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The [Labor] Thread: strike while the iron is hot!

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Posts

  • KaputaKaputa Registered User regular
    edited June 2022
    How is it that in my Republican State of MAGAstan we shoot down unions? Is it the nice sounding "Right to Work", bill?
    What about a nationwide non-profit Union that hires people to take on part time jobs with big franchises and fast food chains at Starbucks or Amazon? Make this group hidden at first, and make it their job to organize a union in any particular state. Call it a labor union without borders. Pay people to travel the country and work jobs within these poverty stricken, yet beautiful states in Montana or Washington. After these hires get in, start organizing a Union for better worker conditions.

    Amazon is reported to be concerned with a near future labor pool shortage. Other franchise/big box stores need people. I would imagine that if these shit jobs started getting a workforce that actually liked the job and were not under standards of living pressures, the ultimate result is a happy workforce and successful company.

    This is an intervention on Capitalism run amok. Call this non-profit Union, "The Workers Union of America".

    Thoughts on the idea?
    Has it been tried?

    I need to better educate myself on unions and why they work, how they fail and why we might need them.
    It has been tried. You are basically describing the IWW, to use the most prominent example. In that case, they were eventually defeated, due to a combination of state repression and their internal divides (largely the old black vs. red divide of the left). But they do still exist, and are trying to engage with the current labor movement.

    And getting organizers hired at non-union shops to organize from within is still a tactic unions use; they call it "salting."

    Kaputa on
  • minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular
    edited June 2022


    The Medieval Times performers near me are forming a union. Very happy for them!

    minor incident on
    Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
  • zagdrobzagdrob Registered User regular


    The Medieval Times performers near me are forming a union. Very happy for them!

    Very anachronistic.

    What about a Bards guild?

  • Styrofoam SammichStyrofoam Sammich WANT. normal (not weird)Registered User regular


    The Medieval Times performers near me are forming a union. Very happy for them!

    Finally, we can restore American Labors armed vanguard

    wq09t4opzrlc.jpg
  • LoserForHireXLoserForHireX Philosopher King The AcademyRegistered User regular


    The Medieval Times performers near me are forming a union. Very happy for them!

    Finally, we can restore American Labors armed vanguard

    I'm still only rooting for the Green Knight tho is the thing.

    "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give into it." - Oscar Wilde
    "We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • LoserForHireXLoserForHireX Philosopher King The AcademyRegistered User regular
    Kaputa wrote: »
    How is it that in my Republican State of MAGAstan we shoot down unions? Is it the nice sounding "Right to Work", bill?
    What about a nationwide non-profit Union that hires people to take on part time jobs with big franchises and fast food chains at Starbucks or Amazon? Make this group hidden at first, and make it their job to organize a union in any particular state. Call it a labor union without borders. Pay people to travel the country and work jobs within these poverty stricken, yet beautiful states in Montana or Washington. After these hires get in, start organizing a Union for better worker conditions.

    Amazon is reported to be concerned with a near future labor pool shortage. Other franchise/big box stores need people. I would imagine that if these shit jobs started getting a workforce that actually liked the job and were not under standards of living pressures, the ultimate result is a happy workforce and successful company.

    This is an intervention on Capitalism run amok. Call this non-profit Union, "The Workers Union of America".

    Thoughts on the idea?
    Has it been tried?

    I need to better educate myself on unions and why they work, how they fail and why we might need them.
    It has been tried. You are basically describing the IWW, to use the most prominent example. In that case, they were eventually defeated, due to a combination of state repression and their internal divides (largely the old black vs. red divide of the left). But they do still exist, and are trying to engage with the current labor movement.

    And getting organizers hired at non-union shops to organize from within is still a tactic unions use; they call it "salting."

    I can imagine that it would also be hard to organize a mega union across a ton of different fields because the needs of various laborers can be pretty diverse. I mean there are the very basic "more pay, more sick leave, more vacation" but beyond that the issues that a truck driver faces in the workplace are very different than the ones that I do and I don't know that one union apparatus is most effective in advocating for both of us.

    It's something that has already worried me about my union (which is part of SEIU Local 500, I think), because even on a college campus the needs of the staff and faculty are different.

    "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give into it." - Oscar Wilde
    "We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Whole bunch of airline labor news right now. Long story short, flight crew rosters have gotten thinner due to the pandemic but airlines refuse to increase pay proportionately while forcing dangerous amounts of overtime and generally being assholes as corporations do.


    HAPPENING NOW: Dozens of @Delta pilots are picketing at the @ATLairport. More than 400 pilots are here today protesting flight schedules and work conditions.

