organize your workplace [THREAD PROUDLY MADE BY POSTERS UNION LOCAL 269]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > organize your workplace [THREAD PROUDLY MADE BY POSTERS UNION LOCAL 269]

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

dex_sda posted:

It's kind of back in the past - I switched jobs since - but the issues that were happening were general abuse of workers that didn't agree with the manager; a disregard for our work-life balance, and most importantly, to drive profits up, an actual order to commit a crime. Obviously I can't divulge details, but it was severe stuff.

People have set up a bunch of meetings to talk what to do about it, that went nowhere and were basically just some whining. I figured this was the best moment to suggest unionising, which in my country basically allows you to protect any union member from firing, automatically. We would then use that to push back against the idea of especially the illegal stuff, but also fight against the other problems. For instance, you can send union reps to the management to negotiate, and we'd obviously have a lot of leverage because we had documented proof the manager in question was asking us to commit a crime. And if any proceedings happen, as a member of an union you can get automatic legal representation from the central union organisation. HR stonewalled us, of course. The thing that struck me was that except for a couple very enthusiastic people it was met with an outright hostility, like unionising was beneath them even though they took the time to do #resistance style hidden meetings to whine.

it's good to have a material example of what organization is. i mean this literally. most people, especially in management but very much the working class too, believe organization is a form of sorcery. especially in tech. say the right words, maybe even get together to say words like a ritual, and then stuff just happens. it doesn't work that way. and proposing unionization to people like that leaves them no way to connect the words to a material change of behavior. organizing needs to be learned and practiced. start simple. gaming a KPI is a good babby's first organization for tech work, it's by definition a common metric that effects everyone that's ultimately disconnected from reality.

if your customer service or tech or whatever department is drowning in tickets, you can organize your behavior collectively to make the load bearable by changing the focus from clearing all the tickets to clearing X tickets/day or whatever schedule is bearable. when managers demand more tickets cleared, you can use organization to coordinate and collectively say that's impossible: we can clear X tickets/day. if the manager wants to improve his own performance indicators, they have to deal with this. this increases your quality of worklife and forces the rest of the business to react, either by assigning more resources, reducing marketing efforts or other changes in the business. it's about identifying shared information (e.g., KPI) and needs (quality of worklife sucks if you're always overloaded) and effectuating a solution (the people who do the work discuss what is a reasonable target and reinforce that among each other).

from there, people can generalize to a union. in my experience it's often even well-received on the management side unless you go out of your way to be adversarial. i'm coming at this from a european angle so i'm not sure if i've baked in some assumptions about how likely "literally everyone is fired" is that aren't sound in america. i have to assume it's not a common occurrence since if nothing else it's a fairly expensive move, i guess.

# ¿ May 16, 2020 09:16

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 11:45

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

dex_sda posted:

This makes a lot of sense.

I'm reticent on details because of the crime thing in this situation but yes this is Europe and at least a bit safer. Problem was though that it was a sudden change because of nepotism and a lot of threats of dismissal or of moving people to lovely departments were being thrown around like candy. Slow pushback in such an emergency is difficult

yeah. don't doxx yourself, i just thought your post was a good springboard into starting from zero tbh. I think it also goes to show that waiting for some sufficiently critical event and hoping everyone will then self-organize or develop class consciousness is futile. we won't. in a crisis, like "the boss just ordered us to Do Crimes," we'll pretty consistently freeze, panic and bikeshed all the way off a cliff--unless there's a mature and prepared organization ready to step in to provide an alternative.

