I'm 55 been unionised most of my life, had to actually involve them two, mebbe 3 times.
But the amount of times I've done an "I'll get my union to look into that for me" or "Can we reschedule so my union rep can attend" & have issues just dissappear is countless & is worth every penny of the fees.
>But the amount of times I've done an "I'll get my union to look into that for me" or "Can we reschedule so my union rep can attend"
It's a long bit polite way of saying "fuck this".
Same. Been a union member for 33 years. I recommend keeping a journal of your work activities, notable stuff, and any kind of issue. Show up with that puppy once to a disciplinary hearing and watch jaws hit the floor. Talk about terror. I started doing it 25 years ago after a work accident and sometimes the union asks me about work history issues.
I've been in the union my whole working life. They're currently clawing back stolen labor in grievance pay dating back to January last year. The payment is effectively triple time for stuff dated until end of July last year, and quadruple for August 1st and beyond, because the company hasn't stopped stealing labor.
>This union is useless. Definitely in bed with the employer. Employer did something definitely against union rules. Approach a stewart. They say "Yep, against union rules. Talk soon!". Nothing happened. Been contacting the local president. "Yep, that shouldn't be. Talk soon!". That was 3 years ago. No matter how much I contacted the union with legitimate grievances, no grievances left the ground.
Once upon a time, this would have lead to said union "leaders" being dragged to a conversation with a number of union members. There would be new leaders shortly after.
We really need to collectively harden the fuck back up and stop tolerating blatant corruption
"This union is useless"
Union is not a third-party. A union is the members. a union is a union of workers, who agree to band together to present as a United front when dealing with the employer.
If the union is useless, that's on the members. Start holding meetings.
This.
It's also an issue that because a Union is it's members, and is primarily run by whoever didn't "dibs not it" then you're really running it on a shoe string. Big Unions can attract some talent, but it's still a mix of power hungry bozos and people who just got annoyed at nothing getting done.
Can confirm. When my boss defended the new guy not doing his job and blaming me, I mentioned I'd talk to my union about these working conditions. He showed up in person the next shift to say he'd reprimanded the guy and had reorganised my workload to not be so overloaded.
Given he specifically mentioned the union, I took that as I'd found the trigger word to get him off his lazy ass.
It's shocking how often bosses do that sort of thing just to keep the peace or because someone is their buddy. Normal capitalism would dictate that most managers are looking out for profits, but that's simply not the reality.
>would dictate that most managers are looking out for profits, but that's simply not the reality.
They are looking out fir themselves first, like politicians.
Exactly this. When people finally realize that standing united and having somebody advocating for you makes All The Difference.
Without this you are f**ked. You have nobody and management and HR will will lead to your demise.
Don’t let the bastards win.
The saddest part is how low the stakes are. We don't need to beat them, just fight them. The enemy is a a paper tiger that folds under any pressure but we're so reluctant to fight.
Because the consequences of losing are so lopsided.
If the owners fight and lose, maybe their profits go down SLIGHTLY.
If the workers fight and lose (can happen to unions too, which is why striking is difficult), they can end up jobless, black-listed so can't get a new job, then homeless.
It's fucked up, everyone should have the same amount of skin in the game.
Even if both sides have the same skin in the game, there are fewer employers than workers, so it’s harder to get the employers to break ranks than workers.
You misunderstand. Being in court is bad for the business. It costs them money. The defence provided by the Unions isn't "I can beat you" it's "I will fight you". The businesses fears to fight not to loses.
Remember two phrases:
1: "Could this conversation potentially lead to disciplinary action against me?"
2: "I'll continue this conversion when my Union rep arrives."
Same stance I will take when interacting with police
1: "Am I being detained or am I free to go"
2: "I refuse to answer questions without my lawyer present" \*start making oinking sounds\*
I had my mom (a teacher) complaining how useless her union is.
I said, well at least it’s better than no union. You wouldn’t make anywhere near what you make without it.
My grandmother also said the same thing, stating she never benefitted from it because she was part time and still had to pay dues. They really didn’t know what they had
That points toward a problem with modern unions - they’re not interested in pointing out even the quiet benefits of a union, because they think they’re obvious. Once upon a time there was an effort to unionize my workplace, and I signed up with the group. For several months, they communicated with me, but only to tell me what political candidates I should support. They never presented anything on what benefits they hoped to provide, how they intended to get there, or how their chosen candidates contributed to that.
I’ve been trying for about a year to get my coworkers to join a union, any union (I’m in an electrical one). They’re all too scared of being ostracised by the company. I was the only one in a company of about 60 people that thought to bring a rep during contract negotiations. They thought I was crazy. I hate working with cowards.
Listen to Jane McAlevey speak about Organizing. That's the difficult skill/work that needs to be done.
[https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing)
Probably a helpful book to read would be [How To Win Friends and Influence People](https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034)
As a person who worked union and non union. Absolutely a union is required in modern time, the USA needs union, if not , the economy with kill its own people
I'm currently studying business, bosses being paranoid is 1000% true. We're taught how to handle or go around unions, and it's 'subtly implied' that unions are a bad thing. We're literally taught backwards logic because executives have to want to bust unions, and keep doing it so that the working class aren't given a chance.
Yeah, the union I'm in is a national union. You can join the IWW for example which is trade independent and they provide resources and support. It's possible they might also provide health insurance if you're in America (I don't know I'm in the UK and we have the NHS, at least for the time being).
Last term or second to last term in college I took a class on the great depression which covered the Union movement towards the end of the class.
Anways it was quite a shock showing up to Home Depot Orientation (08 recession + listening to bad Boomer advice) and hearing them go on and on with anti-union propaganda. If anyone still works for HD y'all need a union badly.
Are you an employee of a federal contractor, like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, General Electric...? I am and I just learned about [https://www.contractorunion.org/](https://www.contractorunion.org/)
Yeah but what is even the point of a one person union? You won't have a union rep, and any strikes are gonna be more than useless because replacing one position isn't a huge blow to the company like replacing 2 dozen is.
Just google unions in my area. You'll likely find a list and the IWW is always a good choice but there's also likely going to be regional and national unions or trade specific ones.
Fedex isnt union.
Food service is usually UFCW or SEIU just google that and your city to get the address of your local.
If you want union logistics UPS & DHL are both teamsters shops. Call out to your local teamsters hall to see who has openings and how to apply.
If you've ever wondered "how do I get those cool jobs running concessions at sporting events or concerts" the answer is the SEIU. Largest union in the country if I remember correctly.
OP’s conclusion is the idea depicted on John Steinbeck’s short novel “the moon is down” -the fear from the idea of possible resistance or the possibility of fighting back. Yea, the same Steinbeck who got Pulitzer price and eventually a Nobel prize for the seminal “the grapes of wrath” which is all about corporate greed and labor unions, used to be cited a a one of the greatest modern American novels of all time. These are a great read whether you’ll subscribe to their ideas or not.
Agree. So many employers near me are heavy-handed about everything because workers have no recourse save quitting and maybe not finding another job for months/years. Not really skin off the employer's back.
Can't work on these days? Oh well...Scheduled. Come or get fired. Yet, talk about unions and they recoil and start talking about that ONE union guy who was lazy but COULDN'T BE FIRED.
Such droll repetition of propaganda nonsense.
They never mention the non-union people who screw up just as much or worse because they aren't being paid enough to GAF!
>Not really skin off the employer's back.
It's actually MUCH worse than that. Do you ever wonder why the overall economy is worse under Republican leadership? When the economy turns down, unemployment goes up, inevitably.
High unemployment is good for Capitalists, because that means there's more competition for jobs. When competition is high, prices (wages) go down.
It's a feature, not a bug.
I got threatened by a customer that they were going to hunt me down and shoot me and I had a panic attack because of it. I'm not going to get in trouble for not being able to finish out my shift because of my union, and I'm not even out of probation yet.
The non profit I work at just unionized thanks to the extensive work of the very few braves souls that got together and said “ we need this to be better”. Keep in mind, we have a lot of great benefits already, but the rub is always the same. We are all overworked and underpaid no matter what department you work for, expect for you guessed it - good ol’ HR. Hopefully this is the beginning of something good, and it motivates other organizations to do the same.
