If we're forming a union, does this mean we don't like our managers?
Of course not. We couldn't ask for better managers. No matter what our Corporate
Office might claim, unionization is not about dissatisfaction with present management.
It's a matter of corporate economics; of inequality of treatment and lack of security that
hurts the lower levels of management as badly as booksellers.
Speaking for myself, and I really believe for all of us, I know of no serious employee
dissatisfaction with our General Manager; this was not a factor in our decision to
unionize. The same is true for our assistant manager. Despite his attempts to play the
corporate heavy for the last week, we understand that he is under serious pressure from
higher up. None of us expect this will have any influence on future local employee-manager
relations. It certainly won't from our side.
In short, any attempt by our District Manager, B&N president Tolworthy or anyone
higher up the ladder to blame any of this on our managers is totally misguided.
And yet we know they're already exerting pressure on our managers because of it. Frankly,
we resent these heavy-handed corporate attempts to make our managers do the dirty work. If
anyone needs another example of gross corporate injustice and irresponsibility, this is
it: they are forcing our own managers to work against their employees.
We're already getting hints that changes in policy will be made if only we drop this union
silliness. Can we believe any such promises while the same people are using our managers
so cruelly?
Don't join the union despite our managers; join for them.
Send the company a message: You Can't Treat Us This Way!