    Brooke Zauner is an Atlanta reporter.

    Delta Airlines pilots are picketing at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (Atlanta).


    Ryanair cabin crews are going on strike in multiple places across Europe.


    FedEx pilots are on strike as are pilots for Southwest Airlines.


    American Airlines pilots are not on strike (yet?) but there was a hilarious and definitely totally accidental glitch that left 12,000 scheduled flights this month without a pilot. Solidarity from the computer bugs I guess.


    Already hundreds of flight cancellations for this weekend and likely more for a while.

  • AegisAegis Fear My Dance Overshot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered User regular
    Meanwhile, up here in Canada, the airlines have been attempting to place the blame on the federal government by suggesting a lack of federal customs and security were the problem, even as they otherwise acknowledge the problem is a global industry one in terms of staffing and overbooking capacity.

    We'll see how long this blog lasts
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  • HefflingHeffling No Pic EverRegistered User regular
    Man can you imagine having to go through security at an airport just so you can protest? That's brutal.

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    Good for them, bad for all of my vacation plans. Still, we will just drive somewhere closer.

    I hope they right fuck these airlines.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • ElvenshaeElvenshae Registered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »

    Unfortunately, they’re charging crewmembers €6 for markers and signage and another €30 to reserve your spot on the picket line in advance.

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    edited July 2022
    New pilot strike at Scandinavian Airline System (SAS).

    Also EasyJet cabin crew will be walking out later this month and possibly British Airlines ground crew as well.

    Great time for any other airlines staff who want to get in on the striking, since what are people going to do, go to the other airlines already on strike? Actually would be hilarious for all the airline employees to just accidentally go on general strike though I won't hold out any hope on that.

    Mayabird on
  • HydropoloHydropolo Registered User regular
    Mayabird wrote: »
    New pilot strike at Scandinavian Airline System (SAS).

    Also EasyJet cabin crew will be walking out later this month and possibly British Airlines ground crew as well.

    Great time for any other airlines staff who want to get in on the striking, since what are people going to do, go to the other airlines already on strike? Actually would be hilarious for all the airline employees to just accidentally go on general strike though I won't hold out any hope on that.

    Jesus, ticket prices for travel that I kind of HAVE to do in about 1.5 months were already 2-3x normal cost... I don't know what's going to happen now. I suspect United is going to make a killing off this.

  • enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    Ass backwards negotiation from my union. Negotiate the overall contract except salary, get it ratified, and then negotiate salaries in the fall separately with no leverage.

    Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Brussels Airlines (Belgian subsidiary of Lufthansa) pilots went on a strike but the airline agreed to cut back on the ridiculous overtime so they ended the strike. Bunch of flights will remain cancelled through the summer.

    Why yes I am just doing a search for new airline strikes daily.


    In non-airline news, HarperCollins Union is also going on strike.

  • MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    Another strike I had missed: airport workers at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

    Additionally, air traffic controllers in Italy will be going on strike next week.

    Maybe just don't fly right now. You know, for solidarity. Also so you don't get stuck somewhere.


    In non air news: Ninety nine percent of Dodger Stadium concession workers voted to go on strike, just before the MLB All Star Game there.



    FXaRMGkUEAAGbPL?format=jpg&name=small

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    This is a really good video on why we should be raising the minimum wage

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mcHGGcZGFo

  • minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular
    Fuck yeah. Just the best, most hardworking bunch of performers. So happy for them!

    Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    I haven't been to a medieval times in like 20 years, but it was a damn good time when I was there.

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  • CidTheSquidCidTheSquid Registered User regular
    Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has just blocked a railway strike:

    https://apnews.com/article/biden-transportation-strikes-ba718974eb14fcd615d606bfcdffb3d2

    US rail workers have been treated pretty roughly over the years while rail companies have been posting record profits. Unfortunately, the executive and legislative branches have worked really hard to limit or remove the unions legal power.

    I have to think that if I were a rail worker reading this, I'd just start doing everything in my power to leave the field.

  • enlightenedbumenlightenedbum Registered User regular
    For more detail if you don't click through:

    He's appointed a mediation board to assist the unions and railroads to resolve their contract dispute. The two sides have a month to present their cases to the board, the board will make recommendations, and then the sides will have another month to negotiate. If that doesn't work, Congress will probably resolve the dispute. The problem is I can't find who the mediation board members are even though they're supposed to start work tomorrow. Thus far, Biden's labor record has been better than every president other than maybe FDR (a low, low bar admittedly).