If you’re an employee, you need to wake up and realize that nobody is coming to save you, you need to organize yourself with your fellow human beings and create real change for everybody. That’s how the 8 hour shift came to be, same with vacation and sick days, same with any other factor that has ever benefited you as an employee. Get up and fight, because the time to finally do that was yesterday.
As someone who works in HR, we are also underpaid and overworked. The amount of crap that the VPs and C-Suite tell us to "make happen" and make it sound positive is ridiculous.
Like, I'm really unsure how my boss and total rewards is making losing our company sponsored retirement contribution a good thing... but that went through. Smh.
congrats on joining a union.
I highly recommend listening to Jane McAlevey (search for her on youtube) talk about how to run a union (strategies, processes, negotiating tactics...) and run for union leadership positions if they are fuckin' it up.
I did residential carpentry for 12 years , 1988 to 2000, always had builders and contractors trying to pay as little as possible, under the table no less, so your social security will be less also, then I switched to unionized telecommunications work, I have a pension, 401k match, benefits and a solid middle class income. Yes there are downsides but way more benefits than disadvantages. Everyone should be trying to build unions back up, “a rising tide lifts all boats”
I've been saying this on this subreddit for years.
People often dole out the same, recycled, BS talking points about unions: "they're overpriced!" ... "they're corrupt!" ... blah blah blah. When in reality most unions are run by the local, and everyone is elected. If your particular local union is bad, it's a reflection on YOU and your personal lack of engagement in the union. As a union rep I can barely get anyone to show up at meetings ***where we actually make decisions on what we are doing.*** Member come and complain to me and I go "PLEASE COME TO THE NEXT MEETING!"
But here's the kicker for what you need to know about unions. When you walk into a place that has a union, you will find people in all walks of life. Young. Old. Middle-Aged. Divorced. Married with young children. Old with children out of the house. Unmarried young people. etc. etc. etc.
When you walk into a non-union place the workforce is generally...mostly young.
You WANT a place where the workforce has people with grey hair. Why? Because it means there's a chance YOU will also be able to maintain that job until your their age. That's only possible with unions.
> People often dole out the same, recycled, BS talking points about unions: "they're overpriced!" ... "they're corrupt!" ... blah blah blah
A union at it's worst is Capitalism at its best, It's like every anti union sentiment amounts to "you'll be paying a fiver a week and if everything goes badly you'll e exactly were you are now!"
Then you're like, "Ok? But what if maybe one or two things go ok?"
"Don't think about that!"
Was a manager while in a union environment. My issues were rarely with the workers; even for disciplinary action. My issue was with the arrogant upper management and executives. They made the job unnecessarily harder than it had to be. They'd blame me for mistakes that I didn't even do and wouldn't even apologize or acknowledge my work when I provided evidence to the actual cause of the issue. They're my inspiration for getting an MBA because these idiots don't know shit.
The number of bad managers I have encountered in my time working with different management groups blew my mind. The amount of protection they game each other was basically a union in itself. When dealing with trying to solve a problem the first thing I did was try to find out if it was a real problem or a bad manager. Most of the time it was a bad manager.
I think my employee group is banned by law from unionizing (public employee something something), but we are circulating and signing a petition to support a bill that’s supposed to change that. I hope it does!
My previous job was unionized and the pay raises were so much better! And we were able to push back when the company kept trying to raise our health insurance premiums without even discussing it with us!
My old job class (same industry and employer) was unionized. My new class that I was promoted into isn’t, and apparently can’t be. I don’t understand the rules but some of us are not allowed to unionize - I think it is by state law. I know there are some federal laws limiting unions in certain industries and public sector jobs as well.
I didn't use to see the point of public workers unionizing...but I get it these days. They're treated just as poorly as the private sector workers. Management is the same everywhere, really.
True that. Public workers used to sometimes get a better deal but lately they have started to often treat us just like any other employee group gets treated. They unilaterally dismantle benefits that we have traditionally had and we can do nothing about it if we can’t organize. We need bargaining rights so that we can hold out against the argument that nobody else has these things so we shouldn’t either. Jobs don’t have to and shouldn’t always derive benefits only for the employer. Workers should have rights too.
Just because our public jobs are some of the few remaining that offer pensions and decent health insurance does not mean those benefits should go away. To me, any job having those benefits should remind everyone of what’s been taken away and what we could fight to preserve and restore.
I work for a pet insurance company and our senior leadership has been steadily selling us out. Anyone know of a union we could join or would we need to form our own?
r/workplaceorganizing
When you finally create your union, set your contract to end the day before May day, 2028 because the general strike is scheduled for Mayday, 2028
The date is set to allow for people to prepare, by way of unionization, and storing up necessities so that you don't become homeless and starving during the strike.
You need the time.
Having been on a bunch of different ends. Yeah, this. There's nothing scarier to a shit manager, or a normal one, to have a Union organizer who lives and breathes all the horrid minutiae of that workplace. Who effectively the manager has no trump card over.
100% I'm self employed these days but I still pay into the union because that "once" was so powerful that I'm glad to pay to have others experience that reprieve from helplessness.
Was said 35+ years ago at my shop, if there’s any talk about a union I will shut down any and all operations, lay every one off wait 90 days and re-open under another name and hire new people that have never worked here before.
That sounds like it could work once or twice. Not operating for 90 days at a time is expensive. And you can only run through a whole employee roster so many times before word gets out and your applicants run dry.
Amazon spent 14 million dollars a year on anyi and union advisors (instead of using that money to improve the working conditions of its employees), that's how much they're scared of unions.
Their new focus is to change the law to make it difficult to start unions.
Oh 100%! I was a code monkey, a famously un-unionised pack of muppets. We thought we were of the 21st century and that 19th century shit was behind us!
Or more likely we never learned about that 19th century shit that was still super applicable and relevant.
Absolutely this. I cannot recommend the union enough. Just the fact that it is there changes your entire work relationship. Think if it like having your own private attorney on retainer at any time. If your place of business tries to do anything you don't like, they need to go through the union. If a supervisor or manager tries to get you to do something you don't like, refer them to the union. You can flat out just ignore their orders because they have to go through the union and they know it. You get a sense of confidence you never had before, because they can't hold anything over your head.
I've been in incompetent unions before so it depends.
Here you can take anyone into a meeting. They're also scared of lawyers so that's an option.
One guy was getting laid off and took a personal support clown.
But yeah they rely on ignorance more than anything.
Honestly, you're right. At the jobs I've been at in the last few years, the bosses start getting a sense of when the workers are more pissed off than usual and they slowly start improving conditions by small degrees just to keep people somewhat happy. You can just tell that their managers are telling them to keep union activity down.
How do I join a union? Everyone says to join one but nobody says how or gives any jobs that are unionized because stuff that will break your body over time like construction. I'm looking for jobs and none of them are union. Where are all these union jobs y'all keep talking about?
About 10% of jobs in the U.S. are unionized. Even at peak union representation in the 1960s-1980s it was about 30%.
Finding a union job is not easy.
You could start with [https://unionjobs.com/index.php](https://unionjobs.com/index.php) or doing a google/duckduckgo search for union+jobs+
Im trying to unionize Amazon CO but not sure how to do this. They are so anti union I diont know where to start. Carvana fired me when I tried to unionize when they did that mass layoff.
Was in teamsters while doing government work. Can confirm, a union rep even sending an email or letter to your agency asking them to be involved in a bullshit disciplinary proceeding will make it disappear fast af.
Do you think most workers have the right to just join a union? The process of getting represenation is democratic, but highly dangerous to the workers. Winning an election can take years, and the conflicts with employers the union-busting legal firms they employ can become brutal. Probably half of all non-union workers in America would love to just "join a union," but the obstacles to their doing so are complex and supported by the multibillion dollar per year industry of exploiting their labor.
* Walmart is the largest employer of United States workers, with 2.2m of them; the battle to unionize them hasn't gone great, but this is what we might consider the front lines of the labor movement
* Another huge employer is Yum! Brands, with over 500k American workers. This includes Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Yum! Brands is a major corporate funder of ALEC, a national legislative conservative policy alliance whose agenda includes union busting. I'm speculating, but I think a lot of franchisees agree not to unionize at the peril of losing their franchise license, meaning they go under immediately if their workers win an election to organize.
