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We can do what US law encourages us to do. We can do what workers have done and continue to do around the world whenever they are faced with greed and disrespect. We can unite. We can come together, work together, to form a union winning the legal protections the law provides. With a union we can:
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have protection against unfair
discipline, illegal firings, favoritism, and untrained and nasty • bargain with our new owners to re-instate and improve our pension. • demand fully paid family health care.
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have a grievance procedure where we
have a union representative go with us into the Included in this mailing is an authorization card. This card authorizes the Woodworker-Machinists union to hold a secret ballot election to decide if you want to bargain for the benefits of a unionized work place or if you want to continue to lose benefits and remain powerless. These signed cards will not come to us but will go straight to the union toinsure your privacy. If you do not tell any one that you signed a card, the employer will not know. During the early stages of an organizing drive it is important to build our strength and develop our strategy without employer interference. For that reason we request that you not inform others that you have signed an authorization card at this time. We want to see our work place be a good one. We want every worker treated with respect and have the wages and benefits we deserve. This will only happen with your support. Please take the time to fill out the authorization card and return it. Together we will be stronger. If enough of you return these authorization cards, we will be able to take the next steps to grow the union and win our demands. If you do not sign and return the card, you are saying that it is ok for the company to take away benefits and not pay us what we are worth. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support. Our time is now! Your friends and co workers in support of a union at Harry and David's TEL: 541-664-4605 http://www.iamawlodgew261 .com CONFIDENTIALITY: WE GUARANTEE THE CARDS YOU SIGN WILL NEVER BE PROVIDED TO HARRY AND DAVID BY THE LOCAL, DISTRICT OR INTERNATIONAL UNION. THE CARDS YOU SIGN WILL BE KEPT BY THE ORGANIZER IN CHARGE UNTIL WE GET OUR REQUIRED AMOUNT OF SIGNATURES. THEY WILL THEN BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD OFFICE REQUESTING AN ELECTION. THEY THEN BECOME THE PROPERTY OF THE NLRB.
Harry & David has made a lot of changes in the last year! ARE YOU BETTER OFF?
PENSION - Frozen as of 7/1/2007 - Do you make enough to contribute to your 401K to make up the difference? HEALTH & WELFARE - How much more are we paying each year? BENEFIT ELIGIBILITY - Do you work 1600 hours a year to either become benefit - eligible or maintain your benefits? NOTE: Most manufacturing is 1200 hours to become eligible and 1000 hours to maintain. Did you know? 1. You currently are "employees at will." You have the right to quit at anytime. The company has the right to terminate you at anytime. They don't need a reason. With a Union contract, that changes to "Just Cause". They have to have a legitimate reason to discipline you. 2. Anything to relating to Wages, Hours and Working Conditions are bargainable issues, if we join forces and work together to elect a Union to represent us. What does this mean? It means if we'd been Union the Company would have had to bargain these changes with us during Contract negotiations and we would have had a say and a vote on these issues. It also means if we had a contract in place the Company couldn't have done these things, unless we allowed it. 3. That voting to go Union will not cost you one cent until you get a Contract that you have accepted as a Bargaining Unit. That's right. The Machinists Union Local policy here in Medford will not charge you initiation fees or monthly dues until the majority of you approve (ratify) a contract. Currently dues are $48.00. If there is not $48.00, worth of benefits in any contract proposal you are presented, then don't vote for the contract. It's that simple. You have nothing to lose just by signing and returning the enclosed card. The card only gets you to an election if we get enough of them back. WHAT IS AVAILABLE FROM THE MACHINISTS AT THE BARGAINING TABLE? 1. Representation - Some of the best trained and best educated Union Representatives in the country. 2. Leadership and Training - The Machinists Representatives are trained to instruct the membership leaders in the training needed to represent their members equally and fairly. The Machinists have a campus in Upper Marlboro, MD that alsoteaches the leaders of the membership in one-week classes. The Local pays lost time wages and the International furnishes the travel. 3. A fully funded defined pension plan . 4. 100% employer-paid Health & Welfare Plans 5. An ear. What do you want? What do you need? Your representatives will represent YOU! HOW DO WE GET STARTED? 1. Fill out the enclosed card in PEN (no black ink) completely and date it. Put it in the postage paid envelope provided and return it to us. It's that simple. 2. If you want to be on any committees and get more involved, please write that down on another piece of paper and let us know. WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE COMPANY: After the initial mailing, the Company may do nothing or they may start their anti-union campaign. If they elect the latter, they will start putting flyers and holding mandatory meetings telling everybody that, "we don't need the 3rd party". They will try to sway you to vote against the Union. Again, I remind you, a yes vote for the Union doesn't cost you anything. The hard part is bargaining the Contract. Logically, voting for the Union only gets you to the bargaining table. You still don't have a Union until the majority approves a Contract. If you don't get a contract after a year, the Union is voted out. So the choice is yours: Don't sign the card and let the Company continue to take benefits away, or sign the card, return it and vote for the Union and see if it can be turned around or find another job. We hope you choose to join the Machinist Union, we'd love theopportunity to represent you . Join Hopewell, Ohio and Wasco, California as Harry & David employees who have chosen to seek Union representation. If you have questions you may call Local Lodge W-261 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at 664-4605 or come by the office at 4480 Rogue Valley Hwy #11 Central Point, OR (right past Crater High School next to the State Police Office) Check out the following websites for more information: (the Machinists School) - www.winpisinger.iamaw.org, (the Grand Lodge) - www.goiam.org, (District) - www.woodworkersdist1iam.org, (Local) - www.iamawlodgew261.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this, please take the time to fill out and sign the card now and return it Again, thank you.. Below is a sample Card:
Our future Dear_______________: The new owners of Harry and David have shown us that we are not important. They care only about how much money they make. While they pretend this is about being competitive it is really about greed and selfishness. When Wasserstein & Company L/P offered better pay and benefits, Harry and David could have decided that its skilled, experienced, and loyal workers deserved to be treated better and offered to match what the competition was paying. Instead they decided to treat us as if we were worthless and expendable.
