I can hardly believe it, but I think we're actually starting to see a cultural shift around unions and the connotations of the word "union". I think it's kind of happening as a snapback effect against Amazon, but I think unions are starting to make headway against 50 years of being vilified.
the new teamster president is all about strikes. i think good things will happen soon. followed by really bad things, followed by some sort of fucked up median between the two.
Would love it if unions started doing illegal wildcat and solidarity strikes. They probably won't because the feds will crack down on them harder than trans rights in the South, but I also think that is a necessary path to change in this country.
oddly enough some of the problem with unions is that they're too united, in that they've become completely kneecapped by union busting and the legislation that has developed around it.
it takes national approval for a strike to occur. i feel like my local has plenty of reasons to refuse to work, but it all has to be run by upper union management, which leads to politics and a whole bunch of bullshit (corrupt asshole stewarts and business agents, dipshit spineless mother fuckers, a shitty card game played with people's livelihoods), as opposed to just "fuck this, fuck you, we're out."
kind of redundant to have to answer to any kind of management whether it be union or not, to improve material conditions. definitely more of an anarchist when it comes to unions than I am a communist.
That's why I was so thrilled the Staten Island Amazon DC formed an independent union.
a bit late, but yeah, I think I agree with this take. I think I would just characterize it as "too bureaucratic" or maybe "too liberal", rather than "too unified."
In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold
Greater than the might of atoms, magnified a thousand fold
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong
Fun fact: you can tell how many anarchists are in your org by how much louder the line "from the ashes of the old" is than the others.
Ha ha, the first DSA chapter meeting I went to they started passing out the lyrics and I was like wait, there's singing? 500 plus people belting out Solidarity Forver is pretty damn cool, though.
I find it weird because my dad being in a union is likely the only reason I've acquired the minimium culture required to play a role in society
So whenever I heard anyone shit talk unions I was like :jesse-wtf: even a crap union changed my dads life
They will run unions into the ground if they’re allowed in. Libs love a good compromise.
UK unions were heavily sabotaged for decades because liberal leadership got hold of them. They did absolutely fuck all for an incredibly long time.
Militant socialist leadership manages to get hold of the UK's biggest union and immediately announces their intent to "plot" an international campaign to unionise amazon.
Within 6 months amazon has its first union success and more are soon to follow.
These are not coincidences. An international collaborative effort is occurring behind the scenes which is really fucking with Amazon's ability to fight it.
Keeping the liberals out of leadership of the powerful big unions should be considered one of the highest priorities for everyone in the left. We should be taking much more interest in them, we should have better news about the politics inside unions and which ones are upcoming battles that need to be fought to keep out liberals and keep in socialist leaders.
Campaigning for their opponent mostly. These elections happen so quietly among the most actively invested that even a small increase in the number of people actively involved in spreading propaganda could significantly affect them. If we actively tracked important unions and their elections in the same way we currently track countries and their elections we could direct people towards signal boosting and propaganda participation that could tip the balance.
Socialists are also much more likely to be heavily invested in such elections in large numbers than neoliberals. Popular support would be very easy to demonstrate compared to the latest shitfuck member of the Trilateral Commission or some other bullshit neoliberal org.
Yeah I remember hearing some surprisingly positive poll numbers regarding unionization lately (broad majority support IIRC), you truly do love to see it.
The poll numbers are huge. When "Striketober" became a thing on social media last year it was such a huge disappointment when the polls came out. IIRC I think October 2021 was still a net loss in union activity. :doomjak:
BUT THEN 2022 CAME AROUND BABY!! Let's all let ourselves feel some hope again I prefer when we have hope :cat-com:
I was raised in a fairly anti-union house and my first experience with unions was shit. I was forced to pay dues at an almost minimum wage job but got absolutely no help with any of the bullshit my coworkers or I went through. It took me years to start looking at unions as a good thing. My last job had a very strong union and it was awesome, wages were good and every time the management tried to implement new bullshit the union always pushed back and normally won. I don't think I would ever work a non union job again. I'm really glad to see the general public start to embrace them again.
Seems like anyone who was raised in a trade family is pretty supportive of unions no matter their politics, but particularly if you're an old millennial and had a right wing family the hatred is rather visceral. Gen Z seems to be far less indoctrinated against them.
Even my boomer parents seem to understand that their old factory job was better when it was Union.
We've manged to get the most popular opinion on that cursed orange website to change from Union Bad to Company Union Bad, it's great.