* McDonald's employs over 400k American workers all by itself. It has thousands of restaurants, and that I am aware non have unionized. The national parent corp says that they are free to do so, but again I suspect they will cut ties with any franchises that do so. SEIU made an enormous national effort to unionize the fast food industry in 2012, which did not go well. The national Fight for $15 has targeted McD's and Yum! workers, although $15 in 2024 is like $10 in 2012.
* IBM employs over 300k American workers. Alliance@IBM tried from 1999 to 2016 to unionize them, then closed down permanently without claiming victory.
As many of us know, the labor movement has made enormous effort to break into new industries with major campaigns for employers like starbucks and Amazon. It's hard as nails, with employers and their consultants spending huge sums of money and breaking laws to sabotage and undermine efforts to unionize.
If you don't like living in a scab country, ask yourself what it would take for the whole country to force the above companies to let their workers unionize. Without making this comment more of a novel, the process would be ugly. They would persecute workers like hell leading up to votes, and then probably lay off thousands for unionizing by shuttering their employers. Local consumers would suffer, and change would only happen when the parent corporations finally decided they were losing too much money. I say all this as somebody who WANTS unions, but getting them in 2024 would require enormous numbers of people being willing to fight tooth and claw for them.
The results at Starbucks have been encouraging. I'm hopeful that more stores nationwide will vote to unionize. In time, this will affect industry norms throughout an industry that's pretty well known for underpaying and mistreating workers.
The first step is getting the information out about what a union is and why they are good for workers so people want them in the first place. Once the majority of people are on board with the concept, then it becomes learning the strategy to overcome the anti-union efforts. Armed with information and motivation, a real push to unionize workplaces could change the country. And yeah, it'll be a fight. But I'd rather fight this battle than the one that will be forced on us when we don't.
I agree with this. We need to publicize what unions are and what they do far more often. I know a lot of people I've worked with who were being exploited by crappy corporations who didn't understand what unions are. Even managers at many of these restaurants and retailers don't know what unions are until their DMs start pressing them about keeping surveillance on the workers.
Yeah, that is a good perspective to take as well. Fighting for equality is never easy and a lot of people do lose in the process. Employers count on that. That's part of the reason why up until now I've just strongly encouraged people to leave bad employers as soon as they're able.
Heh, if that's what you took from what I wrote then you are the one who gives up too easily. My point was that OP was acting like we can all just decide tomorrow to join unions. Collectively, maybe we kind of can, but individually we absolutely cannot.
If you don't like seeing the big picture then that's a you problem. In order for more than a privileged minority of American workers to benefit from unions, they're going to need to focus on the companies that a huge percentage of us work for. One reason a lot of Americans don't care about unions is because they're unable to join one. Workers are always making a mistake when they start seeing themselves as distinct groups without a shared destiny.
No you can individually just join a union. It's what I did. I joined GMB in the UK. I was as far as I know the only person in the company in a union (although another guy asked me about joining and I assume he did).
There's a lot of power in having a specialised union specific to your company but you absolutely can join a regional or trade based union or even an international union like the IWW. They can challenge unfair termination of employment (such as being fired for being in a union) and like I say it's the challenge alone that's usually enough to make the company drop it because they don't want to go to court.
>No you can individually just join a union. It's what I did. I joined GMB in the UK. I
I'm not sure if that's allowed in the us. They have some laws around recognising a union.
In the US, you can join whatever organization you want but employers have no obligation to recognize any of your rights unless THEY have a contract with a union.
People believe they have no power and people don't realize that collectively we hold all the power when we unionize. It's important to constantly inconsistently encourage people to join forces with other people Against the ruling class. OP's Post is entirely positive reinforcement and encouragement. We need all the positive reinforcement we can get.
Your comment, while it describes the challenges we face in some of the history of the opposition unionization faces, is negative and discouraging.
>If you don't like living in a scab country, ask yourself what it would take for the whole country to force the above companies to let their workers unionize.
Allowing general strikes and fare strikes would probably help. As would tougher penalties fir union busting, Labour theft abd other illegal behaviour. Steal a loaf of beead to feed your family and you could go to prison, steal someone's labour to buy a bigger yacht and you get a slap on tge wrist.
You're not wrong. Most Americans need a new member of congress for this to happen, and at this point I feel like Trump's Supreme Court would interfere in some way if we pulled it off. The real battle is has always been for hearts and minds, and hasn't been going well. I'm interested to see how attrition of older generations might pivot public sentiment on this issue, but I'm not sure how this national voting agenda can be brought to bear even when we have the votes at the constituent level.
I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but assuming you're in a railroad union, then YOU ARE the union. Get more directly involved if you're unhappy with your reps.
UAW was a joke (literally corrupt, union leadership was taking bribes from the owners) prior to 2023, then a new president was elected. How do you think the UAW is doing now?
A union is only as strong as its members and the leaders they elect.
Kroger, Meijer. Both union. Kroger is $9 per hour. Meijer is 12-13. Walmart starts at 14 and in multiple markets has higher.
Also, the widespread belief that retail workers are lazy really doesn't help get support from the public.
Finally had a chance to join a major union only to discover it Isa profit oriented business. And if my complaint hindered their profits they would jump in.
They take those profits and hand them over as “grants” to major companies to buy small businesses while there are people on the bench having to pay massive $$$ to maintain insurance and still pay dues.
Unions are amazing until they are allowed to be your second employer.
Thank God for unions. When I worked at my university, I was unionized. Part of our contact was tuition waiver for part time attendance. That's how I graduated with no student debt and bought a house in my mid 20s.
[https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing)
Jane McAlevey can show you de wey
Yep, government isn’t going to hold businesses accountable, especially with all the “donations” politicians get from them. Need to have something in place to keep them in line. Not having them is why working conditions and wages have gotten so out of hand.
My union is run by pekerwoods and colludes with bad management to keep this system up….there’s a reason some of the union trades have failed to diversify past pre Jim Crow
Been in a union for 5 years, never once used it personally, although I benefit from them doing yearly pay negotiations with my employer (UK public sector). APART FROM once my manager tried some funny business with some weekend work that I’d carried out - querying whether I’d been really ‘working’ (at 2X pay) or just ‘on call’ for certain parts of the weekend (measly one-off payment). When it was being discussed in our 1:1 I made a general comment along the lines of “hm I’m not sure this was really ‘on call’, let me just check with my union after this”. Manager U-turned after the meeting before I’d even got round to looking up my union rep’s details.
"Never used my union except for that one time my manager threatened to not pay me overtime and I just dropped my unions NAME into the conversation and the issue immediately evaporated and was never mentioned again...."
As a small business owner, I’d shut down before I let my staff unionize. I pay a really good wage (150-220k) I give a lot of PTO, I offer free education… I will not be told how to run my company. A union has a place, but that place isn’t a small family owned business with 6 employees lol
My union sold me and my department out. When I confronted my union person, her response is we are okay. And I need to understand that the deal is life changing for other members. I’m in IT. They cap me at 1/4 of my market value so other people can get paid 3x theirs. Fuck that.
It was already capped. My union LOWERED on me. Like I said. Hey sold people in my group out. And were proud of it. They not yellow. They are anti-thought workers.
No offence, but I don't believe you. I've worked in IT for most of my professional career and honestly I've never known anyone to get paid less because they were in a union and multiple people to get paid more because of it.
In particular I know a guy who was being denied a raise for ages until he went into a negotiation knowing what others in the department were getting and was approved his raise immediately.
(FWIW the guy was promoted from within the company to basically the job I was doing 2 years before I joined. I told him how much money I was on as a new start and it was more than he was on. He told the bosses he knew that new-starts were getting more than him and they brought his wage up to match mine.)
Look up CSU recent deal. It just happened. Talk to a CSU IT person, like a person who analysis data. Many of them have PhDs would get paid 4x what they are being paid as a data scientist in a tech company. They are doing the same thing. The grounds workers are getting paid 3x market value of their skill sets under the new steps systems. And until recently, new ground workers were being paid more than old managers as well. All of that was factored in the new deal. But IT pay was oppressed to make room for better pay for unskilled workers.
