The Struggle to Unionize: A Worker's Story

Unions help workers achieve higher wages and benefits, reduce gender pay gaps, and lower rates of poverty and insecurity. However, employees do not always have the free choice to organize. Employers routinely use brutal tactics to deny workers this fundamental right. Lori Gay and her fellow employees at the Salt Lake Regional Medical Center in Utah have been campaigning to form a union for nearly two years. In an exclusive interview with the Center for American Progress, Lori Gay describes her struggle to unionize.

• Audio of the interview

• Complete interview transcript

Rhian O'Rourke (interviewer): You also said that management "held offensive mandatory meetings." Could you describe more in depth what went on in these meetings and why you would say they were offensive?

Lori Gay: They would have a sign-up sheet and you would sign up…Basically, your boss would come up to you and say, "Which meeting are you going to?" They were "voluntary." But we would call them mandatory-voluntary because the feeling was, "You better go to this meeting!"

I think people were interested to go to the meetings…the big union supporters wanted to go to the meetings, like myself, because I wanted to hear what they were saying so I could intervene, too.

We spoke up at these meetings and they held meetings where they said, "You can't talk. You have to just listen. You can't ask any questions." They would have these meetings, you would show up and of course they would have little snacks or something for you, and then they would usually run a movie or a slide presentation. It was a script. They had all the managers, either they did it or they got fired…They showed videos from the nurses who were organizing in Oregon, they would show mounted police on horses and then talk about, "Do you want this in your community?" It was so blatant.

…I thought the information that they presented was biased, it was not true, and when you questioned the truth of the information given, or where they got their facts or who prepared them, they would not answer you. They ignored you and told you, "You are here to listen to this; we are not answering questions, just listen and then leave."

Lori Gay also participated in our June 25, 2004 event, "The Key to Economic Progress for America's Working Families: Restoring the Freedom to Form Unions":
• Audio: The Key to Economic Progress for America's Working Families
• Video: Highlights | John Podesta | George Miller | Lori Gay, Rita Chitwood | Harley Shaiken | David Bonior | Cassandra Butts
• Transcript: Transcript of Lori Gay and Rita Chitwood's Remarks

Without strong unions, our entire community pays a heavy price: Wages lag, race and gender pay gaps widen and insecurity and poverty increase. Democracy suffers, in the workplace and beyond. For more information about efforts to restore the freedom to organize, click here.