This is a very exciting time. I've been a union guy for 25 years and I will go to my grave not understanding the fierce resistance to unions by my X gen and the boomers. When they would say unions were bad, I'd say let's make ours amazing and... they just refused.
I never thought I would see the resurgence of American labor unions. This is an absolute joy to see.
Depending on where you lived you were plied with anti-union rhetoric. I remember back in the '80s and working at a department store and they had us watch "training" videos about how we were a big family and how unions broke up that family and made us adversaries. I thought it was a bunch of bull, but I'm sure there were plenty of folks that bought into it.
I think the most common explanation for anti union sentiment is this:
Most of the time, our justifications for doing anything are post-hoc: we decide based on gut reasoning, then invent a justification after we've already made up our minds in order to convince ourselves that we're creatures of logic.
When companies show those videos, it does two things: it intimidates, and it provides ready-made arguments for post-hoc justification.
They intimidate workers from organizing, but no one's ego can accept that. If someone says "let's unionize", most people think (subconsciously) 'Fuck!!! That's scary! We're not strong enough, and I'm gonna get totally beaten down if I stick my neck out!!'
And then their brain does it's thing and translates that into justifications, and when it needs words to form justifications, it draws then from the handy dandy premade justifications they were given during their intimation session. It's like, 'You're a bug, and if you fight us we'll step on you! Now here's a balm to soothe this massive wound to your pride. You're welcome. Now get back to work.'
Most of the time, our justifications for doing anything are post-hoc: we decide based on gut reasoning, then invent a justification after we’ve already made up our minds in order to convince ourselves that we’re creatures of logic.
Woah, are you telling me that people are not rational thinking creatures instead act purely on emotion. Cause I fully support that statement.
We have stop using the "reasonable, rational thinking" person as a standard. If people were truly that, there would be a lot less people in debt, more people taking care of their health before problems arose, and less bullshit overall.
True. I remember thinking it was a load of crap, but it certainly got the message across that I'd be alone and out of a job if I tried to form a union.
And I also remember lessons in class where the textbook weren't l went into great detail about the corruption and mob ties of some unions, but very little about anything positive. There has definitely been an effort on the part of powerful folks to denigrate unions.
I remember reading The Jungle in college and getting a much different perspective of labor laws and union value
I've been in one union and it was a corrupt joke. That said, it was still the best unskilled job I've had by a large margin.
I've been in two, and both of them were this way. Tossed most of us under the bus to protect a small group of older employees. We definitely need more unionization, but we also need to weed out the unions that are counterproductive.
Start with the police union
Public employee unions are a bit different though because unlike labor unions there is a third interested party in addition to management and labor, namely the public.
My first union had that reputation. I became a steward and was known as a reformer. Honestly, they weren't particularly corrupt or self dealing, they were just really bad at messaging for the employees. Over time, it just became "common knowledge" that the leadership was secretive and self dealing.
I don't mean that to say that yours wasn't self dealing. Those existed and continue to exist. But I have also never been in a union where the labor body was involved and took it seriously and also had those kinds of problems. If there's one takeaway I learned from unions, it's that we get the union we deserve. When we're in it and active as a body, those were always the best unions. When we have an apathetic labor body, we have an apathetic union.
There will always be factions like every other human activity. People will often be tribal to the detriment of the whole. But at the same time, in my experience, those most against "unions" were almost always the people least involved or not involved at all.
I’ve been a union guy for 25 years and I will go to my grave not understanding the fierce resistance to unions by my X gen and the boomers.
Certain specific professions like IT, and its mercenary culture, don't fit well with the collective bargaining model. For many other professions/careers, a union can be a great tool for workers.
By "IT" do you mean tech? Because as a software engineer, I've seen turnover rates of 1-2 years for some of my favorite people I've worked with. If they actually had bargaining power, we know via studies done on unions and turnover rates that these engineers likely wouldn't dip as quickly and take institutional knowledge and their smart brains with them. Tech is so allergic to unions that it is literally inflicting damage onto itself - managers will tell you how expensive it is to hire new people because it takes months for them to catch up to your codebase, but the higher-up leadership is completely unwilling to listen to the data on how to actually retain people. They don't care if unions increase productivity or that the elasticity between productivity and salary is >1.0 as the unionisation rate grows (per studies done in Norway), because they don't want to lose their complete control over companies to collective bargaining.
You're making good arguments why a company employing IT staff (software devs, engineers, architects), but where is the argument to the benefit of the worker themselves in this case?
I’ve seen turnover rates of 1-2 years for some of my favorite people I’ve worked with.