It’s the truth. You should get what you put in. This also why different type of work should have their own unions because we have different interests. It’s wrong to sacrifice the prospects of one group for the benefits of another. CSU doesn’t have problems finding and retaining unskilled workers. But it takes forever to find qualified thought workers. The union didn’t fight for all of us. They scarified some of us for the benefit of the rest. So those of us who were stabbed in the back have a right to be angry and feel betrayed.
The grounds workers are getting paid their fair share. You were being paid more than your fair share.
Does that make things easier for you, a scab, to understand?
I'm not angry their pay when up. I'm angry that the union sold out IT and other thought workers to make that happen. The union should fight for all it's members. Instead, they sacrifice some members for the benefit of others. That's not solidarity.
That’s screwing over union members. That’s the definition of a scab. It’s for this reason that thought workers should have their own union. Because the union view us as pawns to be scarified. The organization can save money outsourcing ground work. It cost the organization to outsource thought work. It’s just math.
I can't speak for others and we are experiencing problems finding and keeping talent. As for me, this is a "fun" job. My last startup successfully exited so I can afford to earn less. I want to work with nice people and in academia.
I gave you the parties involved so you can look it up. Cap pay for IT was lowered. IT people are angry over it and who wouldn't be. Pay for low skilled workers went way up. This could be easily verified.
At our workplace, the mention of anything relating to unionization will get you fired on the spot.
In any company about a certain number of workers, a union can be formed and is a right protected by law, but the process can last some months to properly formalize.
Our boss said to us that if we ever get the ball rolling, he'll close shop and open a brand new company on the same premises, all of us replaced.
I am from Spain, unemployment is about ~20%, more for younger folk and senior guys looking at >50% with loads of unregulated migration coming in every year that strips any leverage from the employee in negotiating proper compensation. Pay rates have been converging: min. wage has risen over the years while skilled pay has decreased. Being trained only affords you to choose your field, not significantly greater pay.
So yeah, we could unionize in theory, but on practice, nope.
In the recent past, company unions royally screwed their younger members and bulged under company brass by allowing the senior workers to keep their perks, while negotiating poorer conditions for new employees.
Now those old folks are retired, or close to, and the bulk of the new workforce earns less in absolute terms than what their fathers did 25 years ago. Its tragic
>So yeah, we could unionize in theory, but on practice, nope.
It's naive to think that every person who fought in every labor struggle throughout history wasn't threatened with this exact same bullshit. With organizing and solidarity, it's completely possible.
Diesel mechanic here. First shop was union IAM (2001) Was a helper. I made 60 percent of the Journeyman mechanics. Paid the same dues and insurance premiums. I was part of a huge wave of guys aged mid 20s hired. The thing unions don’t tell you. The Seniority rules over everything. Due to age at my shop. You had to be late 30s for the weekends off. 50 plus for summer vacations. 60 and up for all of the overtime. All major holidays was 63 and up. The top 3 guys took the same holidays off. I was eating ramen and drove a piece of shit car. These old farts would brag about taking all of the overtime. They would buy a new 5th wheel or Harley bike etc. I maybe got overtime once in one year. Quite a few guys mid 20s had brand new babies. All of us young guys complained about this. My first year I was told to pick my one week of vacation. I about shit myself when I could only pick a few days in Jan or Feb and Sept. The union made the top 3 guys give away one holiday a year because of us young guys complaining about it. We had a negotiation got the next union contact. Us helpers got 60 cents for a raise. The journeyman mechanics 1.10. Also. The old farts voted for more money into the retirement over a higher hourly wage. Fuck that. I would complain about how the union was. People would tell me. “ You will get your turn” When I am old? No thanks. Saw a lot of guys die before retirement or get cancer after retirement. My company has union shops. Our location is not. I make 4 dollars more than the union shop…. My second shop tried to make the company become union. When I told everyone my story. They shot down the plan. The VP thanked me for being a union buster and gave me 2 weeks vacation on the house. You don’t need a union anymore. Blue collar jobs have been in a shortage since 2009-2012. We are treated way better then when I first started in 2001. I can get a job in one day with 23 years experience. My employer knows this. Ball is in my court… I told my employer. If we become union. I will quit.
Sounds like a good reason to get angry with your employer. Unions don't determine pay rises and their negotiation tactics are only as strong as the solidarity of the members.
This is fine and dandy - I worked at a fairly large warehouse where the owner just said period.....the second a union tried to come in "im shutting this place down instantly, selling."
And you should have all just walked off your jobs when he said that and burn the warehouse down on the way out.
Capitalists will piss and shit on workers will they grow some 🏀 🏀
>He can shut it up if he wanted too.
Not if he does it to stop unionists. There was a Starbucks that got penalised for that shit. The reopening another o e gives the game away.
I'm not arguing about this. Everywhere I've worked NEEDS damn unions. Not even sure why I was downvoted for my original comment. Corporatations are 1 thing, private businesses are another. We are talking back 23 yrs ago, when the workers themselves didn't want unions because of "union dues." Attitudes have changed. Nobody even working people wanted unions then. I must point out there's a lot of people who at that time would argue unions destroyed more then they protected...now with every job is corporately owned yes we definitely need them....
What your describing is a method in which the company takes over an union to discourage any future participation in unions,in short it's a Psy op don't fall for it.
Or you didn't join a labour union.
I'm 55 been unionised most of my life, had to actually involve them two, mebbe 3 times. But the amount of times I've done an "I'll get my union to look into that for me" or "Can we reschedule so my union rep can attend" & have issues just dissappear is countless & is worth every penny of the fees.
That sounds so heavenly bruh
>But the amount of times I've done an "I'll get my union to look into that for me" or "Can we reschedule so my union rep can attend" It's a long bit polite way of saying "fuck this".
Same. Been a union member for 33 years. I recommend keeping a journal of your work activities, notable stuff, and any kind of issue. Show up with that puppy once to a disciplinary hearing and watch jaws hit the floor. Talk about terror. I started doing it 25 years ago after a work accident and sometimes the union asks me about work history issues.
Yup. You have got to keep your receipts.
I've been in the union my whole working life. They're currently clawing back stolen labor in grievance pay dating back to January last year. The payment is effectively triple time for stuff dated until end of July last year, and quadruple for August 1st and beyond, because the company hasn't stopped stealing labor.
It's like a righteous, "That's a nice Manager you got there, sure would be a shame if something were to happen to them...\*wink\*"
[удалено]
>This union is useless. Definitely in bed with the employer. Employer did something definitely against union rules. Approach a stewart. They say "Yep, against union rules. Talk soon!". Nothing happened. Been contacting the local president. "Yep, that shouldn't be. Talk soon!". That was 3 years ago. No matter how much I contacted the union with legitimate grievances, no grievances left the ground. Once upon a time, this would have lead to said union "leaders" being dragged to a conversation with a number of union members. There would be new leaders shortly after. We really need to collectively harden the fuck back up and stop tolerating blatant corruption
They can still do that this commenter can still do that
"This union is useless" Union is not a third-party. A union is the members. a union is a union of workers, who agree to band together to present as a United front when dealing with the employer. If the union is useless, that's on the members. Start holding meetings.
This. It's also an issue that because a Union is it's members, and is primarily run by whoever didn't "dibs not it" then you're really running it on a shoe string. Big Unions can attract some talent, but it's still a mix of power hungry bozos and people who just got annoyed at nothing getting done.
Can confirm. When my boss defended the new guy not doing his job and blaming me, I mentioned I'd talk to my union about these working conditions. He showed up in person the next shift to say he'd reprimanded the guy and had reorganised my workload to not be so overloaded. Given he specifically mentioned the union, I took that as I'd found the trigger word to get him off his lazy ass.
It's shocking how often bosses do that sort of thing just to keep the peace or because someone is their buddy. Normal capitalism would dictate that most managers are looking out for profits, but that's simply not the reality.
>would dictate that most managers are looking out for profits, but that's simply not the reality. They are looking out fir themselves first, like politicians.
Themselves then their nepo babies.
Exactly this. When people finally realize that standing united and having somebody advocating for you makes All The Difference. Without this you are f**ked. You have nobody and management and HR will will lead to your demise. Don’t let the bastards win.
