Never been a fan but given what’s going on might be worth looking into?
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Voting to unionize sounds good, but actually would be the quickest way to end your job at Ricoh. Even if every tech voted for a union you still can't dictate your terms. They would need to be negotiated. The company would probably start with a very low ball offer that would affect the higher earners the most. Most likely there would be a plan where every tech would get paid the same rate. Then they would drop benefit choices and everyone would get the same thing. Retirement plans would be moved to the union. If Ricoh can't make this work in their favor then most likely the just close shop and move everything to the dealers.
We would have to silently get about 80% of the technicians to sign up for an exsisting union like teamsters. Then every one order 20 of the same feed rollers the same day to announce we are done being run down by corporate bean counters.
Yup. Nothing like being trained to rat out the employees you support to boost morale. Destroy morale further? Corporate leadership preaching Ricoh high ethical standards with tons of contrary examples and bs engagement surveys. Lots of yuck under the kimono.
We took Union training as a manager and the gist was, if they find out you are starting a Union then you are cut. We were told to report employees who are trying to start unions even though it's 100% legal.
Ricoh does tons of sh– like this, other last president past an bill which allows employees to talk about pay openly. So basically if that happens Ricoh can't do sh– to you but they can track it and find another reason to get rid of you. It's all a corporate game.
I remember when execs proudly pointed to absence of union as proof that ricoh workers were so well taken care of and satisfied with their circumstances...
When Ricoh acquired some companies (Savin comes to mind) they acquired some union employees as well. This meant that there were union jobs that had to be filled when unionized employees left. Over the years Ricoh played games with changing job titles and shifting employees from one office to another to avoid hiring union employees and this pretty much eliminated them.
No. They tried one years ago in Ohio and it didn't go so well. And I don't think the Japanese care for unions.