Before being more involved in the Guild, I too had the misconception that I 'got nothing from my union.' Now that I know better, I wanted to help dispel the myth that "The Guild Does Nothing For Me!"
Fact: The Guild & barganing unit agreement (aka the contract) is constantly working for you.
In the past, when there was no pharmacist representation, the employer could do whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted. For example, there were at least 30 different pay rates, with a 30% difference in range of pay rates in Kaiser NCAL! Raises were dependent on the supervisors opinion of you. Another example is that the pharmacists lost their sick bank and it was all converted to PTO. At the time, pharmacists lost hundreds of hours that were in their sick bank and no one could do anything about it! People could have lost their job due to budget cuts or because their management didn't like them.
Currently, you have a lot of protections that previous pharmacists (or even current pharmacists with other employers don't have). You also have the right to representation for many issues.
In addition, decisions made by upper management that could have been detrimental to your work & even personal life are often intercepted and bargained before reaching you. Work is constantly being done. Many Guild members do ask for advice or representation - you may not need a Guild representative now, but we are here if you ever need us!
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