I'm a fellow technician out of the Oakland office and I'm fairly confident we have the mental fortitude to vote the union in. I feel Oakland has a couple advantages over other depots. The Oakland Depot isn't very big, as of right now we have around 87 techs with the average tech having 15+ years of service, and only a handful of new hires with less then 3 years experience. From what I have read on here, hilber and his chronies tend to manipulate and flip the younger techs, the guys that don't know any better and are just grateful to have a job.
I believe the key to success in this ordeal is to educate the technicians that have not attended a union meeting instead of alienating them. Sure a tech will sign a card but as we have seen with Piscataway and the Bronx, it doesn't always equate into a yes vote. I think what happened is very simple, a tech signs a card with the idea he's going to vote yes, never attends a meeting, never becomes educated and now has to sit and edure hilbers rhetoric a couple times before the vote. In his mind, where was the union?? Where are all the facts for the union??? He never once takes any responsibility for being uneducated regarding what the union can and cannot do. He wanted someone to spoon feed him the facts and that never happened so he voted no once hilber told their side of the story.
This cannot happen and we're trying to talk to as many people as possible in Oakland, telling them the facts. We also feel very strongly about showing open support for the union by wearing bracelets (were in the process of getting) which I feel will be the driving factor to our success. A bracelet tells everyone where you stand. It creates a divide between the pro and anti guys which there needs to be. You need to see where people stand, to many people hide behind anonymity, they say one thing and do the opposite. I see a tech in the hall, never have really spoken to him before, but I see we both are wearing bracelets, that empowers us.
You have to be united prior to the first meeting with hilber, which for Oakland is happening sometime next week. I would hope that a presence of techs wearing bracelets would s--- any confidence he has right out of him, a demonstration to management that we have to endure your talks but it's going in one ear and out the other.
You need a voice in a Depot or a leader, someone that can empower others and explain to them what's on the line. Let's face the facts, with every Depot voting down the union, it becomes more and more difficult. I feel like this will be our last shot at this and if we fail, I see all the momentum coming to an end. I'm sure hilber and monopoli aren't concerned the least with our petition to vote, why should they be, right? Well they should!!!
Wish us luck!!