I work for a small-ish company of laborers. We have ~100 full-time employees who work in labour, a small team of administrative employees, and very few managers all things considered. The reasons for this are part of the reason I need to be vague in public talking about this, because the details make the company very identifiable to anyone who knows anything about the industry.
Some previous employees tried and failed to unionize over a decade ago, but the vote was very close. Since then, wages have stagnated to a degree that make me laugh and cry, we are being pushed to work more and more overtime, and in general morale is very low. I am in contact with a small group of very well-connected employees who are 100% on board with unionizing, and I believe that we can successfully get the required signatures this time if we play our cards right.
- How does one go about choosing a union to work with? I have done some Googling but the results are useless. I need some kind of leftist search engine, please! I know of the major Canadian unions like Unifor and Teamsters, as well as the IWW, and then the very specific ones like the postal union or the teachers' union.
- Does the IWW even do workplace organizing? I was under the impression that it was more of a thing you joined solo.
- Are any of the bigger unions in Canada actually useful? We need a hard wage correction upfront and then guaranteed cost of living increases after that, and I don't want to do all this work to have some centrist 'union' let us down in negotiations.
- Do you know of any trade-specific unions for things in the realm of carpentry and space finishing? (Again sorry for being vague in public about industry) I know that my industry is largely unionized in the US, but here it rarely is. I have not found any info from my Google searches as to which unions those other companies work with.
- If we can't find anything that's a good fit, is it advisable to start an industry-specific union for us and others? Is that doomed to fail?
- I've found a few different groups that say "contact us if you want to organize your workplace" but basically
- Most of them seem US-centric and we are in Canada
- I worry that they're ops lol
- Not sure if this is the IWW's wheelhouse or not. I don't want to take help from them and then form a union under Teamsters or something, kind of feels like wasting their resources idk maybe this is fine??
- So uhhhh please recommend a good group to talk to about this in Canada! Or I mean a US group is fine so long as they have the knowledge about local rules and can help us.
- There is some complex stuff to explain about the company structure that make it hard to know how many people we'd have to get to sign cards and I would really appreciate someone knowledgeable messaging me privately so I can explain a bit, or point me to a good group where I can ask this question
Gosh sorry I am rather at a loss of where to start here so I'm someone could just give me a stick and point me in the right direction I would be exceptionally pleased, thank you!!
Edit: as a bonus I may have slam-dunk proof of wage theft by the company not paying certain employees overtime, would be great if we could also get some resources on how to retaliate for that in as big of a blow as possible. ✌️
Does the IWW even do workplace organizing? I was under the impression that it was more of a thing you joined solo.
Yes! Your local IWW's website or the GHQ website (iww.org) should have workplace organizing intake forms. I will say that GHQ is swamped right now, so it might take some time (weeks, even) to get a response.
Not sure if this is the IWW's wheelhouse or not. I don't want to take help from them and then form a union under Teamsters or something, kind of feels like wasting their resources idk maybe this is fine??
I'm in
, so I'm unfamiliar with Canadian laws. However, IWW organizing generally works to involve the legal system as little as possible, as the bureaucracy takes years to do anything and, when they do, it's too little too late (at least the US NLRB). I wouldn't put much hope in getting anything accomplished through the legal system. However, I'll try to give a quick primer on IWW style organizing:First, IWW has External Organizers (EO's), but they're there to coach you through organizing your own campaign rather than to do the legwork for you. This is partially because they're all unpaid dues-paying volunteers, but also because you're much more invested in the outcome than any EO could ever be.
So, how do you get started? First, you are going to want to get/make a list of all of the people at your company and their personal contact info. This is useful if the boss fires everyone, but also you don't want to use company resources to organize because the boss will find out. This can be a daunting task, especially at a big company, so you will want to make an organizing buddy ASAP.
The overall strategy is to build your committee and spread the load out to everyone. You have to share the burden equally to prevent burnout, make your union more resilient, and to create buy-in among the members so they're more committed.
So, how do you do it? You have to talk with your coworkers, one-on-one, about work, outside of the workplace. You should concentrate on two types of coworkers: social leaders and easy wins, in that order. Social leaders are the informal leaders among your coworkers. Like, if you fuck up and break something, who do you go to to fix it before management finds out? They're the most important coworkers to get on your side, because they will have an easier time converting people to the cause and they will be the hardest opposition if you don't get them on your side.