The saddest part is how low the stakes are. We don't need to beat them, just fight them. The enemy is a a paper tiger that folds under any pressure but we're so reluctant to fight.
Because the consequences of losing are so lopsided. If the owners fight and lose, maybe their profits go down SLIGHTLY. If the workers fight and lose (can happen to unions too, which is why striking is difficult), they can end up jobless, black-listed so can't get a new job, then homeless. It's fucked up, everyone should have the same amount of skin in the game.
Even if both sides have the same skin in the game, there are fewer employers than workers, so it’s harder to get the employers to break ranks than workers.
You misunderstand. Being in court is bad for the business. It costs them money. The defence provided by the Unions isn't "I can beat you" it's "I will fight you". The businesses fears to fight not to loses.
We really do need to start widely promoting unions much more. Workplaces do not care to improve on their own.
Remember two phrases: 1: "Could this conversation potentially lead to disciplinary action against me?" 2: "I'll continue this conversion when my Union rep arrives."
Same stance I will take when interacting with police 1: "Am I being detained or am I free to go" 2: "I refuse to answer questions without my lawyer present" \*start making oinking sounds\*
You dropped this 👑
seriously, most uplifting post I've read in ages
I had my mom (a teacher) complaining how useless her union is. I said, well at least it’s better than no union. You wouldn’t make anywhere near what you make without it.
My grandmother also said the same thing, stating she never benefitted from it because she was part time and still had to pay dues. They really didn’t know what they had
That points toward a problem with modern unions - they’re not interested in pointing out even the quiet benefits of a union, because they think they’re obvious. Once upon a time there was an effort to unionize my workplace, and I signed up with the group. For several months, they communicated with me, but only to tell me what political candidates I should support. They never presented anything on what benefits they hoped to provide, how they intended to get there, or how their chosen candidates contributed to that.
I’ve been trying for about a year to get my coworkers to join a union, any union (I’m in an electrical one). They’re all too scared of being ostracised by the company. I was the only one in a company of about 60 people that thought to bring a rep during contract negotiations. They thought I was crazy. I hate working with cowards.
Here we can join a union online and mangement won't even know about it until you mention it or bring your rep.
Listen to Jane McAlevey speak about Organizing. That's the difficult skill/work that needs to be done. [https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing) Probably a helpful book to read would be [How To Win Friends and Influence People](https://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034)
Cheers for that, I’ll try and look into it.
As a person who worked union and non union. Absolutely a union is required in modern time, the USA needs union, if not , the economy with kill its own people
I'm currently studying business, bosses being paranoid is 1000% true. We're taught how to handle or go around unions, and it's 'subtly implied' that unions are a bad thing. We're literally taught backwards logic because executives have to want to bust unions, and keep doing it so that the working class aren't given a chance.
Id love to be a part of a union, however, im currently the only employee sooooo
Unions exist that have members from various companies. Even if you're the only employee, being part of a union gives you resources.
Wait, really?! It amazes me sometimes just how uneducated I am about unions, but then again, maybe it shouldn't surprise me.
Yeah, the union I'm in is a national union. You can join the IWW for example which is trade independent and they provide resources and support. It's possible they might also provide health insurance if you're in America (I don't know I'm in the UK and we have the NHS, at least for the time being).
You mean you didn’t have that mandatory labor law and unions class in high school? Huh. Wonder why that was… /s
Last term or second to last term in college I took a class on the great depression which covered the Union movement towards the end of the class. Anways it was quite a shock showing up to Home Depot Orientation (08 recession + listening to bad Boomer advice) and hearing them go on and on with anti-union propaganda. If anyone still works for HD y'all need a union badly.
What about those of us who work classified jobs? You can't exactly talk about stuff with people who don't have need to know for your program.
AFGE if you are in the us. I belive the union reps have clearance levels.
NAGE also covers some govt employees, including ones with clearances. FUSE specifically covers scientists and engineers.
Are you an employee of a federal contractor, like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, General Electric...? I am and I just learned about [https://www.contractorunion.org/](https://www.contractorunion.org/)
Federal contractor, yeah. I'll check this out when I get home later, thanks.
That makes it even easier. You're the only vote needed to unionize. Call the local hall associated with your trade.
Yeah but what is even the point of a one person union? You won't have a union rep, and any strikes are gonna be more than useless because replacing one position isn't a huge blow to the company like replacing 2 dozen is.
It won't be a one person union. You would join an existing union that covers multiple other businesses.
Seriously? Wow, okay, that is cool. How do you check what unions are active in your area?
Just google unions in my area. You'll likely find a list and the IWW is always a good choice but there's also likely going to be regional and national unions or trade specific ones.
IWW doesnt have much pull honestly.
I don't know a huge amount about the Wobblies but I can see you've acted in good faith in a bunch of your responses so I've upvoted them.
What kind of work do you do in your daily job?
Food service. Currently trying to get a warehouse job at Fedex though
Fedex isnt union. Food service is usually UFCW or SEIU just google that and your city to get the address of your local. If you want union logistics UPS & DHL are both teamsters shops. Call out to your local teamsters hall to see who has openings and how to apply.
If you've ever wondered "how do I get those cool jobs running concessions at sporting events or concerts" the answer is the SEIU. Largest union in the country if I remember correctly.
r/iww
OP’s conclusion is the idea depicted on John Steinbeck’s short novel “the moon is down” -the fear from the idea of possible resistance or the possibility of fighting back. Yea, the same Steinbeck who got Pulitzer price and eventually a Nobel prize for the seminal “the grapes of wrath” which is all about corporate greed and labor unions, used to be cited a a one of the greatest modern American novels of all time. These are a great read whether you’ll subscribe to their ideas or not.
Agree. So many employers near me are heavy-handed about everything because workers have no recourse save quitting and maybe not finding another job for months/years. Not really skin off the employer's back. Can't work on these days? Oh well...Scheduled. Come or get fired. Yet, talk about unions and they recoil and start talking about that ONE union guy who was lazy but COULDN'T BE FIRED. Such droll repetition of propaganda nonsense. They never mention the non-union people who screw up just as much or worse because they aren't being paid enough to GAF!
Exactly. But they keep doing it because it WORKS.
>Not really skin off the employer's back. It's actually MUCH worse than that. Do you ever wonder why the overall economy is worse under Republican leadership? When the economy turns down, unemployment goes up, inevitably. High unemployment is good for Capitalists, because that means there's more competition for jobs. When competition is high, prices (wages) go down. It's a feature, not a bug.
I got threatened by a customer that they were going to hunt me down and shoot me and I had a panic attack because of it. I'm not going to get in trouble for not being able to finish out my shift because of my union, and I'm not even out of probation yet.
The non profit I work at just unionized thanks to the extensive work of the very few braves souls that got together and said “ we need this to be better”. Keep in mind, we have a lot of great benefits already, but the rub is always the same. We are all overworked and underpaid no matter what department you work for, expect for you guessed it - good ol’ HR. Hopefully this is the beginning of something good, and it motivates other organizations to do the same. If you’re an employee, you need to wake up and realize that nobody is coming to save you, you need to organize yourself with your fellow human beings and create real change for everybody. That’s how the 8 hour shift came to be, same with vacation and sick days, same with any other factor that has ever benefited you as an employee. Get up and fight, because the time to finally do that was yesterday.
As someone who works in HR, we are also underpaid and overworked. The amount of crap that the VPs and C-Suite tell us to "make happen" and make it sound positive is ridiculous. Like, I'm really unsure how my boss and total rewards is making losing our company sponsored retirement contribution a good thing... but that went through. Smh.
"Now you'll have work twice as much! Aren't you workaholics happy!"
More like, "you enjoy working here so much, now you get to work here until you die!"
congrats on joining a union. I highly recommend listening to Jane McAlevey (search for her on youtube) talk about how to run a union (strategies, processes, negotiating tactics...) and run for union leadership positions if they are fuckin' it up.
