What Are Our Alternatives?
I've been asked whether it's possible to change our bargaining team or affiliate with a different union that might provide better leadership and communication and fight for a better contract. Yes, we can do both - but that may not be the right choice. I'll explain.
Decertifying/Changing Affiliation
To start with, let me talk a little about what a union organization actually is, in legal terms. A union organization is a sort of fictional legal entity, something like a corporation, that has the legal power to negotiate with an employer on behalf of all the employees it represents. That means that instead of going by yourself to ask the boss for a raise, the union asks the boss to give everyone a raise. Instead of asking for more vacation time or different scheduling options, the union does that, and so on. The employer is legally required to negotiate with a union that it has voluntarily recognized, or one that's been certified by the NLRB following a union election.
There can never be a bargaining unit without a union organization of some kind. You can't be represented by a union unless you have a union organization; there's no one for the employer to negotiate with if there's no union organization.
So, with that said: the process of getting rid of your union org is called "decertification" and it's very similar to the election that probably got you union representation in the first place. At least 30% of the bargaining unit workers would need to sign cards stating that they no longer want union representation, and then petition the NLRB for a decertification election. They would arrange an election, same as your union election, and if more than half the votes favor decertification, you will no longer be represented by a union org.
This means that your union is totally gone. There is no contract, no contract bargaining, no status quo. You're back to asking your boss for raises and you're subject to whatever policies your employer creates.
You also have the option of changing your union org. At least 30% of the workers would need to sign cards stating that they want to be represented by the new union org, and the NLRB holds an election. As I understand it, your ballot would have three choices (old union, new union, and no union) and whichever gets the most votes wins.
You can't do this whenever you want, though! Once you vote in a new union org, you can't decertify them until one year after your election. Also, once you ratify a contract, you can't decertify them except during a thirty-day window shortly before your contract expires. (For healthcare unions, the window is 120 to 90 days before expiration.)
Should We, Though?
Most union orgs aren't so bad that it makes sense to get rid of them altogether, but it can happen. Corruption, favoritism, high dues, a lack of communication or representation, or a history of winning bad contracts (especially if the union org controls who's on the bargaining team or can ratify a contract without a member vote) can all be reasons to ditch your union org.
OFNHP has been pretty uninspiring, but they haven't been terrible. Their dues are reasonable compared to other unions, even if it doesn't feel like they've earned them - and technically, even if we got stuck with the proposals on the table, the 2% retroactive raise they've proposed would more than cover the cost (which means, in a way, LabCorp is actually paying the dues). Their bylaws mean that we control whether we accept a contract or not, and although it may not seem like they know what they're doing, all of their members are healthcare workers, their officers are healthcare workers, and they've been Kaiser's union for decades. Our biggest problems with them - honesty, communication, planning - are things that we can fix ourselves, or work around.
If we wanted to switch unions, we'd need to find one willing to take us on. AFSCME and SEIU are the most obvious choices, but I don't know if they'd want us, and it's not like they know more about labs or healthcare than OFNHP. AFSCME hasn't gotten OHSU's lab workers a particularly good deal, and SEIU doesn't even represent lab workers as far as I can tell. We probably wouldn't want a lot of the other trade or non-healthcare professional unions, and they might not want us. IWW supports industrial unionism in the old left tradition, but their goal is to organize entire industries and they do so one worker at a time; they don't represent workplaces or bargaining units the same way most unions do.
We could also start our own union org. But we would have to create our own constitution and bylaws (although we could copy them fron another union), we'd have to establish a bank account for the union to handle money, we'd need officers and meetings, and with no dues income yet we'd have to entirely self-fund any signs, posters, t-shirts, lawyers, etc. It seems unrealistic for a group of disengaged workers with very little union experience between them.
Changing unions now would also put the bargaining process on hold while elections take place and the new union is certified. It would eliminate any TAs that OFNHP and LabCorp have already reached, and while we could just present LabCorp with those same proposals again, it would represent a significant setback in a bargaining process that has already taken too long. (Admittedly, if we have to vote NO on the contract and send the bargaining team back to the table, that's going to delay the process too, and we have OFNHP and our bargaining team to thank for that.)
Finally, consider that if only some of our units changed their union org, that would leave us divided. We wouldn't be able to strike simultaneously without coordinating actions with OFNHP. We wouldn't be able to bargain together; at best we could only share our proposals in an effort to line them up across two sets of contracts. What's even the point of moving away fron OFNHP if we would still have to coordinate everything with them to maintain unity? So it doesn't even make sense to try to change unions unless all eight units are in favor.
Changing The Bargaining Team
OFNHP, like many unions, chooses bargaining team members by election. The bargaining survey that went out in 2024 asked workers to nominate people to represent them, and then those nominees were asked if they'd be willing to serve as bargaining team members. Some units had so few volunteers that no election was needed; others did hold elections.
In any case, theoretically, we could reelect our bargaining team. As far as I can see, there's nothing in OFNHP's bylaws or the ground rules we established with LabCorp at the start of bargaining that would keep us from doing that. But it would be highly unusual to change our team in the middle of bargaining; as far as I know this is almost never done.
In my experience, our team has sought consensus on proposals and counterproposals, rather than voting on them. I don't know what would happen if the team had some unresolvable difference; maybe then they would vote. In any case they need to present a united front at the table. So in order to change the disposition of the bargaining team, we would need to replace a majority of the members. That means we'd need at least five units who want to re-elect their bargaining team members, and those units would each need at least one fighter who's willing to miss work (and probably sleep or free time) in order to attend bargaining sessions and meetings.
Again, Should We?
Whoever we elected would need to be familiarized with the entire set of proposals on the table, and there are quite a lot. I suppose it would take weeks of meetings in order to get everyone up to speed and ready to bargain. They would also find themselves still working with OFNHP and their lawyer, who would try to steer the negotiations toward their agenda, which is getting any kind of contract whether it's good or not.
So while in theory we could re-elect our bargaining team, do we actually have at least five hardass fighters who are willing to go toe to toe with a shifty corporate lawyer and a couple of soulless corporate robots, all while OFNHP and the lawyer are sulking and telling them they're wrong? At this point, I don't know that we do. And if we don't, we're probably better off keeping the team that we have even if they're not the best.
Organization And Self Improvement Are The Keys
Changing our union and changing our bargaining team both present problems without guaranteeing solutions. I still believe that the most effective thing we can do is build a movement within our existing union to engage our coworkers and provide the direction and leadership that OFNHP is lacking. By voting NO on a bad contract and making clear demands supported by the membership, we can push OFNHP and our bargaining team to fight for our interests. If we build a movement that earns our coworkers' respect and trust, we can lead them to strikes and other actions to force concessions. And if we decide that we need a scrappier bargaining team or even a new union org, we'll have a network in place to rally the system around those goals.