Do you work in the electric utility industry?
You need a Contract - that's an agreement between you, the employees, and the company spelling out your wages, benefits and rights. Employees bargain with strength for wages, benefits and rights when they join together. That's why it's important to unionize. 

Companies can and will resist employee efforts to speak with a unified voice. Often, companies will try to intimidate and even fire employees for speaking out. Or, threaten to move the company to another city or even another country if employees unionize. These tactics, while illegal, are often used successfully to deny rights. That's why it is important to contact the IBEW before you start any efforts so that we can advise and guide you. All conversations between you and the IBEW are confidential. Please visit the following links to get more information about the IBEW and why a union can help you:

• IBEW: Unionize your Workplace
• IBEW 5th District: Organizing in the district
• IBEW 10th District: Why Organize?
• IBEW Florida: Web site devoted to the IBEW's Florida Initiative
• AFL-CIO: How to form a union and what are your rights.
• Your right to talk about the union and participate in union activities during non-work time is protected by United States Law. The company is prohibited from asking you about your union activities, or your views about the union, or to discriminate against you because of union activity

Legal/Government Links:

• United States National Labor Relations Board
• National Labor Relations Act
• Section 7 (U.S. Code Title 29, Chapter 7, § 157) "Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining ....."
• Section 8(a) (U.S. Code Title 29, Chapter 7, § 158a) "It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer .... to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7 of this title...."

32% fire union activists. (That's 10,000 workers who are fired yearly for attempting to organize a union.)