Throughout this whole process, you should avoid saying the 'U' word ("Union") as much as possible. If, during a one-on one, your coworker perks up and says something like "Hell yeah, lets unionize!" then that's fine, but if someone reacts negatively, like "wait are you talking about unionizing?" you can reply with something like "Hey, I don't know about unions, I'm just talking about us getting what we deserve."
Also, don't count on voting your way into a union. You should focus on direct action, starting at the lowest level, because you can escalate up from what business unions call "an IWW style march on the boss," but you can't escalate up from a strike.I don't want to type out a whole organizing manual, as those already exist and you'll get better results with a dedicated EO, as I'm in a different country and working on campaigns here already, but I'd be happy to answer any questions and clarify anything for you while you decide on a path to take or wait on an EO (from whichever union you decide on) to help.
However, IWW organizing generally works to involve the legal system as little as possible, as the bureaucracy takes years to do anything and, when they do, it's too little too late (at least the US NLRB).
Luckily, thanks to a new law, any union vote over 55% in favour doesn't require certification anymore! 45-55% does. So obviously we'd be aiming for 55%+ if we could.
Getting an employee list is easy, I have full access to that. Phone numbers I can get for all the lead hands very easily. Beyond that some networking may be required. But my co-conspirators will have several and we can work from there. This part I was already aware of.
Also, don't count on voting your way into a union. You should focus on direct action, starting at the lowest level, because you can escalate up from what business unions call "an IWW style march on the boss," but you can't escalate up from a strike.
I don't think this will work in my kind of workplace, as none of the workers are ever anywhere near the bosses. Ever. They rarely even go to the location where the bosses are. Getting people to that place is hard enough even when the company incentivizes it with free food. :/
Basically we are all dispatched to different locations every day. You might work a week on the same jobsite, but then you're off somewhere else. Getting people to commit to going to the office to talk to the boss is hard because 1) your jobsite might be super far away, and 2) the bosses are only at the office during the hours you're supposed to be working. And when you're working paycheque to paycheque, it's hard to agree to skipping a few hours of paid work (even if it would get you a raise or something.) Additionally we do have an elected employee council (consolation prize after the failed union attempt) that we use to pressure management, but nothing ever comes from it. It's a joke. I don't think we have any leverage without having some kind of legal way to represent all of us without people having to come down and do the work themselves.
I think it will be easy to get most of the workers to sign onto the idea that some of their trusted coworkers (who they already elected to the council, in some cases) are going to try to negotiate a raise for everyone on their behalf, you know?
Luckily, thanks to a new law, any union vote over 55% in favour doesn't require certification anymore! 45-55% does. So obviously we'd be aiming for 55%+ if we could.
60% maybe 70%
And who are the remainders? Hard line anti union or just don't care? It makes a difference. You will need to know. Will the run a decert campaign? They will end up being in the Bargaining Unit. Will they obstruct the democratic process of the union?
Getting an employee list is easy, I have full access to that. Phone numbers I can get for all the lead hands very easily
Do you actually have the list? Or do you just think you could get it any moment? Get it now. The very first thing your employer will do when they hear about this could be pull the contact list.
Create and populate a spreadsheet. Verify for changes on a regular basis.
As the saying goes:
Don't think you know. Know you know.
I 100% have the employee list on my own computer, with phone numbers for all the key people who run teams. Through my own contacts list and those of the people working with me, we can fill in a lot of the rest. I need to verify if 3 employees still work for us or not. The recent arrivals are added already. We have a lot of employee churn on the entry level but they send out an email every month welcoming the newbies, so adding them is no problem. Removing them as they go is.
We have a couple old reactionary dudes who are definitely anti-union, but basically just because conservatives have told them "union bad! 😠" We know to avoid them. We also know to avoid a couple key people who are buddies with the owner, although some of them are technically managers so I don't even know if they qualify for being part of the union? It gets complicated because of how horizontal our company structure is overall. Barely anyone actually manages people. (Part of the reason why we never get reviews or raises!)
