FAQs

A union is a group of workers who join together to advocate for improvements to their workplace (i.e. higher pay, better benefits, training and professional development opportunities, etc.).

By acting and negotiating collectively, workers have a more powerful voice than if they were to advocate for themselves individually.

Workers typically form a union with an existing union in their industry so they can draw upon the union’s expertise and resources. In our case, that union is the American Federation of Teachers.

Unions are democratic membership organizations. Members actively choose to be a part of the union and leaders are elected by those members. Labor organizations are required under U.S. labor law to follow rules on governance, financial disclosure and other areas of their operations.

Signing a Union Authorization Card is the first step towards establishing a recognized union at Whitman College.

These cards are documents affirming your support for union representation and authorizing our union to represent you for the purposes of collective bargaining for a fair contract with Whitman College.

Your decision to sign a card is confidential! The College will not know who signs. Our organizers will collect these cards and send them to the National Labor Relations Board to verify our majority.

Contrary to what you may hear, signing a card doesn’t automatically make you a union member! You become a union member after recognition is won either through “card check” or an election, a Collective Bargaining Agreement is approved by employees, and you sign a dues checkoff form.

There are many benefits to union membership, but what each worker finds most beneficial will be unique to them and their circumstances.

• One of the biggest benefits is a contractto protect you and an organization to represent you and look out for your well being.

• On average, union workers make 18% more than their non-union counterparts.

• Some colleges, like Walla Walla Community College, have successfully bargained for strong Reduction in Force (RIF) protections in their contract preventing arbitrary layoffs and ensuring any reductions are predictable and handled in a respectful and humane manner.

• You’ll have a voice in the workplace without fear of retaliation.

• Other benefits like education opportunities, legal services, and others specific to our union

Generally speaking, any non-managerial employee. But we know in higher education, what roles are deemed “managerial” can be a little hazy.

Ultimately, eligibility is up to us and what positions we are willing to fight to include in the bargaining unit. This is a point of ongoing discussion in our Organizing Committee. Help us continue these conversations by sending us your job description at wcworkersunited@gmail.com.

Voluntary recognition means that we and the college decide together on who is a supervisor or not, so it's not just up to the college's determination. We are asking the administration to meet with us to discuss who is classified as a supervisor based on their actual job duties and the responsibilities they have. If you'd like to be involved, we could use your help to make sure the negotiations are fair and don't count anyone out who should be part of the union.

Employers cannot legally retaliate against union organizers.

However, that does not always stop them from doing so. Should retaliation in the form of termination occur, our union is ready to pursue charges of illegal retaliation with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB conducts investigations into illegal actions like these; in 2018 they obtained 1270 reinstatement orders for workers illegally fired for exercising their rights and collected $54 million in back pay for those workers.

It is important to note that we are acting with the utmost discretion and take the safety of our colleagues very seriously. We do not name who is involved in our organizing efforts without consent.

If your supervisor asks if you are a part of a unionizing effort or know about one, you don’t have to lie, but you also do not have to cooperate.

After employees unionize, the employer and union are required to bargain in good faith for a collective bargaining agreement .

A collective bargaining agreement is a written contract between an employer and a union that represents a group of employees, called a bargaining unit. A single union may represent multiple bargaining units and negotiate contracts specific to those individual units.

What goes into a collective bargaining agreement is ultimately up to the workers and the employer, but they typically address areas such as wages, benefits, health and safety issues, grievance procedures, and protections from arbitrary discipline or termination.

Learn more about the collective bargaining process on the NLRB website.

Our union would be a big tent representing staff across Whitman in several different roles. The demands and priorities of a union are determined by the needs of its members, and the job of our union would be to listen to and advocate for staff anywhere at the college. Through union membership, staff would be able to articulate their concerns in union meetings with fellow staff members, join union committees, and be able set our union’s priorities and goals together.

The membership is the union, so through joining the union, you can make your interests the union’s interests.

Dues are determined by us!

On average, union dues are 1%-2% of a worker’s gross wages. We will collectively decide on how much WCWU dues are.

These dues go directly back to us by funding contract negotiation, legal services, and other resources benefiting and protecting our workers.

The Staff Advisory Council (SAC) is an important advisory body for staff. They have been able to obtain some valuable changes for us including a more equitable vacation accumulation schedule for all staff and the addition of community service PTO. SAC even successfully advocated for a staff representative on the Board of Trustees, but that representative does not have a vote.

The SAC’s influence is ultimately peripheral and does not adequately address core existential issues such as staff wages, major benefit adjustments, and job protections. A union can bargain for all of these issues (and more) in ways the SAC would never have the power to.

When we officially vote to unionize, we will establish a constitution and bylaws which will include an election process for leaders and representatives.

Our elected representatives are your co-workers who will prioritize your interests and well-being, and who understand how high level decisions impact the day-to-day conditions of our workplace.

Yes, unionizing will affect benefits, positively!

With the best interests of the membership in mind, the union will utilize collective bargaining to advocate for both maintaining and improving current benefits.

The administration has been able to make changes to benefits whenever they want and without meaningful input from staff. By unionizing, staff can shift the power dynamic from the administration paying lip service to staff benefits concerns to actually having to recognize them. Our union will be the most effective way to meaningfully protect our benefits from further cuts by the admin.

Once we vote to unionize, the college cannot make any changes to “the status quo”, so they can’t take away or make changes to our benefits in an act of retaliation either.

We’re still in our early organizing stage. That means we are strategically reaching out to colleagues and building support for our unionization.

If you’re interested in being a part of the organizing effort (yay!), contact us at wcworkersunited@gmail.com from your personal email.

If organizing isn’t feasible or of interest, we understand! Just hang tight until someone from our Organizing Committee gets in touch with you with updates. In the meantime, please be discreet with this information.

You can also check this website for updates and upcoming events or actions.

Eventually, when we feel confident that we have a majority of eligible staff support, you will be asked to sign a union card. We’ll collect these signed cards and send them to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to be counted. The College will not know who signs a card. If over 50% of our unit sign a card, the College can choose to voluntarily recognize our union without an election.

We expect to have what is called a “secret ballot election”, which is organized by the NLRB. The College is prohibited from interfering with the election process. With a majority vote, the College must recognize our union and we will begin the collective bargaining process.