Retail store I work at that is a large Midwestern hardware store is garbage in terms of its treatment and relations to workers. I’m not saying I will singlehandedly unionize it, but how can I start spreading the seeds of pro union rhetoric?
I thought about “dropping accidentally” pro union pamphlets and papers around. Maybe talking to more workers in secret and hushed tones about what they think.
Any thoughts or advice?
I was a paying member in the IWW for about a year or so but I stopped in order to focus more on the PCUSA but I went through and read a bunch of their literature while I still could (maybe I still can I’m not sure).
I brought up to one coworkers that we should unionize due to explicitly our low wages and they agreed, but it’s a large store and I already overheard another coworker in a different department say the “increasing wages increases prices” line to someone.
How does one decide what union to look into or to form a contract with? That part I am clueless on.
I don’t know, honestly. The IWW model is you organizing your shop yourself and they give information and advice, since there are no paid organizers. The more conservative business union types have paid organizers they can use, but they’re also business unions.
My suggestion is to at least start with the IWW model of self organization, but start reaching out to every union you think has even the slightest relation and see who bites.
Remember, your first few tries are almost certain to fail. Not to quash hope, but we’re all on square one these days, so don’t get too put off when it doesn’t work out right away.