Luckily the worst reactionaries that I knew of who would've fought tooth and nail against a union are gone. One of the old guys might complain about it, but he's far too lazy to do anything but mouth off, and his influence is limited to a small satellite facility with like 3 coworkers.
Good stuff!
I would discourage you from making assumptions one way or another about how people will act based on their political orientation or even stated beliefs about unions. People who area "anti union" and "pro capitalist" are general also "pro job security", appreciate regular raises, want health benefits. They can be turned around by participating in and benefiting from solidarity. And like, they can be fundamentally changed as people.
Of the other hand, the most rad communist, ML, anarchist, syndicalist, maoist... any of these can be useless or even turncoats in a union drive. Don't trust based on memes or music or readings or tattoos or having the correct line.
he's far too lazy to do anything but mouth off
this is the right way to assess. What do people do? Will they take a risk one way or another? Will they call someone up and try to influence their behaviour? Will they snitch?
his influence is limited to a small satellite facility with like 3 coworkers.
Sounds like you are already doing mapping? Make sure that every person who joins your committee does mapping, even if you think you have no new information to gain. It's a really good way to start thinking like an organizer.
Sorry for the late reply, my inbox keeps marking things as read without me seeing them. It looks like glans has made some good points, and I agree with it on all points. I'm going to try to reply to all of the comments on mine since I posted in this comment instead of just this one I'm replying to.
I would like to reiterate not counting on the perceived politics of coworkers. All of us here have had experiences with leftists flaking out at critical points, so you can't trust that just because someone, say, listens to punk music and talks about XYZ political theory shit that they'll actually put in the work and be there when you need them. Just the same, a lot of these old conservative guys that are against unions are against those other, bad unions, but not their good union (similar to the only good abortion is my abortion type crowd). You just have to figure out what actually motivates other people.
I won't cover mapping too much, as it seems you've done a lot of the work already. The only thing I'll say here is: good points on watching out for the boss's buddies, and I include managers with bosses. Basically, real "managers" are those with hire/fire authority. Everyone else is fair game for unionizing, but you gotta keep your wits about you to detect snitches before looping them in. You'll want to keep the unionization efforts as secret as possible for as long as possible, as the bosses will try to smother it in the crib as soon as they catch wind.
As far as marching on the boss being a hard sell: it always is. There is no part of a unionization effort that's easy. When the Peet's Coffee union in the East Bay was unionizing, they got everyone they could to make the drive out to the regional corporate headquarters across town, pack the lobby, and then wait outside of the office for hours until they basically forced themselves into the boss's office to make demands. Like, I get that it's a big ask, and you'll have to be creative about it, and planning something like this is something that a dedicated External Organizer can help with.
The thing about concentrating on card checks and elections is: It's gonna take a good 6-12 months to actually have the election, then you'll spend the next 6-12 months negotiating a contract, then you'll spend the next 6-12 months fighting them to actually honor the contract, and they'll drag it out until they can force another election and, oh it looks like you didn't actually improve conditions and now everyone's mad and they're not motivated to keep the union certified. However, if you engage in direct action you can get shit like payraises and benefits without ever filing for an election, which will motivate your coworkers to work harder to unionize. A Fellow Worker of mine who is organizing his own workplace, which is a surprisingly similar situation to yours (as far as working on customer sites, everything being handled through leads, rarely interacting with the office which is inconvenient), got ratted out by a snitch and everyone got a $2 payraise, which has just motivated the committee to work harder (and more secretively).
My info might be a few years out of date but I doubt much has changed.
Canadian labor law is much, much more restrictive on the workers than US, UK or other jurisdictions people might be framiliar with. For one thing, every collective agreement (CA) in Canada has a "no strike clause". It is not possible to be a recognized Bargaining Unit without this, even if the employer were to agree to it. In order to obtain a CA, you must agree to only engage in strikes according to very specific rules laid out in your provincial Labor Relations Act. You cannot strike while the CA is in force, and even then after certain steps and timelines have been followed.
This is highly relevant to the IWW due to their ban on "no strike" clauses. Although actually now that I am looking through a IWW constitution I can't find the language. Perhaps thy changed it? For a long time, it was not possible for the IWW to act as an "official union" in canada because canadian-style CAs violated the constitution.
