Why Won't They Talk About the Real Issues?

Why Won't They Talk About the Real Issues?

It's always the same.

Wherever you go. When the workers try to organize themselves together to address real problems like pay, respect, and fairness, management wants to change the subject. And they've got lots of ways of avoiding these real issues.

They create a climate of fear.

It's hard for anyone to think straight when they're afraid. And that's what management does. They tell us all kinds of half-truths and inaccuracies about union dues, strikes or CWA's Constitution.

The "union" is "us". Why be afraid of ourselves? We're the ones who'll decide what we want and how we'll do it.

They bad-mouth CWA and label the union outsiders.

They'll say the workplace is now full of conflict and blame it on CWA. Quite frankly, there was a lot of conflict here before we even knew about CWA. That's why we called them÷ to find out what we could do to change how unhappy we were.

Actually, we want all of us to work together to make this a better place to work. And we've got some good ideas. But management insists on saying things will be worse with CWA. But, CWA will be "us". Seems like they're just worried that with a union we'll start to gain control of our own lives.

They try the "Give us another chance" routine.

When all else fails, we can expect them to promise us anything. They'll say, "Give us six months and we'll solve all your problems without a union."

Well , if we don't need a union, why didn't they pick the last six months to solve all our problems? Some of us have heard promises before. And that's all they turned out to be ÷ promises.

Nothing changed.

Fortunately, workers here, like other places, are smart enough to see though management's smoke screens and fear tactics. We want to discuss the real issues, not sling mud like a bunch of politicians.

Whatever management does, we're sticking to the facts. We know we need a union, and we know it'll be good for all of us.