This is a benefit to the worker. They're leaving because they got a better paying gig or less work/fewer hours for the same amount of money.
This is a benefit to the worker. They’re leaving because they got a better paying gig or less work/fewer hours for the same amount of money.
Yes, because there's no union there to bargain for better pay, bonuses, more time off work, and so forth. Tech is a new industry where workers have more bargaining power on an individual level because expertise is so sought after. Now imagine combining that with unions and we'd probably all be doing 4 day work weeks already, like unions are currently bargaining for in various countries. We'd likely also have more time for tech debt, as unions increase certain types of innovation.
Like, if unions can do this for McDonalds workers after a sympathy strike in Nordic countries:
Every few months, a prominent person or publication points out that McDonalds workers in Denmark receive $22 per hour, 6 weeks of vacation, and sick pay. This compensation comes on top of the general slate of social benefits in Denmark, which includes child allowances, health care, child care, paid leave, retirement, and education through college, among other things.
Why would we assume tech workers in a very profitable industry wouldn't be able to get away with even more?
They’re leaving because they got a better paying gig or less work/fewer hours for the same amount of money
nah they're just part of the last layoff
Good luck to them.
If they were up against a competent c-suite, this would be a failed effort from the start.
"cybertruck" is going to be a massive flop and and an embarassment and that is a perfect opportunity to "downsize" and have a semi-legit reason to fire anyone who doesn't spit with enough vigor at any calls for unionizing.
But acknowledging that glorified SUV is a flop is a step too far and it will be marketed as a success. Which gets rid of the cover.
I have no idea if UAW will succeed. But I think we are looking at a LOT of wrongful termination lawsuits (speaking of, did the twitter ones go anywhere?) and a massive poorly executed social media campaign on a single dying site.
Really love Shawn Fain's attitude of fighting with the corporations. More victories unions to start win, the easier it will be grow unions across of sorts of different industries.
We had Starbucks stores unionize, an Amazon warehouse unionize, and UAW winning major concessions.
I was a little bit worried about Shawn's strategy but he married his big pitch to the tried & true method of pressuring Ford first(more family owned & Detroit/Michigan connection to contend with). Proud to say he got a lot a lot of the strong labor points out there in the public. Glad we are seeing benefit from having more labor friendly president(we can always do better but glad we have something).
I can’t believe this. You will ruin the company and make it go away. Earth will remember this! Fuck off!
Muskrat— probably.
Now if only they had the same support that unions do in Sweden
Solodarity strikes are illegal in the US, the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act
Truman vetoed it and railed against it hard, but of course a corrupt and fiercly communist-paranoid congress overrode his veto.
Never knew it was illegal in the UK. Didn't surprise me though to learn it was Margaret Thatcher who outlawed it again in the 80s.
Man fuck Taft. All my homies hate Taft.
Repealing that act should be one of the largest priorities of leftists in the United States. I wish people talked about it more.
When you make your next union contract, get the expiry date the contract to be May Day. If everybody's contracts expire on the same day, it's easier to have a general strike day in the future.
This might be a stupid question, but how does this law apply to non-union laborers looking to unionize, but aren't technically union yet?
In a right to work state, you'd get shit canned.
Fuck em. How much illegal shit have megacorps gotten away with?
Everything they could, every moment of their existence.
Now if only they had the same support that unions do in Sweden
More people believe in unions than you may realize.
Don't just focus in on the shills/bots and what they're saying.
Fine, don't work here then. Fuck you.
Workers will kill Tesla and the whole world will see it. They'll judge
Musk in a year.
Oh this should be good.
Do you work at Tesla? Do you know more about this union drive? We’d love to hear from you. From a non-work device, you can contact Jules Roscoe at jules.roscoe@vice.com or on Signal at (415) 763-7705 for more security.
On Signal? Wow, I like that.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1347165127036977153?lang=en
"Wait... Not like that!"
Elon probably
Can't wait.
Go go you! Most people in Sweden expect those that drive Tesla want a union to! It should be the default on all bigger companies!
Elon: “Fuck off”
"Son of slavery-driven diamond mine owner refuses union talks!", "how to eat dogshit", and much more, coming up after the break.
Elon: more robots on order
That'll go about as well as the full self-driving capability of tesla vehicles.
Luckily there is no children working in Tesla's factories .......yet.
They originally over-relied on automation in their factories, to Elon's own admission. There's just some tasks that humans will always be better at, until we see a fundamental change in robotics. And no, the current AI fad is not enough.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
