Where We Are At So Far

How did we get here?

This is the first time any of us have been through this sort of thing and we are learning where we can, and making it up as we need to.

 

PLEASE consider that when this is all done, with or without decertification, we will all be working together, hopefully for a long time.  Recent events have become very heated and it is our belief that the Teamsters wants us to hate GFS and wants us fight among ourselves because they can then slither into the cracks our infighting makes and take hold.

 

Specifically at the front gates where a lot of confrontation has occurred.  Please be SAFE and be KIND. Just because decert supporters don’t like the Teamsters and the Teamsters supporters don’t like us, does not give any of us the right to harm our workmates, or threaten to harm them. PLEASE be safe and respectful of the people you will be working with when this is all finished, which ever way it goes.

 

It is our belief that once the Teamsters are gone we will get back to being a family.  There will likely still be differences within the family, but no one will be profiting from those differences. 

We have been getting overwhelmed with 33A forms, support emails, and comments on the website.

It’s important that we keep the momentum going. We are trying for MUCH more than the required 45% because the more forms we have, the more likely it is that the Labour Board will grant our wish and give us that vote to take back control from the union. Talk to your friends at work, ask them to sign form 33As!   Together we can take control of our jobs again and start getting back some of the things the Teamsters lost for us. 

A group of employees took initiative and said enough is enough! They printed these amazing banners and hung them on their cars to show support. Thank you! There are so many of us that don’t want this union

After they found our website they got really worried. They started picketing the entrance to GFS and were trying to coerce people into signing forms cancelling their 33A Forms.

If they intimidated you into signing their form but you still want to get a vote to decertify the Teamsters just fill out another Form 33A with a new date.  We have had numerous “re-signs” because of this.

Almost 75% of us voted NO to this joke of an agreement. Now the union is hoping the Labour Board will force a collective agreement on us.

 

Depending on who you believe, they were also planning to call a surprise strike vote.  Now the support for decertification was REALLY growing.

The Teamsters presented us with a collective agreement that had THE SAME wages, NO union pension, and NO profit sharing if you are unionized.

 

They strongly wanted us to say yes to it.  This was the first BIG spike in visits to the website and signing of 33A’s.  It was like the Teamsters threw gasoline on the fire. 

A few of us had signed 33A Forms, then the word got out about our website and you all started submitting forms. We saw a bunch coming in and it has not slowed down. 

 

We have decide that we are going to keep collecting them until EVERYONE who wants to support this effort has had the chance to sign a support form.

Remember that crazy long cookie cutter newsletter they sent out to us? It was so obviously American that we got even more determined to get them out of Gordons.

We thought that the best way to get rid of the teamsters was to share the facts and make them accessible to everyone. This is when we launched the website.  There were a LOT less of us working on the decert team than there are now.

 

We researched and found out that we need to get Form 33A’s from at least 45% of the people working here.  We figured there are about 600 of us, so we decided to use an Online Form because that’s about 270 forms – at LEAST.

The teamsters and GFS started negotiating a new contract for us.

We decided that we did not want the teamsters representing us, and enough was enough. 

The vote for certification passed on September 25, 2024 and many of us were shocked. This meant that the union and GFS had to negotiate a collective agreement. This also means that we had to wait one year to Decertify the union.

When the union came in, it was called Certification and getting rid of the union is called Decertification.

The union will tell you, or you may have heard that if you try to decertify the union, you will lose your job, or the union will punish you. If they tell you that, they are trying to scare you and they are breaking a British Columbia Labour Law and their website explains it very well. BC Labour Board website.

We have the spokesperson chosen and will file the Form 33 Application as soon as we have enough support. Each person that wants to get rid of the union and get back to what we had must sign a BCLRB Form 33A. After you have filled it out, it will email you a copy and NotMyUnion a copy. NotMyUnion must confirm receipt of this Form. After this is all done you will receive a Final copy. This is the most secure and confidential way as it ensures that neither the union or employer will know if you have signed your Form 33A to support a decertification vote in the near future.

We want the union gone before more damage is done

Sign a 33A Form Now! Get a Vote.