Unionization
I think it’s time to push the idea of unionizing. For starters, I’m a conservative. I wish this weren’t even a discussion, but it seems that support staff in most TD office roles are criminally underpaid and overworked.
Middle/upper management are inefficient, and incompetent, while many of the high earners in the company are boomers who have been in the industry for 20+ years yet seemingly have no idea how to use technology or adapt to any new processes. I understand ever since the 3B fine there are far more compliance procedures in place and I understand the reasoning of why they are in place. That being said the result of new systems, more strict procedures, and greater regulation directly impacts the workload of support staff and the low-mid earners at the firm, while the higher earners sit back behind an office desk complaining about every process while the team below them does all the work and they earn $300k + a year.
Pulse is a joke, they don’t care about any of us. We get emails from the CEO about how great the firm has done, while we can’t fill our gas tank. I’d like to remind everyone that the poverty line after tax is approx $30k a year or $2500 a month. How are we working for one of the biggest and supposedly most respected companies while living on or just above the ******* poverty line.
I understand that there are huge obstacles in place as the unionization would likely have to be federal and involve very sophisticated organizing. I also don’t know exactly how the bargaining units would work. Is our bargaining unit our office? or is it everyone who has the same role across Canada. (Example are all commercial banking associates across canada in the same bargaining unit?) (I don’t work in commercial banking, just an example). I assume this would be different for retail vs office roles.
I am curious to know if this feeling is shared across the board, because as someone who’s working for TD for about 6 years, it feels like this firm doesn’t care to retain talent or compensate people fairly, they would rather plug and place when someone quits as it’s cost effective. I’ve been promoted, so this is isn’t hate for the sake of hate, I see many incompetent workers who can’t even speak the language getting promoted to roles or getting hired for roles from OFI that they have no business touching because the firm loves suppress internal growth. The big picture isn’t being looked at, people are lazy and there is little incentive to do a good job. (I work hard because it’s ingrained in my European immigrant belief system and it’s all i’ve ever known). I can understand how people give up after so long and just punch in and punch out because they realize TD doesn’t give a fuck about them and they suffer from a sunk cost fallacy and just try and push through to retirement and get a nice pension.
I always thought unionization was crazy, but the more I talk to people in similar roles in both my district and other districts, the more I see people agree with my views.
I’d love to talk to those who feels similar, or has any expertise in unions and what it would look like to get this process started.
Change starts and ends with the little guys, we can’t expect anyone in a senior/executive position to due anything to make our lives and jobs better and more fairly compensated, all they care about are next quarters earnings report. We have technology and forums, reddit discord etc. to connect each other in ways we could never imagine. Nepal overthrew the govt via gen z discord ffs there’s no reason we can’t do the same.
For anyone who has every thought about making real change in the world, you are not alone. It starts with you.