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What is a good way for introverts to help with organizing? My workplace has a union, and I would like to help out beyond paying my dues, but I'm terrible at proactively approaching people and "selling" anything. I know this isn't where my strengths lie, and I feel that any attempts I make could backfire. Are there other ways I could contribute?
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May 24, 2021 08:25
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 18:25 |
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I hear you, my union has some advantages in bargaining because we are Federal contractors, so the government puts pressure on the employer to maintain labor peace, and they can't recruit scabs without putting them through the suitability check which can take a month. Even with these advantages, we couldn't get everything we wanted, and management still pulled poo poo like adding a "benefits administration fee" deduction from our paychecks during collective bargaining. At least we get paid a living wage and are sometimes treated like professionals rather than replaceable cogs in a machine. It's an ongoing battle, and we have to fight back all the time against constant small acts of wage theft, as well as attacks on our dignity.
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Sep 20, 2021 00:13
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Agreed, tier systems are horrible. In addition to being unfair and destroying employee morale, they are also discriminatory as the higher tiers are disproportionately white and male. Corporate profits have skyrocketed in the last 30 years, there is no reason for benefits to be cut.
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Nov 12, 2021 00:05
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I'm familiar with the Omaha labor market. They can probably get scabs to do the unskilled labor, but it will be nearly impossible for them to get skilled mechanics and maintenance workers unless they pay serious gently caress you money. Also, the unskilled scabs won't give a poo poo and will probably be about half as productive as the union workers they're replacing.
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Dec 13, 2021 19:18
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How much do full time, paid organizers help anyway? The most potent organizing force will always be the workers trying to unionize, and too much involvement from non-locals is a vulnerability that management can exploit. There is a role for administrative support and expert assistance from people like lawyers, accountants, and negotiation experts, but the bulk of the effort needs to be done by the workers themselves.
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Jan 1, 2022 02:27
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Hopefully they can get the right to wear union insignia and hang posters in customer facing areas, but I doubt that Corporate would allow that without some hard bargaining.
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Feb 3, 2022 08:06
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In addition to being a bad look, has Starbucks seen the labor market? No way are they getting competent replacements, and the fired workers can walk into any one of dozens of establishments and get another job that day.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:18
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My union is pretty bad about getting people involved. I had to affirmatively seek them out and ask to join, when they do ask for help I express interest and never hear back, they will have online events but give only 1-2 days notice, and the bulletin board hasn't been updated in months. The only person I really know is my union steward, and when I come to him with an issue he usually responds with "ok, I'll talk to person X about that." Still better than no union, and I appreciate the negotiated raises and job protections, but they need to improve their outreach, especially since we're in a right to work state and need to have an active and visible presence.
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Feb 28, 2022 07:57
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DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:I think at Amazon and other places it’s largely the latter. you can draw a pretty direct line between “woke corporate” union busting at REI and elsewhere, and the old racial wedge used to union-bust in the early 20th century—the more you raise the salience of race in your employees’ minds, the harder solidarity becomes. the background racism of American culture does a lot of the work for you (which is, indeed, why it exists, and why it was cultivated). these days you can’t nakedly race bait your white employees the way you could in 1922, but you can do a lot to make white and POC employees distrust each other. My workplace is around 40% South Vietnamese, and when my union was starting the union busters explicitly tried to link it to Communism. It was hilariously bad, especially since all of them are second or third generation, educated in America, and perfectly capable of seeing the difference between American leftists and the government of Ho Chi Minh.
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Mar 19, 2022 07:30
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Keep in mind that large corporations are only raising wages because they are forced to, and in the absence of a union contract, they can and will roll back these wage increases at the first opportunity. The only way to secure these gains for the long term is to have them written into a contract.
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Apr 18, 2022 20:06
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Part of it is that with schools in particular, building issues are often expensive to fix due to decades of deferred maintenance brought on by budget cuts. In order to properly unfuck the situation you need amounts of money that are only available through elected officials, who would rather spend the money on something new and glamorous, rather than fixing the fuckups of their predecessors. The shortage of skilled construction workers and the fact that it is impractical to do major construction work while school is in session adds to the problem.
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Aug 22, 2022 19:12
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While all that is true, it is also the case that established unions have limited resources and can't help every group that approaches them. A lot of the time those resources are allocated ahead of time by leadership, and if you aren't in one of their priority areas then they don't want you.
