You may have heard or read this story by CNN about Better.com firing 900 employees on a ZOOM call. Sounds bad, no notice, just a three minute call to say goodbye! Could this happen to you if GM decided to say good riddance? What if the call went like this one did at Better.com..
Garg cited market efficiency, performance and productivity as the reason behind the firings. Fortune later reported Garg accused the employees of “stealing” from their colleagues and customers by being unproductive and only working two hours a day.
Can the boss just say “I think your stealing” followed by “your fired!”? The short answer is “NO” if you’re unionized.
Why not? The reason they can’t is found in the Just Cause standard and the supporting grievance procedure. Technically, you could be fired by the boss if he says your were stealing. However, as a union member you have a chance to fight this termination through the grievance procedure. The Just Cause standard required the employer to show Just Cause supported by progressive discipline in most cases in order to fire you. This is the difference between union and nonunion, between Just Cause and Just Because.
If you see me in the plant ask me for an example from my old plant about an extreme example of a union member getting their job back because the company skipped the progressive discipline and went right to termination in a case involving allegations of stealing.
Of course in the Better.com case there are other factors in play that protect the worker. The WARN notice being one of them.
Just one more reason to support your union.
