A worker-led GEICO union in Buffalo says the insurance company suggested workers call the cops on union organizers if they are made to feel “uncomfortable” or harassed, has removed union information from its office, and has sent a series of emails discouraging workers from joining the union. The union, GEICO United, is the first serious worker organization effort the company has had.
GEICO United filed two sets of unfair labor practices charges in recent weeks, which reference union-busting emails sent by upper management discouraging workers from joining the union, and assuring them that doing so would be futile. The organizing at GEICO and union complaints were first reported by the Investigative Post.
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The first email, sent on Aug. 12 and obtained by Motherboard, refers to house visits made by union organizers. “GEICO has not authorized any home visits from union representatives, and you are not required to speak with them,” the email reads. “If you feel uncomfortable about an uninvited visitor showing up at your home, or if you have experienced any form of intimidation or harassment, you have every right to contact the police.”
Home visits are a relatively common and accepted union organizing tactic, the thinking being that workers can have more open and honest discussions in the privacy of their home as opposed to on company-controlled property. Union organizers who spoke to Motherboard said that they had had enthusiastic responses from their house visits before that email was sent.
“Before, people were so excited,” one organizer said. “About three-quarters would sign right then, and the rest would sign a week later. But after the emails, we started getting all these texts. A bunch of people backed out. They were saying things like ‘I support you, but I have a mortgage, I have a family.’ They’re scared.” Motherboard agreed to keep the workers anonymous because they feared retaliation from the company.
The workers also noted that union organizers do not have to be authorized by a company to talk to its employees—especially if the organizers are themselves employees, and not from a third party. “They just want to confuse people,” the organizer said.
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A second email, sent on Aug. 19, reads, “Just because other employees at other employers have a union does not mean you will be better off with a union at GEICO,” and references work done by Workers United at Amazon and Starbucks in recent months. It continues, “However, GEICO is not Starbucks or Amazon. Just because a union calls itself ‘GEICO United’ this does not mean it would deliver on the many promises made in leaflets.”
“If unions make everyone better off, why is union membership so low?” the email asks.
Seth Goldstein, a lawyer for the Amazon Labor Union, said that GEICO’s practices thus far bear a striking resemblance to Amazon’s techniques when its first worker-led union formed in a Staten Island warehouse, as well as Starbucks’ elimination of union workers. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “Corporations that don’t have union relationships, this is how they react, unfortunately.” Goldstein said he does not represent GEICO United but is following their progress.
“GEICO tries to advertise like they’re not the same as Amazon, but it’s literally the same thing,” a union organizer agreed.
GEICO United has filed two sets of unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board. One of them notes that the company has been “threatening to retaliate against employees if they joined or supported a union.” It notes that the company has removed union posters from employee bulletin boards, “unlawfully threatened employees that it would be futile to seek union representation,” and has “issued an overbroad restriction for employees posting on social media.”
In a statement emailed to Motherboard a spokesperson for GEICO said, “We believe the pending charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board is without merit, and the majority of NLRB charges are dismissed or withdrawn. We look forward to resolving this matter as quickly as possible.” They also said the company recognized the “important rights” associates have to support or oppose a union.
Last week, after the first set of charges was filed on Sept. 11, upper management — namely, Mindy Seibold, the Buffalo branch’s regional vice president — hosted a series of three question-and-answer sessions with employees. In the sessions, attendees said Seibold discussed profitability, and how GEICO was doing overall as a company.
One union organizer said that the final topic of one of these meetings was the union, and that when this point came, they recalled that Seibold said, “I just want to make sure no one’s recording,” which the organizer thought was “shady.”
“[Seibold] said that she is from a union family, and that she is not anti-union, but that union contracts usually take at least 450 days to create,” the organizer said. “How did she get that number? She must have hired a union-busting firm.”
The no-recording rule, as well as the anti-union meetings, is referenced in the most recent labor charge brought by GEICO United. The complaint also confirms what union organizers told Motherboard: management had removed all bulletin boards where organizers had been hanging fliers about the union.
Although this second charge calls for the NLRB to issue a national complaint against the company, a second union organizer noted that GEICO didn’t really seem to care.
“They have a very dismissive attitude toward not only our efforts but to the complaints we’ve been making to the NLRB,” they said. “They’re very arrogant. They don’t seem to care if they’re violating our rights.”
