In July, FitzGerald received an email from Dale Morris, Verity's vice president of retail operations, which triggered a dispute over where FitzGerald was placing flyers to inform employees that an organizing committee was forming a labor union.

In August, FitzGerald and 19 Verity employees signed a letter to Verity CEO Tonita Webb and the board of directors to inform them about their efforts to unionize. The letter also brought up employees' concerns about a dispute with Morris as to where they could place the flyers in the workplace.

The employees say this dispute over where they could distribute the flyers in the workplace could be a violation of their labor rights.

At the time, Webb recalls, Verity had approximately 160 employees and at least 90 in the same classifications as the 20 who were listed as working on efforts to unionize.

"Given those demographics, we did not consider a list of 20 to be particularly representative of the majority voice and our initial reaction was simply to ensure that we were complying with all applicable laws governing labor rights, including the place and manner in which union literature is allowed to be left and distributed," Webb said. "While we respect our employees' rights to engage in activities protected by the National Labor Relations Act, we have been given no indication that the efforts to unionize are supported by the majority of our employees."

Verity employees say they are forming a labor union because they want to have a stronger voice about their jobs, fair wages, and sustainable working conditions. In addition to pay issues, employees say they are unionizing to address staffing shortages, high turnover rates, insufficient training, lack of resources, and mobility issues regarding promotions and career advancements. They believe a union can help the credit union make workplace improvements that could reduce high turnover rates and increase workplace satisfaction, which will ultimately improve member service.

Christian Lewis, a member consultant/loan officer, loves his job but he believes a labor union can make it better.

"When I first got to my branch, they were having massive problems with turnover. I've had the opportunity to build a lot of relationships with those members and some have said, they're really glad that they have someone here who they can contact and won't disappear tomorrow," Lewis said. "And that seems to be an experience that we're seeing shared across the entire credit union. I can only imagine how frustrating it would be when you go to your credit union, you hope to see someone who is familiar or who has worked with you in the past, and instead every time you see new faces. So with our unionizing efforts, we're trying to bring fair conditions, fair pay and more equity across the credit union, which will create an environment in which employees will want to stay and which should only help our members at the end of the day."

Webb, however, said she has been working on all sorts of workplace improvements since she became CEO in May 2021.

"We have been evaluating and enhancing pay and benefits, training programs, and other systems," she said. "While we are always working to improve, we have not heard widespread complaints and have no reason to believe there is general discontent on these issues."