All the provinces except for Alberta have cookie cutter labor relations acts/codes. Look yours up. Alberta is also fucked just not identically.
Just as a random example, see below from Manitoba The Labour Relations Act, C.C.S.M. c. L10. I annotated and highlighted it.
You should read this because it can generall help explain labor culture in canada
Strike offence by union
88(3) Every union that declares or authorizes a strike contrary to this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of not more than $1,000. for each day that the strike exists.
The union can (and will) be financially punished for failure to discipline the workers. This is very smart by Capitalists. It shapes trade union culture. In some provinces they are fines for each worker who participates, each day. Not sure how it is enforced here. A small union of a large workforce doing and illegal strike action could sompletely destroy the organization in short order.
Remember if you are in a different bargaining unit of the same union, this comes out of your potential strike fund, or legal costs.
Strike offence on behalf of union
88(4) Every officer or representative of a union who declares or authorizes or participates in a strike that is contrary to this Act is guilty of an offence and is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of not more than $500.
Union staffers are also personally liable for unruliness of workers. In some jurisdictions this includes PRISION TIME in addition to financials. This of course incentivizes staffers to create a more obedient culture. Any kind of militancy is completely contrary to their interests.
Strike offence by employee
88(5) Every employee who contrary to this Act, strikes or participates in a strike is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than $500.
As a worker, you, personally, are on the hook to pay a fine. The max $500 thing is not the case in all jurisdictions. It can be much higher.
Restriction on strikes etc., after certification
89(1) Where a union has been certified as the bargaining agent of a unit of employees of an employer, and no collective agreement has been concluded between the union and the employer respecting the unit,
(a) the union shall not declare or authorize a strike of the employees; (b) the employer shall not declare or cause a lockout of the employees; and (c) no employee in the unit shall strike;
during the period of 90 days after the date on which the union was certified as the bargaining agent of the unit and any period of extension that may be ordered in respect of the bargaining agent and the employer under subsection 10(3).
So once you win the vote, you can't strike for 3 months or longer if that is decided by someone else. If you do, see above for consequences.
Restriction on strikes etc., under collective agreement
89(2) Where a union as the bargaining agent of a unit of employees of an employer and the employer have concluded a collective agreement respecting the unit,
(a) the union shall not declare or authorize a strike of the employees; (b) the employer shall not declare or cause a lockout of the employees; and (c) no employee in the unit shall strike; while the collective agreement is in force.
Here is your No Strike Clause.
Once you have a contract, No Strike.
Within Canada you might consider contacting the Edmonton IWW even if there is another one closer to you.
You should also use this form https://www.iww.org/organize/ to contact the north american organizing department.
It is highly likely you will end up going with another union but getting the influence of the IWW is a good move. They will provide context to understand the actions and motivations of the others. In all cases keep your antennas up.
edit:
I don't want to take help from them and then form a union under Teamsters or something, kind of feels like wasting their resources idk maybe this is fine??
Do not worry about this. The IWW does not get too salty about "poaching". Certainly they do not engage in mob-type territorialism. IWWs understand the difficulty of shopping for a union and respect the agency of workers to make an informed decision. They should also be extremely aware and clear about their deficits. Going with the IWW is a big decision and nobody would want it to happen because someone felt guilted into it.
IWW tacticts are in use far and wide under many organizational banners. Here is a great little booklet published years ago which discusses specifically: Weakening the dam - Twin Cities IWW. See the chapter Lasting Lessons from the Class Struggle:
The concept of producing organizers at one company who scatter out to others companies has become a maxim for some IWW organizers in industry-wide efforts, and the concept is a good one, but there's something more to it. Not everyone is going to become an organizer but everyone is going to have [t]o assess the fight they've just been through and draw conclusions for their own lives. When the dust settles from our action, as it inevitably does, we are left to consider what happened. We have seen the power we have as workers, a power unknown before. It may not occur to us immediately, but with any major change in our lives, there is a resonance - a white noise that does not go away. It could be a month later and we could be at the same job, or a year later and we could be two jobs down the road, but we will remember. And when we have the chance, we line up with, or maybe even lead, an effort to organize and take a stand against the boss. This time we do it with less hesitation than before, maybe with more foresight and with more vigor, because now we know exactly what it means.
