Even though you not a Union shop, you may try to market Union made goods. We have done it with success for our local Firefighters Union, and as long as it's got a Union label & USA made, they're happy. Try www.unionwear.com. Becoming a Union shop means basically that the majority of your employees are union members, and that you, as the owner, pretty much loose control over those employees, and now become a "manager", as Union rules dictate how many hours they work, how many & how long their breaks are, what you have to pay them, etc. Also, if it's a Union shop, employees that are not Union members may be pressured to join by other Union employees, and you may wind up losing good workers that just don't want to deal with the pier pressure. You have to determine if the union orders you may get are worth it.
I realize that unions can be a difficult thing to get into, but it seems like i lose quite a bit of work due to the fact that we are a non-union shop.
does anyone know anything about it for this industry? or the sign industry? really any information at all would be very helpful... i am clueless.
thanks,
derek
Brian's suggestion to market union-made goods is one avenue you can take. You may want to partner with sites like Unionplus.org.
However, the remainder of what Brian said is not accurate. There are closed/union shops and open shops. Education is key, if you want to learn about how your workers can form a union, and learn what closed/union shops and open shops actually mean. I am stating this as an active Union Steward for a national Union. If this is not what you are looking to learn, then disregard that bit of advice.
With you being in NY where joining a union is often a condition of employment at many companies (thus, a closed shop/union shop), this is not shocking at all that you're being asked if you are a union shop.
This site lists a host of local & regional unions in NY that you may want to market your business to. Unions are always in need of decorated t-shirt orders on some level.
Thank you all for the advice. Very helpful stuff. I'm still absolutely confused on the open/ closed union shop but that at least gives me a good starting point, as does your list, Ms. Blue. Thank you.
We are a two-man shop as of now, both of us co-owners. That's another reason the Union stuff gets so confusing to me. We've got no employees to belong to a union!
Perhaps if I explain this to potential customers alongside the fact that we can source union-made apparel i will win over some of the jobs i otherwise might have lost.
If you are a two man shop then just find a union and join it. You basically will pay an initiation fee, monthly or annual dues normally at some % of hours worked. It may be as simple as 2 hours pay for each month or something more complicated like a % of your gross pay.
In a closed shop your employees are required to join the union as a condition of employment. An open shop has a union but it is optional for employees to join but they must abide by union rules and cannot negotiate pay or working conditions on their own.
The basics about the union will be a minimum wage that must be paid, over time and break rules, pension plans, seniority and the ability to work at certain jobs in your company.
i think i'll spend a little time researching unions and their membership terms and conditions before stirking the hammer.
it sounds all easy enough as a two man team, but if i want to hire an employee next year, or the year after, i want to be sure that my membership doesn't pose any problems.
for instance, our shop is currently under "construction," and i'm not sure exactly when we'll be up to code, or osha specs or maintain an "acceptable union environment" or whatever.
i'll make some calls next week.
i'll write back here when i get a better grip on things.
We recently became a union shop. There are only 5 of us at the most considered employees. We had been contacted by several politicians who felt they were required to use a union shop.
Anywhoo, we also found out that our local congressman HAS to use a union shop with a union bug and must use a printer within his district. Because, until us, there was none, he was free to go out into other districts for t-shirts and the like.
Don't know if it will really benefit us in the long run, but it wasn't that big of a deal bec we live in a small rural area where there isn't a union printer for 70 minutes to the west and 45 minutes to the north. We aren't much competition to the "big" guys, so we'll take whatever work we can get.
becoming a union shop? 
