $150. Union dues bring large rewards in pay raises, benefits, job security, Union representation and guarantee of working conditions. The additional pay and benefits workers receive through belonging to the Union are much more than the cost of Union dues. UFCW Local 1564 dues range from $6 per week to $11 per week based upon the pay rate of the employee. The low weekly cost of Union dues is nothing compared to the savings on Health Care, higher wages and safer working conditions a Union provides.
It is now mandatory in the United States that you and your family are covered and enrolled for health insurance. If you are not enrolled under a Health plan you will pay a penalty each year when filing your taxes. The penalty will be increasing each year. Unfortunately, your employer’s plan and the state exchanges are expensive and the deductibles are very high with low levels of coverage. Union members get to negotiate over any changes and obtain far better coverage, with lower deductibles at far less cost than their non-union counterpart.
Filing GrievancesPlease Note: You must contact your Union representative directly if you wish to file a grievance.
Your right to file a grievance and hold your Employer accountable is one of the benefits of being a Union member. The grievance procedure is the cornerstone of any Union contract. The grievance process is used to enforce the contract and to remedy any change from the current practice. Without a grievance process, everything else in the contract would be unenforceable and thus meaningless. The right to file a grievance and hold the Employer accountable is a right only shared by a union organized facility.
The Grievance Procedure in your contract also contains an arbitration clause that calls for a final step if a grievance cannot be resolved between the parties. Arbitration is a non-formal hearing process before a neutral third party whose decision is final and binding on all parties involved. The vast majority of grievances, however, never get to that level because they are resolved in a satisfactory manner. One must consider that arbitration could go either way.
When the Union files a grievance on behalf of an employee, we ask that employee to submit a statement of all the relevant facts. In order for the Union to successfully move forward on a grievance, we need as much information as possible including potential witnesses that can be interviewed to further prove the case in favor of the grievant.
The Union’s goal is to resolve your grievances as soon as possible. Witnesses have to be found and /or interviewed, responses from your employer provide additional information, and we may need to research past cases of a similar nature. Not all grievances are resolved in a few months. A grievance heading to arbitration could take up to a year or more from the date of the initial filing to the receipt of a decision from a selected arbitrator. The quicker we receive information from the grievant and the more complete that information is, the sooner we will be able to resolve that grievance. If you want to file a grievance, you must call your Union Representative directly. The Union Representative's names, stores they are responsible for and how to contact them are on this website. You cannot file a grievance or notify the Union that you want a grievance filed through this website. Please notify them directly by calling the Union office or their cell phone.
HELPFUL INFORMATION
Protect yourself! Always keep a copy of everything you turn in to your employer. For example, if you take time off because of illness, make copies of any doctor’s notes that you turn in, as well as any paperwork that you fill out for the Company when you go on a leave of absence. This includes forms that you prepare under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Hold on to all of these copies for your personal records.
If you are called into your Manager’s office and asked to write a statement about something that happened, always ask if this could lead to you being disciplined. If the answer is “no” and they ask questions about something that happened involving a co-worker, request that you be allowed to make your statement in writing. As always, keep a copy of the statement for your records.
If the meeting may lead to you being disciplined, ask that your Union Representative be present. It is your right under Federal law to have a Representative present during any investigative meeting that might lead to discipline, but you must request it. It is not your Employer’s responsibility to make sure you have a Union Representative present.
If you are being issued discipline, such as a written warning, and the discipline is determined and prepared on a write up before you arrive without any further questions, then you do not need representation.
If you are called into your Manager’s office and people who you do not know such as “security” personnel are present, you need to request a Union Representative be present before you answer any questions by security or management. This is your federal protected right as a Union member. This is called your “Weingarten Rights”. You must insist upon wanting your Union Representative present before you answer their questions and not be talked out of this request. If you give in to their attempts to have the meeting without your Union Representative, then you gave up your federal right and what you say or do will be held against you.
What Is an Investigatory Interview?
An investigatory interview is any discussion with your employer that could result in discipline — for example, when management questions an employee to obtain information or when the employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what he or she says.
Weingarten Rights were established to help secure your job and prevent management from coercing members into confessing to mistakes or wrongdoings that they did not commit.
Not every discussion with an employer is considered investigatory. If your boss wants to specify certain job requirements or announce a warning or discipline, this is not considered investigatory.
However, the discussion can become investigatory if your employer begins to question you about the matter for which discipline is administered. At that point, you may exercise your Weingarten Rights and request a Union Representative to be present throughout the conversation. If your employer denies this request, the employer is in breach of your rights and you do not have to say a word.
If you request a Union Representative’s presence at the interview, do not discuss any issues with your employer before your Union Representative arrives! It is better to go home suspended than to proceed in a meeting that could result in your termination.
Understanding your rights is just as important as having them. Weingarten Rights protect you and your valuable job.
Again, always get a copy of everything that you put in writing and give to the Company or its representatives, including security personnel, even when you are not going to be disciplined.
Weingarten Rights Statement
I refuse to submit to this interrogation because I fear that I will suffer severe discipline or termination of my employment and I demand my right to have Union Representation present on my behalf before this proceeding continues and if my demand is not acknowledged, then I refuse to participate in this process and you may take whatever action you deem appropriate.