Currently, VICE management makes all the decisions about our jobs and the policies that affect us as employees. Management can make all these decisions unilaterally, without our approval. Each of us may have some little latitude to negotiate the terms of our employment individually -- we can, for instance, ask our supervisors for raises -- but none of us on her or his own is able to have much impact upon the standards the company applies to its hundreds of employees.

With a recognized union, VICE management will have a responsibility to negotiate with us, as a group, over all the terms of our employment. The company won't be able to make changes that affect our jobs without including us in the decision-making process. And speaking together, with one voice, we'll have more influence than any one of us might, speaking alone.

That's how collective bargaining works. Having a union won't mean we'll have absolute power to set the terms of our employment, but it will mean we'll have a voice and a vote in what it means to work for VICE.