# ¿ May 17, 2020 15:11

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

this is the real happy news thread. :unsmith:

# ¿ Feb 9, 2021 21:00

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

this is the real happy news thread. :unsmith:

# ¿ Jul 6, 2022 18:21

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

this might seem like boring inside baseball stuff but it�s really important to understand the choices organized labor as a group of organizations is making, and how those lead to successes or failures

https://twitter.com/hamiltonnolan/status/1556681854987665413

i think it's very interesting. i only read the ITT article for now, but i'll be reading the research report later. please post more inside baseball.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2022 18:07

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

vyelkin posted:

hi people who frequent this thread, I am thinking about how we occasionally get complaints that cspam has too many stickied threads and how it might be nice to have room at the top of the forum to stick fun new threads temporarily. Do you think being stickied is good for this thread? Should it stay at the top of the list or should it surf the waves of poster interest like the rest of the forum?

this thread should remain stickied and whatever �fun new threads� the mods had on the powerpoint during the committee meeting this post was composed in should surf the waves of poster interest

# ¿ Aug 15, 2022 17:00

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

sbux is trying to pause all union elections lmao.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/starbucks-alleges-labor-board-misconduct-union-elections-us-cafes-2022-08-15/

starbucks big mad

# ¿ Aug 15, 2022 17:55

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

anyway I think it�s worth responding to the post at length

is it really, though?

# ¿ Oct 29, 2022 23:46

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

yeah, clearly it won�t convince the poster, but I�m sure there are lurkers on the fence about this whole �union� thing and had heard some of the same ideas elsewhere.

it's so over the top and full of cliches that I assumed it was a syq

# ¿ Oct 29, 2022 23:59

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Cpt_Obvious posted:

Chain probe.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2022 13:25

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

very wholesome how many mods & iks are contributing to the chain probe.

# ¿ Nov 1, 2022 13:09

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

ScarecrowIntel posted:

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lmao

# ¿ Nov 6, 2022 20:40

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Geight posted:

Hello organizing goons! I just wanted to swing by again and mention that my cafe filed to unionize this weekend and thank yall for the good advice helping us get back up on our feet after getting busted last time. I hope the next time I post in here it is with news of a successful election!

hell yes

# ¿ Dec 12, 2022 12:56

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

3D Megadoodoo posted:

"Sorry, capitalist, the exploitable workforce is in another castle."

lol

# ¿ Jan 19, 2023 20:46

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Geight posted:

Hello fellow union goons, happy to report that our store won its vote today 18-1 today so we're a union coffee shop now!

# ¿ Jan 27, 2023 12:22

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

pogi posted:

like a thousand+ people signed this thing and a hundred people came up and helped pin it to the wall outside management�s office martin luther style. it�s like 3�x10�, seriously impressive in person. definitely built up energy for the strike we�re gearing up for, and a few of the admin types that stumbled up on us in the middle of it were visibly shook.

scrubbed out the names since I�m sure people wouldn�t like me posting them on a dead gay comedy form, but they�re in a smaller font than the rest of the letter. it owned so much y�all, I�m so proud

drat that's a lot of names, you should be very proud.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2023 10:45

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

I have actual genuine for real no-poo poo BREAKING NEWS to report in a cspam EXCLUSIVE:

Verizon signed an agreement with the NLRB over my case, the terms of which are that they had to give me about $15k cash, $8k 401k/other benefits, and my job reinstated. I'm walking back to work at the Northgate store in Seattle on Monday the 20th. (if you're seattle area and wanna come in the morning to attend the rally about it, PM me)

hell yeah

# ¿ Mar 13, 2023 08:28

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

webcams for christ posted:

Scheizerdeutsch

# ¿ Mar 26, 2023 01:46

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

seriously though, people thought you'd be good, so it's probably just the inverse of every esl person with perfectly fine english starting every conversation with "sorry my english is so bad."

# ¿ Mar 26, 2023 01:49

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

AnimeIsTrash posted:

https://twitter.com/UAW/status/1644689693953474560

the new uaw president seems pretty cool

shawn's right

# ¿ Apr 10, 2023 15:59

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

ohhhhh gently caress. this is really bad.

https://twitter.com/MorePerfectUS/status/1664287708070461441?s=20

jesus christ

# ¿ Jun 1, 2023 18:29

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

im saint germain posted:

my workplace organized

hell yeah

# ¿ Jul 11, 2023 09:07

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

https://twitter.com/_ericblanc/status/1681367774856085516

interesting that bush alone increased nlrb staffing

edit: i can't read graph good, the bump is actually at the end of clinton's term and the decline starts when bush takes the reins

