saltedweather:

jokin-around:

prolibytherium:

I will say I get the vibe that a lot of peoples interest and support for strikers is a bit too much for a vicarious ‘burn it down’ thrill, rather than for the actual goals of a strike.

Like UPS has agreed to come back to the table and it is very possible they will concede to Union demands and avert a strike. And if that happens (so long as the union does not make concessions on its key demands) it’s a good thing. It’s a victory for the laborers. It is the same ultimate conclusion that a strike would intend to produce except without the workers having to go on (not so great) strike pay for a week or two.

I would rather see these strikes across multiple industries culminate into a general strike for universal change among ALL industries, including those that don’t have the ability or man-power to effectively strike or unionize rather than be satisfied with singular companies bending to lukewarm compromises but whatever, maybe that’s just me 😁

How would that work?

How, exactly, would a strike by the teamsters nationwide, the retail workers in New York, the writers’ and actors’ guilds, and, let’s say content moderators for facebook and instagram/meta … translate to change for amazon warehouse workers?

How would a strike by any/all of those industries and sixteen more translate to “universal change”?

My union ran into this a few years ago. A lot of us wanted to hold out for a few specific demands: higher wages, no cuts to health insurance, and covering the visa fees for incoming international employees, who at the time had to pay for their own visas. But there was this small faction that held out that we should strike for housing. The rest of us were like …what. How would that even work? Our employer literally cannot put guaranteed housing or any control of housing prices into our contracts. And most of us don’t want them to provide us housing, because then our employer will also be our landlord. We’re not going to strike over housing.

It emerged in the following weeks that these folks were convinced we could fix the skyrocketing housing market in our entire city somehow, with a strike, and if we only bargained for things that impacted us directly, we were selling out our community. The whole conversation was infuriating. I remember someone saying “If you want to fix the housing market, you have to organize for that in the community. We can’t do that on our contracts.”

If you want “universal change among ALL industries,” that’s going to require organizing across multiple industries at first. And recognizing that sometimes what workers in different sectors of the various industries want is, in fact, contradictory, and it’s going to take compromises. Strikes are for the workers effected, they’re not a desirable outcome (strikes are terrifying if you, like most of us, live paycheck to paycheck), they’re a last resort tactic to get your bosses to pay attention. They are not a “make everything better” button.

shiftythrifting:

same

wildewasframed:

shutyourmoustache:

shutyourmoustache:

shutyourmoustache:

Solidarity Summer is well and truly ramping up. AS IT FUCKING SHOULD.

And another one! 📢

Barnes and Noble booksellers are working on forming a union as well! 

https://www.reddit.com/r/union/comments/rwczci/barnes_noble_workers_want_union/

Their flagship store and New York has unionized along with 3-4 other stores! This is happening! People are tired of being seen as dollar signs and being made to work just to get to work more, to survive instead of thrive. Keep it UP.