GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.–Employees at a branch of Lake Michigan Credit Unionhere are seeking a vote for union representation.
A majority of employees at the branch on South Division St. have filed a petition with federal regulators seeking an election to decide whether to form a union with representation from the Communications Workers of America, according to a statement issued by The Committee for Better Banks and reported by MiBiz.
MiBiz said the organization describes itself as a coalition of bank employees, advocacy groups, and labor unions “coming together to improve conditions in the bank industry.”
The Committee for Better Banks said the staff at the $11.7-billion Lake Michigan CU are seeking union representation “to improve working conditions, transparency and communication,” according to the report.
The publication said that in a letter today to LMCU CEO Sandra Jelinski, 11 employees at the South Division branch, working through what is being called the Lake Michigan Credit Union Workers Alliance, asked her to voluntarily recognize the union by last Friday.
‘A Collective Voice’
“As one of the busiest branches by customer transactions where multiple different languages are spoken by customers on a daily basis, we feel underappreciated and undercompensated for our contribution to making the South Division Branch successful,” the letter states, according to MiBiz.com. “Forming a union empowers us to have the collective voice that we deserve to ensure that our members and our staff continue having the excellent relationship we have established over the years.”
The letter adds that the employees “have given upper management plenty of time and opportunities to address our concerns and despite our branch management’s best efforts, they have not been addressed.”
The credit union has more than 60 branches in Michigan and Florida and the unionization effort currently is believed to currently be limited to the South Division branch.
‘Excellent Employment Opportunities’
In response, Lake Michigan Credit Union issued a statement to MiBiz that said it is “aware that an outside union is attempting to organize some of our employees at one branch location.
“The union election petition does not apply to any of our other branch locations,” the credit union’s statement to MiBiz said. “LMCU prides itself in providing excellent employment opportunities with competitive wages and benefits and a welcoming work environment. In our opinion, outside unions have their own agenda, are divisive, and are unnecessary for us to maintain our high employment standards and customer service.”
Other CU Employees Unionize
LMCU, which has more than 450,000 members, posted $124.6 million in net income through Sept. 30, according to its call report.
As CUToday.info reported earlier, in January the Communications Workers of America organized staff at Genesee Federal Co-Op Credit Union in Rochester, N.Y.