Join us, and let’s get to work.
This small group starts to privately discuss workplace issues, what is involved in organizing a union, and making plans to contact the International Guards Union of America (I.G.U.A.). When you're ready, contact us and an I.G.U.A. Representative will reach out to your group to answer your questions and help you to develop a comprehensive organizing plan.
Join the International
Guards Union of America
BUILD AN ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Leaders are identified and an organizing committee representing all departments and all shifts and reflecting the racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in the workforce is established. Organizing committee training begins immediately. Committee members must be prepared to work hard to educate themselves and their coworkers about the impending management anti-union campaign. The organizing committee must be educated about workers’ rights to organize and must understand I.G.U.A. policies, principles of democracy and rank-and-file control.
Also at this step, basic basic information about the group must be gathered including:
- Workplace Structure: Departments, Work Areas, Jobs
- Employee Information: Name, Address, Phone, Shift, Job Title, and Department for each Worker (Employee List)
- Employer Information: Other Locations, Parent Company, Product(s)/Service(s), Customers, Union History
ADOPT AN ISSUES COMMITTEE
The committee develops a program of union demands (the improvements you are organizing to achieve) and a strategy for the union election campaign. A plan for highlighting the issues program in the workplace is carried out through various organizing campaign activities.
SIGN UP MAJORITY WITH UNION MEMBERSHIP CARDS
Your coworkers are asked to join the I.G.U.A. and support the union program by signing MEMBERSHIP CARDS. The goal is to sign up a sizeable majority. This “card campaign” should proceed quickly once begun and is necessary to hold a union election.
WIN THE UNION ELECTION
The signed cards are used (and required) to petition the State or Federal Labor Board to hold an election. It will take the Labor Board several weeks to determine who is eligible to vote and schedule the election. The union campaign must continue and intensify during the wait. If the union wins, the employer must meet and negotiate -in good faith- with the union. Winning the election not only requires a strong, diverse organizing committee and solid issue program, must there must also be a plan to fight the employer’s anti-union campaign.
NEGOTIATE A CONTRACT
The organizing campaign does not let up after the election victory. The primary goal of the election is to secure a Union Contract which is the legal document that the union and employer agree to which covers conditions of employment such as Wages, Seniority, Employer-Funded Healthcare, Employer-Funded Retirement, and many other issues. Workers must be mobilized in order to achieve their best contract. -Organize, Make it YOUR UNION!
