When Unions Give You Lemons, Leave

Ever voted for someone and immediately wished you could have a do-over?

The same thing happens with unions.

Unions like to sell themselves as the end of the story: vote yes, and the problems get solved. In practice, that vote is often just the opening chapter.

Labor-relations professionals even have a term for it: buyer's remorse.

Employees who vote to unionize are often in for a rude awakening. Contract talks stall. Promised gains don't materialize. And dues keep getting collected whether the union delivers or not.

This is what happened to the staff at Purcor Pest Solutions, a pest control company in Washington state. The company was unionized, and roughly a year and a half later, employees had decided they were done.

With legal guidance from the Center for Independent Employees (CIE), 32 of 57 employees signed a petition rejecting the union. Most of those signatures were gathered in just 36 hours.

After verifying the signatures, the company withdrew recognition of the union. Employees once again had a direct working relationship with their employer.

The good news about this version of buyer's remorse is that there's a "redo" button.

A union vote is not a lifetime commitment. Employees can be promised the world during an organizing drive and still end up with stalled negotiations, disappointing results, and representation they no longer want.

The problem is that changing their minds is easier than taking action. Removing a union is complicated, time-sensitive, and easy to get wrong. The employer cannot help employees remove the union, and the union certainly won't.

That's why CIE exists. Thanks to our national network of traditional labor attorneys, we provide employees with the legal guidance and on-the-ground assistance they need to navigate the process from start to finish.

In the Purcor case, that meant turning employee frustration into action—and buyer's remorse into a fresh start.

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The Center for Independent Employees (CIE) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation and assistance to independent employees who are opposed to union oppression in their workplaces.