The bottom line is this: our organizing needs to have as its byproduct a new increase in workers' willingness to resist - an increase in our propensity to act on our urges to resist the bosses - even if the resistance is individual. This is the revolutionary outcome. This will lay the groundwork for future organizing, in this industry or others. To “organize the worker not the job” as we say in this union, is to gradually create new kinds of people, people who are most likely to never again roll over and take the shit the boss throws at them.
I found a contract for a similar company in a public access database and did notice the no-steike clause. But given that all strikes seem to happen after contracts expire anyway I wasn't super worried about that.
Side note, the similar company that has a union has the saddest wage table I've ever seen. I know it's a corporate chain but I legitimately don't know how anyone survives at those rates! And they have a union!! The one good thing is that they have a regular raise schedule so people don't fall behind with inflation, I guess.
Lol that was my guess for real union. They have a lot of grocery stores full of min wage workers.
If you make minimum wage and you have a union, you actually make less than minimum wage. Because of the dues. Its embarrassing that they will allow the situation.
It's just extra weird because the industry normally doesn't have low starting wages. The whole problem is that they get you with an appealing starting wage and never give you a raise despite record inflation. So to see the wage table at a place that's unionized have worse starting wages is... something.
People really don't notice the brilliant evil of the canadian labor legislation. It is singular. In canada unions don't just lack power because of the general global class war thing. They are totally tangled up in the enforcement of capitalism, more than in other places.
The whole No Strike being required in every contract is an example. First, you guaranteed to have this devastating agreement in your contract. It really fucks over the workers. An agreement that in other places, like the US, strong unions do not enter into. But in Canada, there is no choice.
Who is responsible to make sure it's adhered to? The ministry? The employer? The police? The workers themselves? No: the Union. Not just the organization, but the officers of the Union as individuals. The officers of the Union are held to be personally liable if workers become too militant or disruptive. They can have their assets seized and become incarcerated. They and their families can lose their homes!! They can go to jail. For the actions of other people! It is a kind of accountability that basically doesn't exist anywhere else.
So think about it, over the decades, the workplace culture of the people who are employed at the Union. They do not want worker control over the Union. They do not want militancy. Not just because the status quo is kind of working for them, but because they are personally afraid of the consequences of it. Worker control, democracy etc immediately lead to militancy. Which they are on the hook for. We are taught that workers are meek and afraid, but it's not true. Workers are brave. It's probably already happened, but if not, you are soon going to start hearing about people's fantasies of doing a big strike. People love the idea of showing the boss who's boss. But the system in canada, really more than elsewhere is set up to scare unions away from this.
It sounds like you are private sector, so any of the private sector unions will be good to contact. It is worth contacting and meeting with a few to feel them out. Bring a small team with you though, this is good for two reasons: you get other opinions, and you show them that you aren't just a single person trying to unionize a workplace. IMO (and to be clear, this is just my opinion) don't bother with the IWW, they basically don't exist. You need money, staff, and experience, and the large unions have these (even if they are libs at the end of the day--but being part of them does mean you can send delegates to conferences, etc.., and move them in a direction you like).
You will have to meet with the unions to feel them out, and I only know about public unions, so I don't have specific advice there. It really comes down to a few things, your local, your staff rep from the union (the person who helps you bargain), and the union itself. Make a list of unions that may be relevant to you (i.e. Canadian Private Sector Unions), and then look at whether they have locals who have recently been on strike, how much the union itself supported them, and the outcomes of their contracts. But do reach out and make contact with them (using your private email ofc). Starting your own industry specific union is likely not a great idea in such a small workplace.
IDK what province you are in, but that can have a bearing on specifics too.
This is very basic, but here is the CUPE guide for unionizing: https://bcorganizing.cupe.ca/process/. You already sound like you have the beginning of an organizing committee, so the next step is to solidify that, and then talk to unions to get advice in person.
A side note, but I was recently a party to a failed organizing drive of a small workplace, and it failed because the potential members where not properly informed and the organizers got ahead of themselves.