    If the board is fair (rare in the US) it's obvious why he made this move. Supply chain disruption right now would be a disaster on several levels, but most significantly on the long term prospects for labor.

    Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
  • ArcTangentArcTangent Registered User regular
    Also, the Unions in question here are praising this and thanking him for doing it. So maybe don't listen to the hot takes of dumbfucks on Twitter.

    https://smart-union.org/rail-labor-statement-regarding-the-appointment-of-a-peb/

    https://smart-union.org/united-rail-unions-statement-on-appointment-of-presidential-emergency-board/

    ztrEPtD.gif
  • enc0reenc0re Registered User regular
    Mediation is not arbitration. As someone who has negotiated a handful of contracts, none of which ever went to mediation, I think a neutral (key!) party giving a third-party perspective can be a real boon to reaching agreement.

    By default, employers tend to have more money behind PR and legal. Mediation can be a more balanced perspective reaching the media and public.

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    This is a really good video on why we should be raising the minimum wage

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mcHGGcZGFo

    I watched this, and I've been pushed a few more of his videos, which seem pretty good. A lot of it is stuff I kind of knew already, but he explains it in an extremely digestible way.

    So of course I'm getting pushed a bunch more economics videos, including Michael Burry predicting the current recession, and a bunch more dubious economics channels. The algorithm at work?

  • NoneoftheaboveNoneoftheabove Just a conforming non-conformist. Twilight ZoneRegistered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    Starbucks is pulling the same stunt en masse. I was hesitant to do business with them before. Now they can just go out of business entirely by my view.

  • Martini_PhilosopherMartini_Philosopher Registered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    Starbucks is pulling the same stunt en masse. I was hesitant to do business with them before. Now they can just go out of business entirely by my view.

    We're afraid of having a smaller amount of profit (and control) so therefore, we've decided to just do less business....therefore guaranteeing less profit and control.

    I don't know if I'd call this cowardice, but I will certain call it egomania. This is literally cutting one's nose off to spite their face.

    All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    Starbucks is pulling the same stunt en masse. I was hesitant to do business with them before. Now they can just go out of business entirely by my view.

    We're afraid of having a smaller amount of profit (and control) so therefore, we've decided to just do less business....therefore guaranteeing less profit and control.

    I don't know if I'd call this cowardice, but I will certain call it egomania. This is literally cutting one's nose off to spite their face.

    It's union busting, plain and simple

  • Martini_PhilosopherMartini_Philosopher Registered User regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    Starbucks is pulling the same stunt en masse. I was hesitant to do business with them before. Now they can just go out of business entirely by my view.

    We're afraid of having a smaller amount of profit (and control) so therefore, we've decided to just do less business....therefore guaranteeing less profit and control.

    I don't know if I'd call this cowardice, but I will certain call it egomania. This is literally cutting one's nose off to spite their face.

    It's union busting, plain and simple

    Oh, I agree, I just enjoy pointing out that in doing so they make their fears of less control and profit all the more likely to come true. It's self defeating. It's yanking away their own ball at the last second of the kick they need to win the game.

    All opinions are my own and in no way reflect that of my employer.
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    Fencingsax wrote: »
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    Starbucks is pulling the same stunt en masse. I was hesitant to do business with them before. Now they can just go out of business entirely by my view.

    We're afraid of having a smaller amount of profit (and control) so therefore, we've decided to just do less business....therefore guaranteeing less profit and control.

    I don't know if I'd call this cowardice, but I will certain call it egomania. This is literally cutting one's nose off to spite their face.

    It's union busting, plain and simple

    Oh, I agree, I just enjoy pointing out that in doing so they make their fears of less control and profit all the more likely to come true. It's self defeating. It's yanking away their own ball at the last second of the kick they need to win the game.

    Better to rule in hell than serve in heaven, as the old chestnut goes.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    Opposition to labour organization is less about money then it is about control imo. That's why you will see it pop up in places that should nominally be pro-labour-organization and why people will lose money just to stop it.

  • ThawmusThawmus +Jackface Registered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Chipotle in Augusta Maine voted to unionize, so they're closing the store. Fucking cowards.

    Starbucks is pulling the same stunt en masse. I was hesitant to do business with them before. Now they can just go out of business entirely by my view.

    We're afraid of having a smaller amount of profit (and control) so therefore, we've decided to just do less business....therefore guaranteeing less profit and control.

    I don't know if I'd call this cowardice, but I will certain call it egomania. This is literally cutting one's nose off to spite their face.