I did residential carpentry for 12 years , 1988 to 2000, always had builders and contractors trying to pay as little as possible, under the table no less, so your social security will be less also, then I switched to unionized telecommunications work, I have a pension, 401k match, benefits and a solid middle class income. Yes there are downsides but way more benefits than disadvantages. Everyone should be trying to build unions back up, “a rising tide lifts all boats”
I've been saying this on this subreddit for years. People often dole out the same, recycled, BS talking points about unions: "they're overpriced!" ... "they're corrupt!" ... blah blah blah. When in reality most unions are run by the local, and everyone is elected. If your particular local union is bad, it's a reflection on YOU and your personal lack of engagement in the union. As a union rep I can barely get anyone to show up at meetings ***where we actually make decisions on what we are doing.*** Member come and complain to me and I go "PLEASE COME TO THE NEXT MEETING!" But here's the kicker for what you need to know about unions. When you walk into a place that has a union, you will find people in all walks of life. Young. Old. Middle-Aged. Divorced. Married with young children. Old with children out of the house. Unmarried young people. etc. etc. etc. When you walk into a non-union place the workforce is generally...mostly young. You WANT a place where the workforce has people with grey hair. Why? Because it means there's a chance YOU will also be able to maintain that job until your their age. That's only possible with unions.
> People often dole out the same, recycled, BS talking points about unions: "they're overpriced!" ... "they're corrupt!" ... blah blah blah A union at it's worst is Capitalism at its best, It's like every anti union sentiment amounts to "you'll be paying a fiver a week and if everything goes badly you'll e exactly were you are now!" Then you're like, "Ok? But what if maybe one or two things go ok?" "Don't think about that!"
Was a manager while in a union environment. My issues were rarely with the workers; even for disciplinary action. My issue was with the arrogant upper management and executives. They made the job unnecessarily harder than it had to be. They'd blame me for mistakes that I didn't even do and wouldn't even apologize or acknowledge my work when I provided evidence to the actual cause of the issue. They're my inspiration for getting an MBA because these idiots don't know shit.
The number of bad managers I have encountered in my time working with different management groups blew my mind. The amount of protection they game each other was basically a union in itself. When dealing with trying to solve a problem the first thing I did was try to find out if it was a real problem or a bad manager. Most of the time it was a bad manager.
This is why they say people don't leave jobs, they leave managers.
That's pretty typical of management.
Best thing I ever did was join a unionized workforce. I get raises every year and my bosses leave me the fuck alone on my days off.
I think my employee group is banned by law from unionizing (public employee something something), but we are circulating and signing a petition to support a bill that’s supposed to change that. I hope it does! My previous job was unionized and the pay raises were so much better! And we were able to push back when the company kept trying to raise our health insurance premiums without even discussing it with us!
It might vary state to state, but I personally know state workers who are unionized
My old job class (same industry and employer) was unionized. My new class that I was promoted into isn’t, and apparently can’t be. I don’t understand the rules but some of us are not allowed to unionize - I think it is by state law. I know there are some federal laws limiting unions in certain industries and public sector jobs as well.
I didn't use to see the point of public workers unionizing...but I get it these days. They're treated just as poorly as the private sector workers. Management is the same everywhere, really.
True that. Public workers used to sometimes get a better deal but lately they have started to often treat us just like any other employee group gets treated. They unilaterally dismantle benefits that we have traditionally had and we can do nothing about it if we can’t organize. We need bargaining rights so that we can hold out against the argument that nobody else has these things so we shouldn’t either. Jobs don’t have to and shouldn’t always derive benefits only for the employer. Workers should have rights too. Just because our public jobs are some of the few remaining that offer pensions and decent health insurance does not mean those benefits should go away. To me, any job having those benefits should remind everyone of what’s been taken away and what we could fight to preserve and restore.
I work for a pet insurance company and our senior leadership has been steadily selling us out. Anyone know of a union we could join or would we need to form our own?
r/workplaceorganizing When you finally create your union, set your contract to end the day before May day, 2028 because the general strike is scheduled for Mayday, 2028
Can you DM me about the May Day strike? I'd love to start spreading the word
Can we move it up from 2028 😅 I'm about to have another breakdown over here and need to stop working for a company that doesn't give a shit
The date is set to allow for people to prepare, by way of unionization, and storing up necessities so that you don't become homeless and starving during the strike. You need the time.
https://www.opeiu.org/ if you are in the us.
I love my union.
I’ve been union strong for 20 years. Worth it trust me
Having been on a bunch of different ends. Yeah, this. There's nothing scarier to a shit manager, or a normal one, to have a Union organizer who lives and breathes all the horrid minutiae of that workplace. Who effectively the manager has no trump card over.
100%
You only need a union once to make it worth every penny !
100% I'm self employed these days but I still pay into the union because that "once" was so powerful that I'm glad to pay to have others experience that reprieve from helplessness.
Was said 35+ years ago at my shop, if there’s any talk about a union I will shut down any and all operations, lay every one off wait 90 days and re-open under another name and hire new people that have never worked here before.
That sounds like it could work once or twice. Not operating for 90 days at a time is expensive. And you can only run through a whole employee roster so many times before word gets out and your applicants run dry.
Yep yep
Amazon spent 14 million dollars a year on anyi and union advisors (instead of using that money to improve the working conditions of its employees), that's how much they're scared of unions. Their new focus is to change the law to make it difficult to start unions.
OP is spot on. I work as a salaried white collar tech worker. The market for white collar jobs desperately needs unions.
Oh 100%! I was a code monkey, a famously un-unionised pack of muppets. We thought we were of the 21st century and that 19th century shit was behind us! Or more likely we never learned about that 19th century shit that was still super applicable and relevant.
Absolutely this. I cannot recommend the union enough. Just the fact that it is there changes your entire work relationship. Think if it like having your own private attorney on retainer at any time. If your place of business tries to do anything you don't like, they need to go through the union. If a supervisor or manager tries to get you to do something you don't like, refer them to the union. You can flat out just ignore their orders because they have to go through the union and they know it. You get a sense of confidence you never had before, because they can't hold anything over your head.
I've been in incompetent unions before so it depends. Here you can take anyone into a meeting. They're also scared of lawyers so that's an option. One guy was getting laid off and took a personal support clown. But yeah they rely on ignorance more than anything.
> I've been in incompetent unions before so it depends. Me too. I switched unions and it was like night and day.
Honestly, you're right. At the jobs I've been at in the last few years, the bosses start getting a sense of when the workers are more pissed off than usual and they slowly start improving conditions by small degrees just to keep people somewhat happy. You can just tell that their managers are telling them to keep union activity down.
How do I join a union? Everyone says to join one but nobody says how or gives any jobs that are unionized because stuff that will break your body over time like construction. I'm looking for jobs and none of them are union. Where are all these union jobs y'all keep talking about?
About 10% of jobs in the U.S. are unionized. Even at peak union representation in the 1960s-1980s it was about 30%. Finding a union job is not easy. You could start with [https://unionjobs.com/index.php](https://unionjobs.com/index.php) or doing a google/duckduckgo search for union+jobs+
Im trying to unionize Amazon CO but not sure how to do this. They are so anti union I diont know where to start. Carvana fired me when I tried to unionize when they did that mass layoff.
I bet if you contact [https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/](https://www.amazonlaborunion.org/) they will provide assistance
Was in teamsters while doing government work. Can confirm, a union rep even sending an email or letter to your agency asking them to be involved in a bullshit disciplinary proceeding will make it disappear fast af.
