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Hi MDMC,
I wish I could've responded sooner to your post, but work has got me going crazy with hours. Hopefully you'll wind up reading this, and more importantly by far, hopefully it helps ...
The first course of action is to select a union which has a background dealing with folks in your line of work. As has already been recommended, AFSCME and SEIU are good choices. SEIU generally has a fairly strong reputation, and is more skilled in situations like yours with respect to the fact that you don't directly work for the county.
There are two ways unions typically use to organize workers: (1) traditional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections in which 50% of workers plus one must vote in the affirmative for union representation; and (2) card-check drives in which the union secures an agreement from management prior to conducting the organizing drive which guarantees that when the union has 50% +1 of the employees, the employer will recognize the union and commence bargaining.
Your situation is kinda unique, as you're essentially performing work for a county through a corporate intermediary (or contractor if you like, but I just love my fancy wording though ). Depending on the political environment in your state/locale, as well as the size of the bargaining unit you're in, the union could perhaps pressure politicians to support a card-check drive; although that's much easier than it sounds. Additionally, if troubles arise, the same could be done to pressure the pols to, in turn, pressure the company to negotiate fairly - that's actually easier than asking them to support a card check drive, as the latter only entails asking them to intervene in a potentially-damaging economic situation (e.g. a strike). That parlance is particularly useful when dealing with Republicans, of course their animosity to labor unions in general makes any discussion difficult.
When you contact an organizer, they'll certainly be able to help you and explain the process a bit better, and in more detail. But here's some ideas that'll probably speed things along with the organizer, as well as give him/her better insight into your particular situation.
1. Take notes on your home time (don't do it at work) regarding specific grievances you have with the company. Hours of work, forced overtime, speed-up mandates, rude/abusive managers/co-workers, dangerous working conditions, sexual harrassment, salary/benefits, pay schedules, workplace democracy ... all of these are things the organizer is going to want and need to know.
Notes are important because they allow you to actually remember everything that's happening. Sometimes when people come and talk to us, I think they get a bit intimidated because they've never done that sort of thing before, and while it doesn't "scare" them, it can be one of those "new" things in life which kinda throws you off just a touch.
2. Don't feel as though your grievances are petty, or that perhaps you shouldn't mention some specific issue because you think you're "nitpicking." The fact is that unless you seek to address all of your problems, you'll wind up kicking yourself later for not mentioning it, especially if you get stuck working under those conditions even after a successful contract. There are *NO* stupid issues; they're all important.
3. Don't be surprised if the organizer doesn't visibly react to your story. Trust me, we've heard it *ALL* before; there's not a whole lot that can shock a veteran organizer. You don't need to "color-up" any of your problems, they stand sufficient on their own merit.
An example: I was trying to organize a large unit of (mostly) burly truck drivers. One of them approached me and asked if we could speak in private. The guy was somewhere around 6'4, and approached 260 pounds. To be honest, he was rather intimidating. As the situation would have it, his main problem with the company was that management didn't take his sexual harrassment claim against another male employee seriously - the alleged harrasser was my size: about 5'7, maybe 170 soaking wet.
Through the course of investigating, it turns out that the small guy did indeed sexually harrass this enormous guy, so we filed charges against the company for failing to adequately protect its workforce against sexual harrassment (we won).
Eventually curiosity got the best of me - and the large fella and I had developed a rapport - so I had to ask why he didn't knock the guy's block off. It turns out he's an ex-Marine with so much training that he'd have been prosecuted not just for battery, but battery with a deadly weapon: his hands.
The point of what I'm saying is that organizers have dealt with almost every conceivable workplace issue out there, and sometimes become somewhat jaded to just how cruel employers can be. Don't take offense or feel that your story is less than important. It isn't.
Good luck to you. If you'd like any other advice, please don't hesitate to send me a message. I'd be happy to help.
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