FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS

"I was talking to a coworker who said that our supervisor had asked her about the union. She said she was interested in it and was hopeful it would mean a raise. He told her nothing is guaranteed in a new contract and insinuated that things might get worse with a union. I think it’s wrong for supervisors to do that."  - Worker in Lush NA

-----------

"One day I found a comment under a post on our internal communication site that mentioned that Toronto workers had been trying to unionize and if any other employees were interested in unionizing we should reach out to the person via their email. I decided to write back and ask if any of the unionizing information would apply to retail workers in the U.S. A couple days after expressing interest in union information my shop got a call from HR inquiring about my role with Lush and the type of employee I was. I was not in the shop the day of the call so it felt really weird that someone would call to ask questions about me without directly speaking to me. Prior to this we had a scheduled visit with our shop manager's boss (RST) - we were originally slated to have two visits but because our first visit went well we were told we wouldn't be having a follow up visit. During the shop visit I was able to sit down with my RST and we talked about my experience with Lush and what my next steps with the company would be. That visit left me in high spirit and I felt really good. A couple days before our follow up visit - that had been cancelled- we were told it would still happen. Our RST came to the shop to first have a sit down meeting with my manager and then a sit down meeting with the both of us to talk about unions. The sit down conversation was awkward to say the least, it felt like I was under surveillance because I mentioned having an interest in a union, it also made me feel like it was wrong to even speak about it after that. Sometime between all of this happening there was a post on the internal communication site from Lush directed at employees about Unions. The post said that Lush "as a brand we choose not to engage in employee-related matters in the public eye and certainly not through any media campaign such as this one by these unions and their supporters". To me this reads as Lush not caring whether employees start a union or not, however from my personal experiences and the fact that just one mention of a union led to many interactions makes me feel like they do care." Worker in Lush NA

-----------

"After being vocally pro union, I noticed a change in my work environment. My supervisor and team leads were suddenly around, watching me more often. I was moved out of the area I had been working in. My supervisor started monitoring my arrival time, and interrupting conversations with coworkers (which had never been done before)." -Worker in Lush NA

-----------

"When the union first started, the whole warehouse was buzzing with anticipation. It was exciting that this could happen here. Within a few days, the Executive VP, the head of HR, and our warehouse manager went around to every department to read and hand out an anti-union leaflet. This was our boss, our management, the person who can hire, fire, promote etc sending a clear message. That kind of thing makes a person nervous, and I certainly felt more afraid to get involved."  -Worker in Lush NA

-----------

"I made a post on the hive (Lush North America’s internal message board) asking about trans inclusion in focus groups the company had put together. I said that trans workers had faced “harassment and abuse”, and that it was good that they were to get their own focus group. Not long after, I was pulled into HR for a meeting (as I was about to leave on Christmas Eve no less) where they wanted to ask me about the post and let me know about resources that were available for people to report these things. They asked me if I would pass the info along to people I know, and I said I would. I felt pretty good after the meeting, it felt like they were really interested in making sure people could report things. However, not long after, I got an email, which seemed to accuse me of making misrepresentations or potentially libellous statements, since I did not provide proof of harassment. I would not provide specific details or name names because I don’t think that’s my place. Since I didn’t give names, and no one had reported harassment after my visit, they seemed to imply that I made it up and that it negatively affected the company. It doesn’t feel fair that I would be threatened with discipline just for bringing this up." -Worker in Lush NA

-----------

"We had one person who agreed to sign a union card, and said they were supportive. Then after a conversation with our supervisor he suddenly didn’t want to be involved anymore " -Worker in Lush NA

-----------

"In Toronto, we passed around a petition asking for our $3/hr premium pay back. The premium pay was given to us from the beginning of April to mid May during COVID because our monthly bonuses had been taken away, and because we were dealing with very high order volumes. The pay only lasted 6 weeks, but the increased volume, the lack of bonuses, and the threat of covid lasted months longer. So anyway, in this petition we asked them to reinstate either the bonus or the $3/hr premium pay. We got nearly 100 signatures in one day. In some rooms management confiscated the petition, but we were able to get the info along to people in HR. For over a week we were told that management was considering the proposal and were crafting a response. Eventually they sent us a response through our floor managers. The essence of the response was: we will not be reinstating hazard pay. They didn’t even bother to engage with the points we raised, they just said the pay was temporary, cited “unprecedented times” and thanked us for our work. What really bothers me is we were also receiving the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy….so shouldn’t that have been enough to keep us at our regular wages?" -Worker in Lush NA

-----------