{"id":65198,"date":"2014-03-19T08:45:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T13:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=65198"},"modified":"2014-03-18T20:22:49","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T01:22:49","slug":"the-union-and-you-a-primer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=65198","title":{"rendered":"The Union and You: A Primer"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Elinor Crosby, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Nova Scotia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Union and You: A Primer<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"elinorcrosby01\"<\/a>Most library jobs are unionized. What does this mean for the library job seeker? It certainly seems like it\u00a0can make the job search harder in an already unforgiving economy. However, there are definite perks to\u00a0landing a union job.<\/p>\n

Now, some people are down on unions, I believe mainly because they\u2019re not currently in one.<\/strong> This,\u00a0sadly, is the prevailing attitude in the region I live in. People envy and denigrate other people\u2019s union\u00a0jobs because they don\u2019t get the same benefits and perks! However, unions (and the labour movement)\u00a0are the reason why we have scheduled breaks and lunches, why we work an 8-hour day, why we have\u00a0anti-child labour laws, why we have medical and dental benefits, OHS, and many other wonderful\u00a0things.<\/p>\n

Unions are hard to break into because one of their biggest benefits to their employees is job security.\u00a0Unionized employees get first crack at being interviewed for new postings and get preference over non-unionized applicants in hiring. It\u2019s as simple as that. Knowing that doesn\u2019t make the disappointment of\u00a0missing out on a library job any better, though. Sometime you can only get into the union by taking a\u00a0job you are overqualified for, or only going up against external candidates. Often, the only way external\u00a0candidates even get a chance at a job is if no one internal applies, or those who did actually fail the\u00a0interview process!<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re in, though, you\u2019re in. Oh wait, except for that pesky probation period! It can vary from\u00a0union to union, but 3-6 months is not unheard of. Near the end of your probation, you\u2019ll likely have a\u00a0review with your supervisor. You\u2019ll be scored on various aspects of your job performance and if you have\u00a0anything that needs work, you\u2019ll get the next couple of months to get job coaching to help you improve.\u00a0At the end of your probation, if you\u2019ve worked on improving everything that needed work, you\u2019re finally\u00a0a full member of the union.<\/p>\n

Unions have plenty of rules. It\u2019s good to get a little familiar with your collective agreement so that you\u00a0know both your rights and the rights of your managers. You have the right to refuse to work in unsafe\u00a0conditions. You have the right to work in a non-hostile work environment. You have the right to fair\u00a0wages. You have the right to rest and have free time. All great stuff! Who wouldn\u2019t want to have that?\u00a0If you don\u2019t have a library job yet, look to see what union the library employees belong to at the places\u00a0you apply. A basic search will tell you a lot about the work environment you may find yourself in.<\/p>\n

For more information, you may also want to check out the International Labour Organization<\/a>, as well as\u00a0the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/a> The UN has included lots of fundamental rights surrounding\u00a0work in its declaration and it\u2019s a good thing to be familiar with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Elinor Crosby, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Nova Scotia The Union and You: A Primer Most library jobs are unionized. What does this mean for the library job seeker? It certainly seems like it\u00a0can make the job search harder in an already unforgiving economy. However, there are definite perks to\u00a0landing a union job. Now, some people are…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":28310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,6053,3592,4388,4387,6052,6051],"class_list":["post-65198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-benefits-of-being-in-a-union","tag-blog","tag-elinor-crosby","tag-inalj-nova-scotia","tag-unionization","tag-unions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/883028_10152624942125577_1841687630_o.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-gXA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}