Zodium has issued a correction as of 21:01 on Jul 18, 2023

# ¿ Jul 18, 2023 20:43

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Shear Modulus posted:

good

# ¿ Aug 3, 2023 17:17

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

dxt posted:

poo poo. Does this mean the union is going to cave and get a bad contract?

capital deploying the heavy weaponry

# ¿ Aug 9, 2023 16:33

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

kingcobweb posted:

i'm dying

https://twitter.com/maximillian_alv/status/1702662158260040101

ingenious

# ¿ Sep 15, 2023 20:25

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

stumblebum posted:

there are 3 ways i can think of for capital to fight this:

1.) capital flight to less-developed nations; china/BRICS are specifically developing swathes of the previously undeveloped world in order to prevent capital flight from themselves, which also has the effect of freezing up capital flights in general

2.) increase domestic repression; chattel slavery is theoretically and historically incompatible with industrial development, and whipping people harder will only deteriorate the modes of production further, leaving de-industrialized american capital at the mercy of industrial capital

3.) pad their supply chains back out to avoid bottlenecks; requires short-term sacrifices to profitability which is already a no-go but even if implemented the long term would involve distributing more material means of productions into the hands of increasingly proletarianized american labor

it probably wont work forever, but it should have the effect of forcing capital to paint itself into tighter corners

# ¿ Sep 17, 2023 18:36

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Eiba posted:

Hello C-SPAM. First post in this subforum, long time lurker. Love you all, but you're kind of scary.

I work in a small town library. Half a year ago I was elected Steward for the municipal employees in my town. No idea what I was doing, hadn't really been involved before, but no one else stepped up. We're a small Union, not associated with any larger organization. I wanted to do what I could.

Immediately I was wrapped up in a consequential grievance- one town department was being asked to do the work of two departments. They tried to reclassify the positions and the Town Administrator sad "lol, no". This issue has been bouncing back and forth between the Town Administrator and the Select Board and the Union as long as I've been Steward here, so I ended up with a pretty solid grasp of the situation.

This last week the town Select Board asked for a meeting. Our Union president said the time for discussion was past, and we should just push through to arbitration. I didn't want to overstep my bounds, but I pressed to attend the meeting anyway. Even if they weren't going to give us anything, we might as well attend the meeting. It would look better during arbitration if we had been consistently open to talking, right?

So thanks to my advocacy, and my advocacy alone, the meeting happened. In the meeting I was able to outline our position cogently, and explain how all the previous offers from Town Administration were bullshit for various reasons. And the Select Board listened. Just tonight we received a counter-offer that gave us everything we were asking for! An entire town department will get paid for their out-of-grade work, thanks to me!

I'm just thrilled, and I want to shout it out into the ether so here I am. This was the only overtly union focused thread I could find when searching the forums, so I hope this is the appropriate place. Unions are awesome!

unions ftmfw

# ¿ Dec 1, 2023 09:42

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Carthag Tuek posted:

lolling at the swedish tesla auto workers strike has been continually expanding via sympathy actions

started with the auto workers, then dock workers refused to unload cars in harbor, then no mail (including license plates), or cleaning. pension funds are recommending divesting and in the last week danish unions have taken up sympathy actions as well, so they cant unload the cars over here and drive them over either

theyre basically completely cut off from any other unionized company in sweden and denmark, which pretty much means any company larger than 3 employees

international solidarity ftw

# ¿ Dec 8, 2023 18:39

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

helllll yeah

# ¿ Apr 20, 2024 17:25

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 11:45

Zodium: Jun 19, 2004

Konstantin posted:

Their heart is in the right place, but you know the union busters will spin this as "Your UAW dues will be used to attack Israel. Do you really want to support this radical leftist organization? In TN, you have a right to not pay dues."

Second Hand Meat Mouth posted:

shut the gently caress up

# ¿ Apr 21, 2024 06:32

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > organize your workplace [THREAD PROUDLY MADE BY POSTERS UNION LOCAL 269]