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Nov 6, 2022 20:42
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There is a tentative agreement in the University of California student workers strike that doesn't have COLA, so the raises won will probably be eaten away by rent increases over the next few years. Hopefully it gets voted down. I understand that a union contract isn't the best vehicle to address the affordable housing crisis, but in the short term it's one of the only options to allow workers to get their basic needs met.
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Dec 17, 2022 16:18
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Just confirmed that I was selected to represent my local at the regional council meeting. Any advice on how to contribute? Also, we're just entering negotiations for a new CBA, and management wants to negotiate a single CBA with us and two other locals that are part of the same union and do basically the same work, but are in different areas of the country. I'm personally not opposed to it as we communicate with each other already and trust each other, but are there any specific difficulties we should watch out for?
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Feb 16, 2023 08:09
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How will the repeal of right to work in Michigan affect this? Adding a bunch of conservatives and indifferent people to the membership will push the union in a less radical direction, assuming they bother to vote.
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Apr 10, 2023 15:46
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So my employer decided to blatantly violate the CBA less than two months after signing it. It had specific language about the cellphone policy that was a key part of negotiations, and today they said "All cellphones are banned in [work area] starting Monday, no exceptions." They are claiming that this is being forced on them by a third party that we do contract work for, but hopefully the union will fight like hell over this, especially since many workers need to listen to music to block out distractions and focus. As a steward I expect to be sitting in on quite a few disciplinary meetings next week and saying "No, you can't just make up rules that violate the CBA. We're initiating a grievance over this, which will probably be combined with dozens of other grievances about this exact thing."
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Jul 15, 2023 07:09
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A lot depends on the type of shipping. Where I work, we receive a lot of small packages sent via expedited delivery, and it breaks down at around 90% FedEx, 5% UPS, 4% USPS, 1% DHL with all the DHL coming from outside the US. It's actually a bit of a problem since all the FedEx comes in on one plane, so if it's delayed everything shuts down for a day and then we end up buried in work for the next week. Back on topic, our second shift Chief Steward is quitting, so now I'm acting Chief Steward at least until elections take place in a few months, at which point I will almost certainly get the job permanently unless I emphatically decline it. As a part of this I'm going to have to learn how to conduct new hire orientation meetings, where few people have any idea what a union is but don't want to piss off management on their first day. Of course, management is quick to tell the new hires that they don't have to pay dues if they don't want to, since we're in an anti-union state.
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Aug 5, 2023 16:53
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The answer you are looking for is "No." I'm a steward and the training made it very clear that it wasn't our job to involve ourselves in disputes between bargaining unit employees. He can rat to management himself if he wants, but you shouldn't take a position either way. Stay in your lane, even if it means a member is angry that the union can't help them in this case.
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Sep 3, 2023 10:53
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Many unions seriously overwork their staff because there is always more work to be done. 60+ hour weeks aren't doable when you have a family to support, and there is always a huge number of activists willing to take your job. They are often unionized themselves, but they don't push back hard enough against their employer. When you have few other options for a career transition, selling your soul may be tempting.
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Oct 3, 2023 09:58
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UE is signing up a lot of student workers too, I went to their national convention a couple months ago and they had a half dozen new charters handed out, all but one were at colleges. I would be surprised if "electrical, radio and machine workers" made up a quarter of the total membership.
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Nov 16, 2023 06:56
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While the new contract has some big gains, it doesn't regain all the concessions that were given back in 2008, especially regarding retirement benefits. Autoworkers remember that back in the 70s and 80s, the people doing their jobs could afford to buy a house and provide for their family with a single income while being on a secure path to retirement. People were hoping for fundamental change, not incremental improvement. There are limits to what can be done in the context of labor negotiations, the real enemy isn't your boss or the company you work for, it's global capitalism.
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Nov 16, 2023 20:54
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Most people at Starbucks don't stay more than four years, and they are able to unionize. It takes education and effort to constantly develop new leadership, but it's far from impossible.
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Mar 6, 2024 06:54
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Great first step, now the real work begins. The time to celebrate is when the first contract is ratified, hopefully they hit the ground running on Monday and start preparing both to bargain and to force the employer to bargain.
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Apr 21, 2024 00:16
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 18:25 |
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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." (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Apr 21, 2024 03:19
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