From the U.S. Department of Labor:

• “A labor union is a group of two or more employees who join together to advance common interests such as wages, benefits, schedules and other employment terms and conditions. Joining together – or “acting collectively” – workers represented by unions have a powerful voice that strengthens their ability to negotiate with their employer about their concerns. Higher wages, health insurance, vacation days, paid sick leave and retirement benefits are a few examples of what workers achieve through their unions.”

  • In short, you are the union!

• New workplace rules negotiated into a contract are made by workers, often for the company to follow. Enforcement of a contract comes through stewards and elected worker leadership -putting us more in control of our working lives. 

Why is MPH spending so much time and effort to dissuade us from having a legally enforceable and democratic process for changing our working conditions? What do they have to lose and what do we have to gain?

A strike would be very bad for our patients and our patients' care! However, strikes are rare and used as an option of last resort for any union. A strike also only can come into effect after a successful strike authorization vote, requiring a majority of union members in a workplace to agree a strike is necessary. Unions can’t just walk out on the jobwhenever they feel like it.

Generally speaking, the use of strikes or work stoppages usually happen when the employer is negotiating in bad faith  during contract negotiations or when they’re engaging in practices that endanger the safety or wellbeing of their employees or clients. 

As such, so long as MPH is willing to negotiate in good faith and not endanger their employees by committing labor, health, or safety violations, a strike won’t need to happen. But if they do, it would be something carefully done to minimize any disruption to necessary patient care (just like when nurses go on strike!).

Would you vote to strike unless you had a very good reason to? Neither would we.

The speed to get to a first contract depends on two things: how quickly both we and the company can get a bargaining team together and willingness to reach a deal. As workers, it is in our interest to win benefits, better working protections, and pay increases quickly and in good faith. It is in the company’s interest to keep labor costs to an absolute minimum. 

Many employers see the contract negotiation stage as a secondary way to defeat the union if they lose a union election. By dragging out the contract negotiations phase, employers can hope to play the long game and use their unwillingness to budge on key issues to shift blame against a unionized workforce itself by painting it as an ineffectual tool.

The union itself has no reason to delay a contract being enacted. The sooner a contract is agreed upon, the sooner union workers benefit from it being in place.

Contracts only come into effect when the union members vote to accept it and the new wage increases, benefits, and other workplace policies included inside of it.

Generally speaking, statistics show that union members on average make more than nonunion members in terms of wages. See the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics for great information on this!

Critically, a union contract does not go into effect until it is ratified by its members through a majority vote. Would you vote to accept a contract that was against your interests? If a contract is rejected, negotiations must start again until the workers accept a favorable contract. When was the last time you voted on a policy change at work?

Great question! $55 a month (or ~0.40¢ an hour a month for those working 35 hours or more, ~0.75 an hour a month for someone working around 16 hours a month).

Dues will never be deducted from your wages until you vote on and ratify your union contract that includes wage increases, benefits, and working protections. Union dues are a fixed amount of money every month that is paid to the NEJB.

• These dues go towards many things including:

  • Pensions fund for all union members to ensure we all have access to dignified retirement

  • A strike fund to prevent undue financial strain, should we ever need it

  • Paying legal fees for lawyers to fight the battles we wouldn’t be able to fight out of our own pocket

  • Paying the salaries of the staff who help us enforce our contract and organize other workers in our industries to increase our leverage at the bargaining table

Unions are about making your voice heard.  If you have critical issues that would need to be addressed, voice them to your bargaining team to make sure they are a priority during negotiations! Would you vote to accept a contract that did not make up for union dues?

BVCWU previously stated that there were concerns regarding the care under MPH. We have since removed said posts, apologized, and clarified that none of these concerns are pointed at any BVC Veterinarian or the incredible care they provide. Our primary concern has always been practices that have emerged in other clinics acquired by private equity. Due to a desire from the executive level to keep operating costs to a minimum, other corporate clinics have introduced policies harmful to patients and workers such as lower staffing, shortening of appointment times, and dilution or elimination of fear-free practices. 