    In their minds this is a tactic to squelch any efforts at any of their other stores to follow suit. Sadly, they're not wrong, it works.

    They'll make less profit without that store, sure, but now they're less worried about any other stores unionizing.

    Twitch: Thawmus83
  • Ninja Snarl PNinja Snarl P My helmet is my burden. Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered User regular
    "My company, my kingdom" is the hideously toxic and hugely prevalent opinion held by bosses/owners in the US. They'll give lip service to the idea of the company being a family and say whatever they need to to give the illusion of cooperation, but at the end of the day they will absolutely sink "their" ship rather than acknowledge it only exists because of the people at the company, not the owner/boss. The insane hyper-Capitalist attitudes in the US functionally cannot allow even the slightest acknowledgment that filthy workers should have any actual power in their own company.

    Forget nose-cutting and face-spiting, a lot of these anti-union assholes would gut themselves with a rusty tin can and hang themselves with their own intestines accepting organized workers as part of the decision-making at a company.

  • ThawmusThawmus +Jackface Registered User regular
    "My company, my kingdom" is the hideously toxic and hugely prevalent opinion held by bosses/owners in the US. They'll give lip service to the idea of the company being a family and say whatever they need to to give the illusion of cooperation, but at the end of the day they will absolutely sink "their" ship rather than acknowledge it only exists because of the people at the company, not the owner/boss. The insane hyper-Capitalist attitudes in the US functionally cannot allow even the slightest acknowledgment that filthy workers should have any actual power in their own company.

    Forget nose-cutting and face-spiting, a lot of these anti-union assholes would gut themselves with a rusty tin can and hang themselves with their own intestines accepting organized workers as part of the decision-making at a company.

    Yeah, also the buzzwords, "Family Owned Business" are just a euphemism for, "We've got tons of nepotism throughout the company and we're not going to pay very well."

    Twitch: Thawmus83
  • CalicaCalica Registered User regular
    "My company, my kingdom" is the hideously toxic and hugely prevalent opinion held by bosses/owners in the US. They'll give lip service to the idea of the company being a family and say whatever they need to to give the illusion of cooperation, but at the end of the day they will absolutely sink "their" ship rather than acknowledge it only exists because of the people at the company, not the owner/boss. The insane hyper-Capitalist attitudes in the US functionally cannot allow even the slightest acknowledgment that filthy workers should have any actual power in their own company.

    Forget nose-cutting and face-spiting, a lot of these anti-union assholes would gut themselves with a rusty tin can and hang themselves with their own intestines accepting organized workers as part of the decision-making at a company.

    When businesses say "We're a family," they mean a 1950's-style patriarchy where the man makes all the decisions and has all the money and the wife and kids shut up and do as he tells them.

  • minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular


    Labor solidarity can accomplish even more than just pay and benefit negotiations.

    Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular


    Labor solidarity can accomplish even more than just pay and benefit negotiations.

    Also, the venue can go fuck off with "freedom of artistic expression". Dave Chappelle is welcome to perform whatever he wants, and the rest of us have the right to tell him to fuck off with his bigotry.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • mcdermottmcdermott Registered User regular
    edited July 2022
    San Diego Comic-Con provides an opportunity for local hotel staff to grab management directly by the balls. (NBC 7 San Diego)

    Local hotel staff went on strike on Wednesday, right as people would be checking in for SDCC (which starts in full on Thursday, with some activities on Wednesday evening). This was not some small hotel offsite, either, this was the Hilton Bayfront, which sits directly next to the Convention Center and is currently plastered with a twenty-story ad for FX's AHS for the con.

    Some real "sweep the leg" energy with that one. They reached a tentative agreement later that day.

    EDIT: I may or may not have needed to mention this is the first "proper" SDCC since before COVID. So maybe it was more "get him a body bag yeahhhhhh" energy. Either way, you love to see it.

    mcdermott on
  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    Hyundai is making child labor in the US great again:
    Pedro Tzi's children, who have now enrolled for the upcoming school term, were among a larger cohort of underage workers who found jobs at the Hyundai-owned supplier over the past few years, according to interviews with a dozen former and current plant employees and labor recruiters.

    Several of these minors, they said, have foregone schooling in order to work long shifts at the plant, a sprawling facility with a documented history of health and safety violations, including amputation hazards.

    Most of the current and former employees who spoke with Reuters did so on the condition of anonymity. Reuters was unable to determine the precise number of children who may have worked at the SMART factory, what the minors were paid or other terms of their employment.

    Fucked up does not even begin to describe this.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
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