KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — In November 2022, workers at McKay's in Knoxville voted to join a union — the Communications Workers of America. Around 82.6% of the votes cast were in favor of unionizing.
Months later, the newly formed union is negotiating for a labor contract with owners. Unionized workers joined a rally on Wednesday to push for their first contract. Employees' priorities are better policies for taking time off, improving health care benefits, implementing a transparent wage scale and giving workers higher pay rates.
"As the workers, we are qualified to have a say," said Margaret Casteel, with the new union. "We're kind of tired of the union-busting tactics. We just want to meet in good faith."
The McKawy's Labor Union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board. Those kinds of charges can entail threatening employees that their careers would not go further should they file grievances, or transferring employees to undesirable jobs after filing a charge.
Organizers said the charge was filed in response to disparate treatment between the Knoxville location and other locations. They said owners are refusing to pay employees time-and-a-half for working on Labor Day at Knoxville, but are paying the extra money at other locations.
"We started bargaining by introducing 26 proposals to them. That was five months, six months ago," said Aaron Hege.
Ray Mehaffey, President of CWA Local 3805, said:
“McKay’s owners are thus far behaving as if they see no problem treating the unionized store (Knoxville McKays) and employees differently than the other stores, such as refusing to pay time and a half on Labor Day (which they are offering for the first time to some other stores) and are making no secret about this thus far. Workers are concerned that McKay’s is punishing them for exercising their right to unionize.”
McKay's released a statement about the rally and negotiations with the union. It is available below.
"McKay’s and CWA officials along with the Knoxville store employees bargaining committee have already had 13 fruitful bargaining sessions and more scheduled for the future. Contracts, especially new contracts, take time and involve many complex topics and McKay’s is pleased with the progress we are making.
McKay’s respects the rights and wishes of its employees to be represented by the union. The company looks forward to on-going productive and meaningful bargaining with the CWA."