Your Signature
Your Signature
Unions will make all kinds of promises to get your signature and the law even allows them to promise things they can’t guarantee to win you over.
Your Rights
Your Rights
Union organizers and supporters can be extremely persistent and aggressive. You have the right to say “no” and make your own decision about signing a union document. Understand your rights.
Your Money
Your Money
You will be asked to pay dues to the union if they are elected. Calculate how this will affect your paycheck.
Your Choice
Your Signature
We encourage you to be fully informed before you sign any union document.
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Your Signature is Valuable
Your signature is extremely valuable to the union. Getting your signature is the union’s top priority right now because it allows them to petition the government for an election that will decide whether MFLCs will be represented by the union.
In a Unionized Workplace
At Magellan Health, we value our direct working relationship with you. We believe a third-party union is not in the best interest of the families and service members we support or our MFLCs.
The International Association of Machinists (IAM) is asking MFLCs to sign union authorization cards. We encourage you to ask lots of questions and be fully informed before you sign any union document. The union may tell you signing such materials has no consequences and only means you want more information. But your signature is very valuable to the union.
Remember, it is your decision – and your decision alone – to choose whether or not union representation is right for you!
If you want the union to go away, it is your federal right to say “No.” You can:
Calculate your union dues
Did you know that if the union is voted in, the union will ask you to pay dues and other fees? In some states, you may have to pay dues or fees to the union to keep your job.
It’s true. If the union contract includes a union security clause – common language included in union contracts – you may be required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of your employment. This means that the union could demand that you be fired if you fail to pay union dues
Every union is different, but most unions set their fees as a percentage of an employee’s pay every month. The more you make, the more you pay the union. (The union sets the dues rate and decides when to increase dues.) Consider how that would add up over the course of a year – or your career.
Union dues/month
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Union dues/year
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Annual salary less union dues
$0
Only the union determines how much members will pay in dues. Dues were calculated according to the formula in IAM Local Lodge 47 bylaws and does not include or assume regular union dues increases, which occur frequently. They also assume that your annual salary is the weighted average of the bargaining unit, and that you are a full-time MFLC. If you are not a full-time employee, your union dues may be less. As always, calculations are approximate. Any differences in published dues rates may be due to rounding.
Get The Facts
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a union card?
A union authorization card or petition is a legal document that may give a union the sole and exclusive right to speak and act on behalf of MFLC Counselors in all matters regarding wages, benefits, working conditions and other terms of your employment at Magellan.
IAM is very clear on what signing a card means in the description on its own cards:
“By clicking the submit button below, I affirm that I am an employee of the above-named employer and that I want to be represented, for purposes of collective bargaining, by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.”
Signing a card does not guarantee that you will get better wages or benefits or that issues and concerns will be resolved. If the union becomes your exclusive representative, the only right the union has is to represent employees and negotiate a contract with Magellan.
Why is my signature valuable?
Your signature is extremely valuable to the union. Getting your signature is the union’s top priority right now because it allows them to petition the government for an election that will decided whether MFLCs will be represented by the union.
The union can do several things with your signature:
- If the union gets 30 percent of Magellan’s MFLCs at a particular installation to sign cards, the union may go to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and file a petition for an election in which MFLCs vote to determine whether or not they want to be unionized.
- If the union collects signatures from more than 50 percent of MFLCs, the union could request that we recognize the union as MFLCs’ representative without the NLRB holding a secret ballot election.
- The union may use this card to send you mail, to call you at home, text you or to visit you at home.
You have no obligation to meet or talk with union organizers. You do not have to respond to their mail, let them into your home or answer their phone calls. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects your right to refrain from any union activity, to campaign against the union and to not sign union cards or a petition.
What will happen if the union is elected?
If the IAM gets enough signatures to call for an election and wins the election, it will represent all MFLCs as their sole legal representative for all terms and conditions of employment. You will no longer be legal allowed to discuss issues such as wages, promotions or time off with your manager.
As a result of the collective bargaining process (also called negotiations), you could end up with less than, more, or keep the same wages and benefits that you now have. There are no guarantees despite what the union may be promising you.
Collective bargaining can take months or years. And, there is no requirement that the union and Magellan ever reach a contract. An employer does not have to agree to union demands, according to federal law.
What will the union cost me?
If IAM wins the right to represent you, you will be asked to pay dues and in certain states under a union security provision you could be forced to pay dues as a condition of employment.
IAM’s maximum stated dues are $68.74 a month. Dues, in some cases, could be taken out of your paycheck automatically and given to the union.
Regardless of how you vote, if the union wins the right to represent MFLCs, then all counselors would have to comply with the contract and the rules negotiated by the union – regardless of whether you agree with them.
The union may also cost you if it forces employees to strike during negotiations or after. Employees are not paid by Magellan, may not use PTO during a strike and the union is not required to provide strike pay. Also, if a strike is called for economic reasons, such as wages, there is no guarantee that you would automatically return to work when the strike ends. During an economic strike, the most common kind, an employer may permanently replace employees who strike.
Take The Quiz
Do you have to sign a union card or petition if you want to be able to vote if there’s an election? Can the union guarantee more PTO if it’s voted in? Take the quiz to see how well you know the facts about union organizing.
Ask a Question
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We’ll continue to address as many as we can in our FAQs.