Trade Union's

omahaid

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this, I had a look around boards and couldn't really find an appropriate place. If this is the wrong place feel free to re-direct.
Anywho's. I currently work in a trade union free workplace. Now around 20 years ago a group of workers in this workplace tried to join a union and were sacked for their trouble. These day's as far as I know it is a right to join a trade union but I would have a few questions, and any help would be greatly appreciated.
1. Do we need a minimum amount of people to make it effective. I mean one lad on his own isn't a very powerful lobby group.
2. When do we tell our employers, and how? (They probably wouldn't be pleased:)
3. What about the lad's who choose not to join, what happens to them?
4. Do we just vote for a shop steward and land him in it?
5. The industry we are involved in seperates most of the workers by distance, so should we get a small few guys together and grow from there?
6. Can't really think of anymore q's. No doubt I will do later so if anyone answers a few question's I will no doubt find a few more
.

Thanks in advance.

Victor

You have the constitutional right to associate with others (subject to law). You are probably best off to join an existing union, as there is a waiting time and other rules (500? people and IR£5,000/ €6348.69?) to forming your own union. That said, joining a union might get you labelled a "trouble maker" (but it would be illegal for your employer to act on that label). An employer does not have to negotiate with an outside trade union official. All non-unionised employees are entitled to the same benefits as unionised employees. If there are restrictions on the unions that the employer will deal with (e.g. I think Iarnród Éireann have said they want to restrict negotiations to 4/5 unions, one for each group / grade of employees) and/or you must join a particular union to be an employee, then membership must be fair and open.

If you want to join a union, shop around and get some leaflets from the appropriate unions that you are considering. You should have some idea of what you are going to do before you talk to your employer. That said, don't necessarily sneak around behind your employer's back and have a situation where the first the employer knows of the union is when a strike is declared.

You will need to have a formal (secret?) ballot to elect officials etc.

I suspect you are best starting small, getting the basics organised and then inviting all the others to join (so as to not have bad blood among the employees).