Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 880, Forming a Union.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 880.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is ESLPOD.com.
Go there and become a member of ESL Podcasts.
This episode is a dialogue between Norma and Jimmy about forming a labor union at their job.
Let's get started.
What is this?
It's a flyer for a meeting I've called to talk about forming a labor union here.
Here?
Do you think the management will let us?
They can't stop us.
We're working longer and longer hours, and we need to demand higher pay.
We also need better work conditions and a say in hiring and firing procedures.
All of us need to band together to have better bargaining power.
I don't know.
I want to be better paid and to have job security like everybody else.
But I'm afraid of what will happen when we start agitating.
I'll tell you what will happen.
The management will finally hear what we have to say.
With collective bargaining, the rank and file will get what we deserve at long last.
Are you in or out?
I'll have to think about it.
He who hesitates is lost.
Yes, but I was always taught to look before I leap.
Our dialogue begins with Norma asking Jimmy, what is this?
Jimmy says, it's a flyer for a meeting.
A flyer, F-L-Y-E-R, here means a piece of paper that has some text on it, some words on it, perhaps also some images on it.
Usually a flyer is one side of a piece of paper that contains information about a meeting or some event that you want people to know about and perhaps to come to.
Jimmy says it's a flyer for a meeting I've called, meaning I have decided to organize to talk about forming a labor union here.
A labor L-A-B-O-R union is an organization of workers, of employees who get together and decide that they are going to negotiate with their employer.
The together as one big group.
The idea here, of course, is that they will have more power, more ability to get what they want in terms of pay and working conditions, and so forth.
Labor unions have been around for many years.
In the They're not as popular now as they were even 40, 50 years ago here in the United States.
Norma says, here, do you think the management will let us?
The management refers to the directors of the company, the bosses, the people who make the decisions, people who would not be considered part of the union, the union members.
In this case would be for the workers who don't make as much money perhaps, and don't have the same power as the management has.
Norma is asking if Jimmy thinks the management will let us, that is, will allow us, will permit us to do this.
Jimmy says they can't stop us.
To stop someone means to prevent them from doing something.
Jimmy says they can't stop us.
They cannot stop us.
We're working longer and longer hours.
Longer hours are more hours.
And we need to demand higher pay.
To demand something is to ask for it, but in a very forceful way, to insist on it.
You must give me more money.
That's a demand.
The demand here is for higher pay.
Pay is the money that you get in your salary, you get from your employer for the work you do.
Higher pay would be more money.
We all, of course, want higher pay.
I want higher pay.
In fact, if I don't get paid more Center for Educational Development, I'm leaving this job.
Forget it.
I'm out of here.
Oh, wait a minute.
I actually need this job.
So let's continue.
Jimmy continues by saying we also need better work conditions and a say in hiring and firing procedures.
Work conditions refers to the environment or the situation where you work.
Is it a safe place to work, for example?
Jimmy says the employees need better work conditions and a say in hiring and firing procedures.
To have a say S-A-Y in something means to have an influence on something, an influence in making a decision.
Your children don't have a say in where you're going to eat for dinner tonight.
You just say, children, we're going to go to this restaurant.
And you don't have a say in it.
You don't get to decide.
At least that is the way it was in my family when we went to a restaurant, which wasn't very often.
Jimmy says that the employee should have a say in hiring and firing procedures.
To hire H.I.R.E. means to give someone a job.
To fire F.I.R.E. here means to To cause someone to lose their job.
You're saying you can no longer work here.
You get rid of an employee.
That's to fire.
So Jimmy wants the employees to have a say in hiring and firing procedures.
Procedures are the rules or the steps that you follow to do something.
Jimmy goes on to say, all of us need to band together to have better bargaining power.
To band together means to work together.
Bargaining power is how much power, how much strength, if you will, you have in negotiating with someone else?
If you have a bunch of employees, a lot of employees who get together and say we're not going to work anymore until you give us more money.
The company may not have a lot of options.
They may need you to work right away or they'll lose a lot of money.
So they say, OK, all right, we'll give you more money.
We'll give you a higher salary.
That would be an example of bargaining power.
The employees, by banding together, had more bargaining power, more negotiating power.
Norma says, I don't know.
I want to be better paid and to have job security like everybody else, but I'm afraid of what will happen when we start agitating.
Job security is knowing that you are going to have a job next week, that you're not going to be fired.
Nowadays it's very difficult to get a lot of job security in many companies, and Job security is something Norma wants.
But she's afraid of what will happen when we that is Jimmy, Norma and the other employees start agitating.
To agitate A-G-I-T-A-T-E means to start causing problems or to start arguing for what you want, to start protesting to let people know that you want some sort of change in society or in this particular situation.
Jimmy says, I'll tell you what will happen.
The management will finally hear what we have to say.
The management will hear our message.
With collective bargaining, the rank and file will get what we deserve at long last.
Collective bargaining is the situation I mentioned earlier, where everyone gets together and you negotiate with the employer as a group.
The boss doesn't talk to one person, and then another person, and then another person and negotiate or come to an agreement on their salary individually.
The boss has to negotiate with the entire group as one unit, if you will.
That's collective bargaining.
Collective is an adjective meaning all together as a group.
The rank R-A-N-K and file F-I-L-E refers to the ordinary employees or ordinary members of an organization, not the leaders, not the people in charge, not the management, in this case.
At long last means finally, after a long period of waiting.
Jimmy is saying that with collective bargaining, the rank and file will get what we deserve at long last.
Then he asks Norma, are you in or out?
That expression in or out means used to ask someone whether they're going to participate or not.
Are you going to join us or not?
Norma says, I'll have to think about it.
Jimmy uses an old expression in response.
He says, he who hesitates is lost.
To hesitate means to wait before making a decision.
To go, oh well, I'm not sure, and you think about it for a while before you decide yes or no.
To be lost means that you will lose the opportunity, that if you wait too long, the idea is you won't be able to take advantage of the opportunity.
So if you're at a party and you see a beautiful girl in the room and you are thinking about going over and talking to her, if you hesitate too long, if you wait too long, some other gentleman will walk up and talk to her and you will lose the opportunity.
He who hesitates is lost.
Norma says, yes, why? but I was always taught to look before I leap.
Norma responds with another old saying, to look before you leap, L-E-A-P.
To leap means to jump, especially if you're jumping off a high place onto a lower place.
To look before you leap means to to make sure you know where you're going.
If you jump off of a very high place, you could hurt yourself.
So you need to look before you leap to make sure it's a good decision.
This is sort of the opposite of the other expression, he who hesitates is lost.
To look before you leap means to consider something carefully, to consider your decisions carefully before making them.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Here?
Do you think the management will let us?
They can't stop us.
We're working longer and longer hours, and we need to demand higher pay.
We also need better work conditions and a say in hiring and firing procedures.
All of us need to band together to have better bargaining power.
I don't know.
I want to be better paid and have job security like everybody else.
But I'm afraid of what will happen when we start agitating.
I'll tell you what will happen.
The management will finally hear what we have to say.
With collective bargaining, the rank and file will get what we deserve at long last.
Are you in or out?
I'll have to think about it.
Yes, but I was always taught to look before I leap.
At long last we come to the point in the podcast episode where we thank our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
