Your Union is more than just grievance and suspension meetings. The relationship with your Representative should go way beyond just seeing them at your store when they stop by. There are many other aspects of your life that your Union may be able to touch, and make an even more positive impact on your life.
Recently during some store visits by President Newell, through routine conversations, certain life concerns came to light that Local 1500 may be able to help with. This got us thinking back at the executive offices that we have all had recent stories and interactions where we feel our membership could benefit from our relationships and others’ expert knowledge. We have an extremely large extended family, so why wouldn’t we want to access it to help our membership out?
At first blush, you might not think to talk to your Representative about personal issues at home. Too many members think their Union is just about pay and scheduling – type issues only, and thus only keep their conversations, complaints, or concerns surrounding what can be addressed in their respective collective bargaining agreements.
How about some examples of what other parts of your life Local 1500 may be able to help you with? A member was venting to President Newell about some things in their life. The conversation happened to take a turn to their mother, who is ill, and the family cannot seem to get the proper elder care for her, and it’s costing her and her siblings a small fortune to keep mom taken care of. That conversation doesn’t end with “Sorry to hear that and hope everything works out for you.” We have to at least make some calls and then send some emails to communicate with someone who can help our members out. In this particular case, it was a New York City Councilperson. Now I am not saying that we will be utterly successful every time, but we have to at least make the effort for our members and their families.
We have another member who had a series of electrical fires in their apartment building, which led to a lot of drama with their landlord, which led to the City condemning the building and locking everyone out of their apartments. Fortunately no one was hurt. A very long story short, we were able to contact the City Council person for that area, who spoke directly to our member on the phone. Everyone in the building was ultimately given the opportunity to coordinate with the City Marshal and go get all of their belongings out of the building and were thus able to move on with their lives. The positive outcome isn’t always a pretty one, but it was effective in this case and what everyone who lived there really needed.
We know that we have many members that at some point experience a bout of houselessness, whether for a brief period or a longer one. Again, we are not saying that we can help fix every situation, but we want you to know that we: number one…understand, and number two…will endeavor to help your situation as much as we possibly can.
On another recent store visit, a member revealed that he had been attempting to retrieve a copy of his birth certificate, but had not been successful and was very frustrated. Although it did not take a call to an elected official, we were able to do some research for him which enabled him to reach out through the proper channels to get his official birth certificate. You might not think that retrieval of vital documents is something for discussion with your Representative, but, hey why not? You never know what may come out of a simple conversation.
Another thing I wanted to mention especially as the holidays approach, is the increase in opportunity for people to take advantage of people. We used to more easily identify fraud, but in today’s A.I. age, it has become extremely difficult to keep ourselves safe from criminals. Here’s another example of your Union getting involved. We have a member who was unfortunately a victim of a scam. And yes, there are many unscrupulous people out there that relentlessly attack our members and their families, whether it be over the phone, internet, or even in person. However, this was a new one for me and I felt the need to share. Someone used artificial intelligence to mimic the voice of our member’s manager. They have worked together for a long time so there is no mistaking their manager’s voice. The “manager” called our member and stated he was in a personal distress situation and asked the member to lend him some money. Member did not hesitate, and electronically sent money to him. It’s already too late once you hit that send button. Now our member is out a sizeable amount of money and had been struggling a bit because of it. Once we found out about it (again, probably not your everyday discussion with your Union Representative), we reached out to the attorneys for the Union to see what they could do help the member out. Our attorneys pointed the member in the right direction to file the proper claims, and although there currently is no resolution, at least it is being worked on, which enabled our member to breathe a short sigh of relief. So please be extra careful out there. It can easily happen to any of us. Make that extra phone call or whatever you can do to verify what you are doing is the right thing.
Or how about this? If you’re simply just feeling down, reach out to your Union and let’s talk. You should not be going through problems by yourself. We have many members, so there’s always someone going through something in their life somewhere. Anxiety and depression are feelings that we all go through at some point. We are here for you, even if it is just to lend an ear or a shoulder to cry on. And by no means are we certified counselors, but guess what? We are connected to certified counselors. Your Representative can easily connect you with our Member Assistance Program, Open Arms, through LICADD, and they can speak with you through an endless range of problems or issues you may be going through.
The bottom line is that your Union is here for you. Not just on the job necessarily, but through anything in your life that may come up, whether it be bad or good. After all, we are all family, and shouldn’t your family do whatever they can to help you?
Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you are experiencing a hardship in your life. It is my promise to you that we will do whatever we can to help you work through it. We cannot win every battle out there, but you should not have to go through it alone!