At the end of the day, our union is us. Our union is the doctors, technicians, assistants, and receptionists that work at BVC. We know what is best for our own practice, as we always have. To question if we will put the quality of our patient care first is to deny the years of excellence we have exemplified as a staff. 

One of the major guiding principles of our organizing has been to solidify Fear Free! We actually hope to enshrine Fear Free and its accreditation in a collectively bargained contract.

We understand the patients of BVC and how our Fear Free culture impacts their care. Why would MPH not want to enshrine our Fear Free culture and patient care into a contract?Fear Free is a central, indispensable part of our care, not just a culture. Let’s enshrine Fear-Free in a contract to ensure it stays.

We decide our own priorities. We elect our own bargaining team from our own clinic - as it should be! We know our job best, that’s why we make proposals for ourselves. Our bargaining team will consist of coworkers, or even yourself, entrusted via nomination and election to represent us and our interests at the bargaining table. A core duty of the union bargaining team is to talk with the other members to collect proposals through open meetings, bargaining surveys, and one on one discussions in order to condense our needs into enforceable contract language with the help of union staff. 

You make the final decision. A contract is never enforceable until it has been ratified by a vote of the union members or workplace - that’s you! If a contract is not ratified by vote, the bargaining team has to go back to negotiation until a better contract is achieved. 

Our priorities in a union contract are decided by us and for us. End of story. Who has the ultimate say in workplace policy now? Do we have any final decisionmaking power as it stands? With a union, we would.

Union contracts attempt to end At-Will employment, and replace it with Just Cause employment. The creation of a system of grievance procedure through a union contract heavily restricts any potential for arbitrary, retributive, or otherwise unjust decisionmaking in the firing process. This does not prevent people from being fired without cause. 

If you aren’t doing your job, you still can be penalized if you are unionized. All that changes is that the company must prove wrongdoing, and cannot fire an employee who has done nothing wrong. 

Have you ever felt worried about being fired or otherwise penalized for something you did not do, or was out of your control? Have you worried about retribution for speaking your mind or being unfairly treated by a higher-up? What assurances do you have now that the company won’t get rid of teammates who do not deserve to lose their jobs? 

The union contract protects all workers, even ones who don’t necessarily want it. Having an avenue to opt out makes it easier for the employer to try and pit employees against each other and therefore weaken the union itself. By protecting everyone in the bargaining unit across the board, it makes everyone in the unit safer and stronger.

The contract itself is voted on and agreed by all members of the bargaining unit. So if there is something that you find objectionable in the contract, it’s important to bring it up so the bargaining team can address it.

Contracts are renegotiated every few years, so if you want to see a change in the contract, talk to your elected leadership, run for office, campaign for a bargaining priority, or get involved to change your life at work!

If there is an MPH policy you do not like, do you have any binding recourse or guarantee your voice will be heard beyond verbal assurances? What avenues do you have right now to vote on or directly create policy at work?

No, but that is not unusual. You could count the number of organized veterinary clinics in this country on one hand. Some independent industry specific unions like the National Veterinary Professionals Union (NVPU) emerged in recent history but they have since become defunct. The only other vet unions in the country are associated with non-vet unions. For example in San Francisco, a newly acquired VCA hospital organized with the International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) . 

NEJB staff are experts in organizing strategy, contract negotiations, and contract enforcement and do these critical tasks in a huge diversity of industries, including gaming workers, restaurant workers, textile workers, manufacturing workers, non profit employees, and more. Joining the NEJB allows us to use this diverse experience in contract creation and enforcement to fight our industry specific battles, all while being able to tap into the collective resources of an established union.

The real question here is why are there no veterinary unions? We know our industry is changing rapidly, short staffing, and turnover are becoming more prevalent across the industry, and fewer of us feel we can financially survive while pursuing our dream of providing exceptional care to the animals we all love.

We are the union. We know our own jobs better than anyone ever could. We live it every day. As a union we would make our own contract, vote on our own leadership, and enforce our own priorities at work. We would be proud to be the only unionized veterinary hospital in New England, and among the only in the country. There needs to be change in this industry if we want it to have a future, and that change starts with us.