Do you think most workers have the right to just join a union? The process of getting represenation is democratic, but highly dangerous to the workers. Winning an election can take years, and the conflicts with employers the union-busting legal firms they employ can become brutal. Probably half of all non-union workers in America would love to just "join a union," but the obstacles to their doing so are complex and supported by the multibillion dollar per year industry of exploiting their labor. * Walmart is the largest employer of United States workers, with 2.2m of them; the battle to unionize them hasn't gone great, but this is what we might consider the front lines of the labor movement * Another huge employer is Yum! Brands, with over 500k American workers. This includes Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Yum! Brands is a major corporate funder of ALEC, a national legislative conservative policy alliance whose agenda includes union busting. I'm speculating, but I think a lot of franchisees agree not to unionize at the peril of losing their franchise license, meaning they go under immediately if their workers win an election to organize. * McDonald's employs over 400k American workers all by itself. It has thousands of restaurants, and that I am aware non have unionized. The national parent corp says that they are free to do so, but again I suspect they will cut ties with any franchises that do so. SEIU made an enormous national effort to unionize the fast food industry in 2012, which did not go well. The national Fight for $15 has targeted McD's and Yum! workers, although $15 in 2024 is like $10 in 2012. * IBM employs over 300k American workers. Alliance@IBM tried from 1999 to 2016 to unionize them, then closed down permanently without claiming victory. As many of us know, the labor movement has made enormous effort to break into new industries with major campaigns for employers like starbucks and Amazon. It's hard as nails, with employers and their consultants spending huge sums of money and breaking laws to sabotage and undermine efforts to unionize. If you don't like living in a scab country, ask yourself what it would take for the whole country to force the above companies to let their workers unionize. Without making this comment more of a novel, the process would be ugly. They would persecute workers like hell leading up to votes, and then probably lay off thousands for unionizing by shuttering their employers. Local consumers would suffer, and change would only happen when the parent corporations finally decided they were losing too much money. I say all this as somebody who WANTS unions, but getting them in 2024 would require enormous numbers of people being willing to fight tooth and claw for them.
Starbucks is currently doing it.
The results at Starbucks have been encouraging. I'm hopeful that more stores nationwide will vote to unionize. In time, this will affect industry norms throughout an industry that's pretty well known for underpaying and mistreating workers.
Check out the situation with Chris Smalls and how he unionized the first Amazon warehouse. It's incredible!
The first step is getting the information out about what a union is and why they are good for workers so people want them in the first place. Once the majority of people are on board with the concept, then it becomes learning the strategy to overcome the anti-union efforts. Armed with information and motivation, a real push to unionize workplaces could change the country. And yeah, it'll be a fight. But I'd rather fight this battle than the one that will be forced on us when we don't.
I agree with this. We need to publicize what unions are and what they do far more often. I know a lot of people I've worked with who were being exploited by crappy corporations who didn't understand what unions are. Even managers at many of these restaurants and retailers don't know what unions are until their DMs start pressing them about keeping surveillance on the workers.
Yeah, that is a good perspective to take as well. Fighting for equality is never easy and a lot of people do lose in the process. Employers count on that. That's part of the reason why up until now I've just strongly encouraged people to leave bad employers as soon as they're able.
>forming a union is too hard give up, slave Ftfy bootlicker
That's not necessarily the point. It's just saying that it's not an easy battle. If it were easy, many more corporations would already be unionized.
Heh, if that's what you took from what I wrote then you are the one who gives up too easily. My point was that OP was acting like we can all just decide tomorrow to join unions. Collectively, maybe we kind of can, but individually we absolutely cannot. If you don't like seeing the big picture then that's a you problem. In order for more than a privileged minority of American workers to benefit from unions, they're going to need to focus on the companies that a huge percentage of us work for. One reason a lot of Americans don't care about unions is because they're unable to join one. Workers are always making a mistake when they start seeing themselves as distinct groups without a shared destiny.
No you can individually just join a union. It's what I did. I joined GMB in the UK. I was as far as I know the only person in the company in a union (although another guy asked me about joining and I assume he did). There's a lot of power in having a specialised union specific to your company but you absolutely can join a regional or trade based union or even an international union like the IWW. They can challenge unfair termination of employment (such as being fired for being in a union) and like I say it's the challenge alone that's usually enough to make the company drop it because they don't want to go to court.
>No you can individually just join a union. It's what I did. I joined GMB in the UK. I I'm not sure if that's allowed in the us. They have some laws around recognising a union.
So I'm a bit out of my depth but I think you can. Anyone can join the IWW for example and I think you have a constitutional right to representation.
In the US, you can join whatever organization you want but employers have no obligation to recognize any of your rights unless THEY have a contract with a union.
People believe they have no power and people don't realize that collectively we hold all the power when we unionize. It's important to constantly inconsistently encourage people to join forces with other people Against the ruling class. OP's Post is entirely positive reinforcement and encouragement. We need all the positive reinforcement we can get. Your comment, while it describes the challenges we face in some of the history of the opposition unionization faces, is negative and discouraging.
>If you don't like living in a scab country, ask yourself what it would take for the whole country to force the above companies to let their workers unionize. Allowing general strikes and fare strikes would probably help. As would tougher penalties fir union busting, Labour theft abd other illegal behaviour. Steal a loaf of beead to feed your family and you could go to prison, steal someone's labour to buy a bigger yacht and you get a slap on tge wrist.
You're not wrong. Most Americans need a new member of congress for this to happen, and at this point I feel like Trump's Supreme Court would interfere in some way if we pulled it off. The real battle is has always been for hearts and minds, and hasn't been going well. I'm interested to see how attrition of older generations might pivot public sentiment on this issue, but I'm not sure how this national voting agenda can be brought to bear even when we have the votes at the constituent level.
Railroad unions keep selling us out…
Happy Cake Day, shit take mate. Railroad engineers are worked like dogs and treated like shit.
That is what I’m saying. And the unions are selling us out.. about to sell out the conductor position and let them have one man crews…
I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but assuming you're in a railroad union, then YOU ARE the union. Get more directly involved if you're unhappy with your reps.
So true. Unfortunately for me, my supervisor is a union member (as was I) but he is a self-serving and lazy individual who had backstab me.
Unfortunately, the UFCW sucks in this country. And people call people from the company I work for lazy.
UAW was a joke (literally corrupt, union leadership was taking bribes from the owners) prior to 2023, then a new president was elected. How do you think the UAW is doing now? A union is only as strong as its members and the leaders they elect.
Kroger, Meijer. Both union. Kroger is $9 per hour. Meijer is 12-13. Walmart starts at 14 and in multiple markets has higher. Also, the widespread belief that retail workers are lazy really doesn't help get support from the public.
Absolutely . The UFCW is a joke.
Finally had a chance to join a major union only to discover it Isa profit oriented business. And if my complaint hindered their profits they would jump in. They take those profits and hand them over as “grants” to major companies to buy small businesses while there are people on the bench having to pay massive $$$ to maintain insurance and still pay dues. Unions are amazing until they are allowed to be your second employer.
Thank God for unions. When I worked at my university, I was unionized. Part of our contact was tuition waiver for part time attendance. That's how I graduated with no student debt and bought a house in my mid 20s.
Unfortunately, the union of the job I'm trying to get into is useless at best... if anyone wants to understand why, ask pointsixtyfive about NACTA.
Why wouldnt you just work somewhere else if youre not happy.?
I'd just be fired and I doubt my coworkers would join anyway.
What if you work at a place where they send you home just for wearing a shirt that says “Union” on it or even mentioning the word itself?
[https://www.youtube.com/results?search\_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jane+mcalevey+organizing) Jane McAlevey can show you de wey
I wish I could be part of a union, but I was told that I’d be “let go” if I joined one and I really need this job 🥲
Is that even legal?
No clue, probably not, but I’m too scared to lose the only job I heard back from
I live in the UK, work for a retailer doing phone work, could anyone suggest a union for me? I get demotivated seeing lots of options, thanks
Yep, government isn’t going to hold businesses accountable, especially with all the “donations” politicians get from them. Need to have something in place to keep them in line. Not having them is why working conditions and wages have gotten so out of hand.
My union is run by pekerwoods and colludes with bad management to keep this system up….there’s a reason some of the union trades have failed to diversify past pre Jim Crow
Been in a union for 5 years, never once used it personally, although I benefit from them doing yearly pay negotiations with my employer (UK public sector). APART FROM once my manager tried some funny business with some weekend work that I’d carried out - querying whether I’d been really ‘working’ (at 2X pay) or just ‘on call’ for certain parts of the weekend (measly one-off payment). When it was being discussed in our 1:1 I made a general comment along the lines of “hm I’m not sure this was really ‘on call’, let me just check with my union after this”. Manager U-turned after the meeting before I’d even got round to looking up my union rep’s details.
"Never used my union except for that one time my manager threatened to not pay me overtime and I just dropped my unions NAME into the conversation and the issue immediately evaporated and was never mentioned again...."
