Hey, I had written a couple long and jaded comments on your last post, but just want to be more encouraging here. Way to reach out for help in the first place, and i wish you the absolute best of luck. I only meant to share some of my mistakes, and ground your project. Nothing about it is easy, but that’s what makes you brave. Chip away at the stone, and sometimes weeks will happen in days.
I’ll believe it when i see it
The first part, being targeted for pro-union status: YES! 1000% YES! And anti-union employees will have the red carpet rolled out if they happen to be late. They’ll get raises for doing bad work. Even someone is the absolute best employee, if they’re pro-union a fart might get them fired. That is the name of their game. They target people and find ways of making it look legit, “oh they were 30 minutes late” even if thats been company culture for years. Go read the NLRA and browse the NLRB.gov site, and it will paint this picture a little more. That’s another reason i say document everything, because it can end up being the proof that someone is being targeted when they need to file a case. If you’re boss lawyers up with union busters then that kind of (illegal) targeting will only intensify, and so will the corporate speak to cover their asses.
No 2… idk if I can without dissuading you. Even little bits of power can create weird internal tensions, and if radlibs / anarkiddies take over a fighting union, then it’s no longer going to be a fighting union. People were constantly dissappinting at every stage, from not showing up to meetings, or pulling teeth to sign cards, or dealing with fallout from the company flipping people by bribery/ intimidation. I’m telling you it’s not similar to war,… it’s literal class war being waged. Just most people don’t see the forest for the trees, and see the power imbalance as an ordained part of nature. They don’t see you as a brave organizer fighting for a better future, they’ll see you as a crazy person trying to upheave the order of things. It takes a real personal toll to organize, and I’ll always have scars from it. I’m still involved with my old union btw, they’ve just broken my heart about 3x times now.
My advice to keep your sanity,… Be prepared to fail from the outset, it’s just a really hard thing to do. Bring those lessons to your next organizing.
Be 10x more serious and thourough than you think you need to be. Anal retentive notes about everything and everybody from day 1.
Build resilience before you start picking fights. You can’t reasonably expect someone to do something for the union if the unions never done anything for them.
I would recommend reading that labor notes book, and following it as closely as possible. My union did at the begining, but when we went public with the union drive and the company started fighting back, we threw the book out. Do what works, and go by the book when u can.
Last thing,… just go slowly. Build it brick by brick. My fledgling union built a tent, and the wind keeps blowing it over.
I helped organize a restaurant, and have some sobering things to say. My biggest piece of advice for someone going into labor organizing,… you’re not just forming a union, you’re involving yourself in class-warfare. The enemy is entrenched, and many of your coworkers (like em or not) who are on the fence might choose the path of least resistence (which is definitely NOT your path).
Labornotes’ “secrets of a successful organizer” has pretty much been our handbook. Big recommend.
Document EVERYTHING, every single day, even your coworkers interactions with mgmt, etc. Managers keep a log at the end of every shift, and so should you now that you’re an organizer/steward. Record one on one convo’s with mgmt.
Be perfect. I mean absolutely perfect, in every way you possibly can. If you’ve ever made a mistake at work, it will be used against you.
Don’t involve managers or supervisors at all, in any capacity, whatsoever. The company WILL try using that, and any other legal gray areas you may not know about, to decertify proceedings.
Read the entire NLRA from start to finish, and learn how to navigate the NLRB website up and down. Learn how to navigate OSHA, and all those govt websites in case you ever need to help a coworker file a case against the company. Learn your rights. And then,… use govt agencies as tools when you can, but never ever lean on them since they’re tools of class collaberation (basically). And remember too, if u do help someone file an osha or harassment case with the govt (or HR), then expect that worker to be targeted from then on. Be prepared to put up a fight for them, or your just signing them up to lose thwir job. Oh, never ever go to HR. They work for the company, and will squash anything and everthing important.
Expect backlash for every action. Don’t pick a fight unless you can win it, because losses will destroy morality and momentum. Victories, even small ones, move you forward and build faith. But, be ready to lose more than you win.
Don’t let anarkiddies, and radlibs take over leadership positions, and obviously not conservatives. But, don’t skip over organizing conservative coworkers you might have. They might surprise you, and become some of your most involved supporters (all while shifting them left politically 👍).
Uhh… what else. I’ve heard others mention EWOC. My union worked with them a little. Sure. Pick anyone and everyones ears. Anybody helping you will likely be a volunteer, so just keep that in mind. Your operation will probably be more of a thin kind of “guerrilla” outfit.
Theres a circle of trust and information like a target: organizers on the inside bullseye who do it all; activists who help out at rallys and go to meetings; supporters might wear the buttons and sign the cards; on the fence; and, opposed. You want to move people from the ring they’re in to the next ring in; supporters to activist, activists to organizers, etc.
Fight and win comrade. If i put too much of my own bad experience in here, I’m not trying to dissuade you. Power fucking to you!!! But,… and i mean holy shit,… if i’m being honest, nothing could’ve prepared me for how intense this experience has been.
At the end of the day,… just be there for your people. Whatever happens, you’re doing a good fucking thing, and we’re all proud of you. Seriously.
The genocide unearthed a lot of information I was unaware of from before oct 7, but that’s like background. The genocide itself,… , I learned I lack any kind of theory to explain zionazi attitudes, and the generally racist genocidal sentiment on displau from average israelis, and even more heinous from their soldiers. I just,… I wish I knew how to think about it, because it floors me emotionally. How can people be such bastards? I learned what modern ordinance does when dropped on a bunch of tents. I know the sound a distraught father make carrying lifeless child. I know how to recognize shock. I’ve had to learn how to process my own emotion differently, because I’ve become such a raw nerve I have to keep myself from crying several times a day. I know it’s just part of my political consciousness process, but my God why does letting yourself give a damn have to hurt so fucking bad? The strength and trauma coming from Palestinians is just,… too much for me to process.
Sawcon D
Make drugs free, and by perscription (especially opiates). Its the only way to regulate the manufacture, and eliminate the commodification.