As of July 2007 they have frozen our pension and leaving us with only our 401(k) saving plans. A defined benefit pension insures that money will be available when we retire. A 401(k) saving plan may grow or it may decline. The risk is all carried by us. That is not a true pension plan. The company health insurance plan costs keep rising. Many of us have had to drop family coverage and just insure ourselves since we can not afford the company plan. Quality employers are usually the ones who provide affordable health insurance. Harry and David's is not living up to this obligation. By requiring 1600 hours of work to be eligible for benefits, Harry and David is cutting costs by denying us benefits (holidays, vacation, insurance etc.). If you worked for a quality employer more than 20 hours per week per year you are eligible for benefits (that's 1080 hours per year). What's wrong with Harry & David? Dignity and respect on the job no longer exists. We are no longer treated as neighbors and friends but rather as faceless and mindless workers. Given what they have already done, it is not difficult to imagine what they will do next. Are we willing to work for less? If we accept these cuts then they will make more cuts and keep cutting until it reaches a point that none of us will want to work here.
uQue podemos hacer? Podemos hacer lo que la ley de los Estados Unidos nos anima a hacer. Podemos hacer lo que los trabaj adores han hecho y siguen haciendo alrededor del mundo siempre que ellos sean afrontados con avaricia y desacato. Podemos unirnos. Podemos venir juntos, trabajo juntos, formar una union ganando las protecciones legales que la ley proporciona. Con una union podemos:
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tienen la protection contra disciplina injusta y tiroteos ilegales,
favoritismo, y gerentes > trato con nuestros nuevos duenos para rehabilitar y mejorar nuestra pension. > demande asistencia medica completamente pagada de familia.
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tienen un procedimiento de agravio donde hacemos que un representante
sindical vaya Incluido en este envio es una tarjeta de autorizacion. Esta tarjeta autoriza la union de carpinteros-mecanicos para sostener una election de votacion secreta para decidirse si usted quiere contar con las ventajas de un lugar de trabajo agremiado o si usted quiere seguir perdiendo ventajas y permanecer impotente. Estos naipes firmados no nos vendran, pero iran directamente a la union para asegurar su intimidad. Si usted no dice ningun que usted firrno una tarjeta, el patron no sabra. Durante las etapas tempranas de un paseo de organization es importante construir nuestra fuerza y desarrollar nuestra estrategia sin la interferencia de patron. Por esta razon solicitamos que usted no informe a otros que usted ha firmado una autorizacion en este tiempo. Queremos ver nuestro lugar de trabajo ser uno bueno. Lamentamos que cada trabajador no tratara con el respeto y tener los salaries y ventajas que merecemos. Este solo pasara con su apoyo. Por favor tome el tiempo para llenar la tarjeta de autorizacion y devolverlo. Juntos seremos mas fuertes. Si bastantes de ustedes devuelven estos naipes de autorizacion, serernos capaces de tomar las siguientes medidas para cultivar la union y ganar nuestras demandas. Si usted no firma y devuelve la tarjeta, usted dice que esto anda bien de la compania para llevarse ventajas y no pagarnos lo que merecemos. Gracias por tomar el tiempo para leer este y para su apoyo. jNuestro tiempo es ahora! Sus amigos y co trabajadores a favor de una union en Harry y David TEL: 541-664-4605 http://www.iamawlodgew261 .com/
Estimado/Estimada_________________: Los nuevos duefios de Harry y David nos han mostrado que no somos importantes. Ellos se preocupan solo por cuanto dinero ellos hacen. Mientras ellos fmgen que este es sobre ser competitivo es realmente sobre avaricia y egoismo. Cuando Wasserstein & Company L/P ofrecio mejor paga y ventajas, Harry y David podrian haber decidido que su experto, experimentado, y trabajadores leales merecio ser tratado mejor y ofrecido para emparejar lo que el concurso pagaba. En cambio ellos decidieron tratarnos como si eramos sin valor y gastable.
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Desde el julio de 2007 ellos han congelado nuestra
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Los costos del plan del seguro de enfermedad de la podemos proporcionar el plan de la compania. Los empleadores de la calidad son generalmente los que proporcionan seguro de enfermedad economico. Harry y David no vive de acuerdo a esta obligation.
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Requiriendo 1600 horas del trabajo ser elegible para ventajas, Harry y
David reduce
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La dignidad y el respeto en el trabajo ya no existen. Somos ya no
tratados como vecinos Considerando que ellos han hecho ya, no es dificil imaginar lo que ellos haran despues. ^Quieren nosotros para trabajar para menos? Si aceptamos estos cortes entonces ellos haran mas cortes y seguiran cortando hasta que esto alcance un punto que ninguno de nosotros querra trabajar aqui.
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"You
know, if you look back at the history of our great country you'll
see one very significant parallel. When the American labor
movement is strong and healthy, our economy and our society are
strong and healthy. Likewise, when the American labor movement is
weak, you usually find that our economy is weak and our society
suffers the ailments of an unhealthy economy."
