shoutout to whoever suggested i reach out to them… i messaged one of the organizers through instagram just before the weekend hit and they said they would be happy to meet and discuss my situation on Monday!!!
i am still on the fence with how well this is gonna work out but if there is a possibility to join the union then recruiting coworkers will be a bit of a challenge but a welcome one so i am excited. About 60% of them like me anyway but those i can convince have connections with the rest of the staff so i hope they can help me out here. I haven’t thought about new hires but i know about 3 people are close to walking out the door and i won’t stop them really because it sucks here. 😔
I will post about my meeting on monday… any advice for me before meeting someone from the PSL would be helpful thanks!
Thank you for your comment!
Do you think there’s a chance at management going after some coworkers interested in joining the union if let’s say they made a mistake like coming in late? I say this because I don’t want there to be a situation where in an attempt to demoralize us they might go after some employees just because they want to unionize? Can this happen?
Can you elaborate? No need if it’s too much to write about but it would be nice to know what I’m kinda getting myself into. i am fairly confident in sticking the landing with this thing and i am anxious at the same time but i wont let my anxiety dissuade me.
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.
Not who youre asking but:
Yes, this is Union busting 101 and they will put you all under the microscope, and will try to find any reason to fire people who are supportive of the union. This happens all of the time, especially if you live in an at will employment state. If you have any kind of employee handbook or policies and procedures, find a copy of it, read it and keep it. They might try to change up policies while youre organizing so that they can reprimand people but that is considered an unfair labor practice so knowing that stuff from the get go will be helpful to let then know you know what youre doing.
The process can be very rewarding, youre gonna push yourself hard and likely out of your comfort zone and you’ll learn a lot. But, it can be gruelling. Someone online told me that if I was going to organize, I needed to make sure I had no personal life and they were right. I dedicated every moment of time I had off (and on) the clock to reading up on labor law, writing proposals, communicating with coworkers, having meetings, etc etc. YOU and your coworkers are the union. You might get lucky and find a union rep who is knowledgeable and who cares and will help with a public campaign and knows their way around contract negotiations, or you might not and its really on you to learn what you can and be confident in what you know.