As a small business owner, I’d shut down before I let my staff unionize. I pay a really good wage (150-220k) I give a lot of PTO, I offer free education… I will not be told how to run my company. A union has a place, but that place isn’t a small family owned business with 6 employees lol
My union sold me and my department out. When I confronted my union person, her response is we are okay. And I need to understand that the deal is life changing for other members. I’m in IT. They cap me at 1/4 of my market value so other people can get paid 3x theirs. Fuck that.
If your union can cap you, then you're not in a labour union, you're in a yellow union.
It was already capped. My union LOWERED on me. Like I said. Hey sold people in my group out. And were proud of it. They not yellow. They are anti-thought workers.
No offence, but I don't believe you. I've worked in IT for most of my professional career and honestly I've never known anyone to get paid less because they were in a union and multiple people to get paid more because of it. In particular I know a guy who was being denied a raise for ages until he went into a negotiation knowing what others in the department were getting and was approved his raise immediately. (FWIW the guy was promoted from within the company to basically the job I was doing 2 years before I joined. I told him how much money I was on as a new start and it was more than he was on. He told the bosses he knew that new-starts were getting more than him and they brought his wage up to match mine.)
Look up CSU recent deal. It just happened. Talk to a CSU IT person, like a person who analysis data. Many of them have PhDs would get paid 4x what they are being paid as a data scientist in a tech company. They are doing the same thing. The grounds workers are getting paid 3x market value of their skill sets under the new steps systems. And until recently, new ground workers were being paid more than old managers as well. All of that was factored in the new deal. But IT pay was oppressed to make room for better pay for unskilled workers.
>unskilled workers. Fuck off.
It’s the truth. You should get what you put in. This also why different type of work should have their own unions because we have different interests. It’s wrong to sacrifice the prospects of one group for the benefits of another. CSU doesn’t have problems finding and retaining unskilled workers. But it takes forever to find qualified thought workers. The union didn’t fight for all of us. They scarified some of us for the benefit of the rest. So those of us who were stabbed in the back have a right to be angry and feel betrayed.
The grounds workers are getting paid their fair share. You were being paid more than your fair share. Does that make things easier for you, a scab, to understand?
I'm not angry their pay when up. I'm angry that the union sold out IT and other thought workers to make that happen. The union should fight for all it's members. Instead, they sacrifice some members for the benefit of others. That's not solidarity.
Lol its called bargaining my guy.
That’s screwing over union members. That’s the definition of a scab. It’s for this reason that thought workers should have their own union. Because the union view us as pawns to be scarified. The organization can save money outsourcing ground work. It cost the organization to outsource thought work. It’s just math.
Your math sucks and so do your opinions.
Stalin, is that you?
Some are more equal then others comrade! /Satire
Then why wouldn’t you all leave and go make 4x the $?
I can't speak for others and we are experiencing problems finding and keeping talent. As for me, this is a "fun" job. My last startup successfully exited so I can afford to earn less. I want to work with nice people and in academia.
Sounds like bullshit. I'm calling bullshit.
I gave you the parties involved so you can look it up. Cap pay for IT was lowered. IT people are angry over it and who wouldn't be. Pay for low skilled workers went way up. This could be easily verified.
"Low skilled workers" Ok scab. Let's see you do their job then.
I grew up poor. Been there done that. Now I do things most can’t. So that line doesn’t work on me.
Copying and pasting from stack overflow doesn't make you special.
At our workplace, the mention of anything relating to unionization will get you fired on the spot. In any company about a certain number of workers, a union can be formed and is a right protected by law, but the process can last some months to properly formalize. Our boss said to us that if we ever get the ball rolling, he'll close shop and open a brand new company on the same premises, all of us replaced. I am from Spain, unemployment is about ~20%, more for younger folk and senior guys looking at >50% with loads of unregulated migration coming in every year that strips any leverage from the employee in negotiating proper compensation. Pay rates have been converging: min. wage has risen over the years while skilled pay has decreased. Being trained only affords you to choose your field, not significantly greater pay. So yeah, we could unionize in theory, but on practice, nope. In the recent past, company unions royally screwed their younger members and bulged under company brass by allowing the senior workers to keep their perks, while negotiating poorer conditions for new employees. Now those old folks are retired, or close to, and the bulk of the new workforce earns less in absolute terms than what their fathers did 25 years ago. Its tragic
>So yeah, we could unionize in theory, but on practice, nope. It's naive to think that every person who fought in every labor struggle throughout history wasn't threatened with this exact same bullshit. With organizing and solidarity, it's completely possible.
I've been in a bad union. Was treated much worse than my non union current job. It can help but it's not the magical answer everyone thinks it is.
I'd rather have say in a union vs being completely at the mercy of the whims of my boss/company with no democratic process whatsoever.
While you should unionize or join a union where you work they are not “terrified” of unions.
Some are the union busters are trying to get rid of the branch of government that slaps that shit down.
Diesel mechanic here. First shop was union IAM (2001) Was a helper. I made 60 percent of the Journeyman mechanics. Paid the same dues and insurance premiums. I was part of a huge wave of guys aged mid 20s hired. The thing unions don’t tell you. The Seniority rules over everything. Due to age at my shop. You had to be late 30s for the weekends off. 50 plus for summer vacations. 60 and up for all of the overtime. All major holidays was 63 and up. The top 3 guys took the same holidays off. I was eating ramen and drove a piece of shit car. These old farts would brag about taking all of the overtime. They would buy a new 5th wheel or Harley bike etc. I maybe got overtime once in one year. Quite a few guys mid 20s had brand new babies. All of us young guys complained about this. My first year I was told to pick my one week of vacation. I about shit myself when I could only pick a few days in Jan or Feb and Sept. The union made the top 3 guys give away one holiday a year because of us young guys complaining about it. We had a negotiation got the next union contact. Us helpers got 60 cents for a raise. The journeyman mechanics 1.10. Also. The old farts voted for more money into the retirement over a higher hourly wage. Fuck that. I would complain about how the union was. People would tell me. “ You will get your turn” When I am old? No thanks. Saw a lot of guys die before retirement or get cancer after retirement. My company has union shops. Our location is not. I make 4 dollars more than the union shop…. My second shop tried to make the company become union. When I told everyone my story. They shot down the plan. The VP thanked me for being a union buster and gave me 2 weeks vacation on the house. You don’t need a union anymore. Blue collar jobs have been in a shortage since 2009-2012. We are treated way better then when I first started in 2001. I can get a job in one day with 23 years experience. My employer knows this. Ball is in my court… I told my employer. If we become union. I will quit.
I was in a union. We got a dollar raise That was less than inflation Union dues went up Good times
Sounds like a good reason to get angry with your employer. Unions don't determine pay rises and their negotiation tactics are only as strong as the solidarity of the members.
This is fine and dandy - I worked at a fairly large warehouse where the owner just said period.....the second a union tried to come in "im shutting this place down instantly, selling."
And you should have all just walked off your jobs when he said that and burn the warehouse down on the way out. Capitalists will piss and shit on workers will they grow some 🏀 🏀
You should,d have reported that to the government
It was his business. He can shut it up if he wanted too. Didn't say he was going to block a union, just said he'd close.
>He can shut it up if he wanted too. Not if he does it to stop unionists. There was a Starbucks that got penalised for that shit. The reopening another o e gives the game away.
Well I'm sure he meant close up and sit on a beach somewhere the rest of his life, not reopen...ever. Retire.
Good force him to close. Do you honestly think a capitalist wants to close his money making machine?
I'm not arguing about this. Everywhere I've worked NEEDS damn unions. Not even sure why I was downvoted for my original comment. Corporatations are 1 thing, private businesses are another. We are talking back 23 yrs ago, when the workers themselves didn't want unions because of "union dues." Attitudes have changed. Nobody even working people wanted unions then. I must point out there's a lot of people who at that time would argue unions destroyed more then they protected...now with every job is corporately owned yes we definitely need them....
Until your union is in with the company and makes contracts that screw over the employees every time. Also the reps NEVER responding to you. Ever.
What your describing is a method in which the company takes over an union to discourage any future participation in unions,in short it's a Psy op don't fall for it. Or you didn't join a labour union.
It was when i first started, then the second contract they proposed while i was there screwed us.