Yeah, I think most of the public sector stuff is unionized already tbh. I'm going to look at the well-known unions like Teamsters etc, but it's so hard to get a good overview of which ones suck the least. All the good stories I've seen recently in terms of won battles have been in Quebec which doesn't really help us out.
I'm definitely in the phase 0 of this: research. Going to do as much as possible before I launch into phase 1: planning. But planning is my strong suit and I've already got a few ideas for as to how I could go about mapping out employee social connections etc. I plan to not let this attempt fizzle like the last one did. It was before my time but I'm told that they didn't have the right people behind the effort. Marx give me strength
Anyway thanks for the info, I had entirely forgotten CUPE existed.
Yeah, public sector is heavily unionized, but not entirely, especially when it is in that weird public/private middle ground. I've been part of two different unions. Both had/have their issues, but in one case it was primarily a problem with the local. If you start a new local it is kind of nice because you don't have pre-existing apathetic execs who are useless. Even if you get unionized, the process of agitation doesn't end or else people get complacent.
When you meet with unions do ask them how they would support you on strike. For me, one of these unions basically gave us a blank cheque (though they wouldn't call it that), staff that were on the picket everyday pumping people up, and tirelessly worked to escalate. Part of this was because the president of the union itself was good, and we lucked out with good mid/lower level staff who had guts.
Solidarity and best of luck organizing!
failed because the potential members where not properly informed and the organizers got ahead of themselves.
it's called a hot shop and like 90% of workplaces that contact a union all ready to organize are like this. 2 weeks later the whole organizing committee is some combination of quit/fired. Or maybe the boss bought them pizza and promised to change so energy is gone. I don't know if the situation described will be like this, it might not be.
Me and the other guys on board so far are "lifers" and there's been no event to get us riled up or anything. I've always wanted to do it but circumstances didn't allow for it, but in recent discussions with coworkers I came to realize that we actually have several very good people willing to help out with this now. It's been a boiling frogs situation at the company for decades. We all know there's no point in listening to company platitudes because we've been around long enough to see the cycle. "Yeah we'll totally look into it! Oh, we said we would last month? Well, I'll move it to the top of my list!" Over and over. Can't even get them to take a damaged piece of equipment out of rotation for repairs until it almost kills someone. Even when we tell them it's gonna kill someone. So we're on the same page in this: that the only way to get things to change is to force it, and that we can only do that if we all stand as one.
Can't speak for anyone else, but I know that I tend to pursue goals relentlessly once I start. And pizza's never worked before. 😛
Well that's handy, because in many cases the way to get around No Strike has to do with refusing unsafe work. You "always" have the right to refuse unsafe work, even if you do it collectively. (Assuming your jurisdiction/industry doesn't have some weird exception or carveout... consult relevant laws to be informed before you break them.) And you know what I mean when I say you have "rights" at work.
Of course the classic thing for unsafe equipment is that sometimes it gets broken worse so that it cannot be used and must be repaired/replaced. That's kind of the nature of not keeping up with routine tasks. But on the other hand it's cool to act as a group to educate the employer as to the wisdom of proactively conducting maintenance and repairs. Perhaps they can be made to see the light.
It doesn't sound to me like you are in a hot shop. From what you've shared, if I was your boss, I'd go for the carrot not the stick. Give some sort of transient but significant in the short term concession that shows the company is willing to "work on the issues". Everyone (or even more effective: some people) gets a $1 raise, or fire an unpopular manager, or promise to buy new equipment.... next year. Maybe you or someone else in your group will get promoted into management or some sort of fakeass supervisor role that just came into existence. But all that depends if they are smart enough to hire and take advice from anti union consultants. If they are too cheap and go the DIY route there is basically no predicting what will happen. At the end of the day a DIY anti-union effort is governed by the inner emotional lives of the individual people who have power. Logic and even class interests may fly out the window.
Have you discussed with your committee what would happen if suddenly there was pizza, beer, sports tickets, extra days off, etc? Not just that you won't be swayed by it but what about every other person on the job? Pizza is delicious. I wonder if it was in fact invented as an anti union tool.
The company has already tried pizza and sports days for retention, and I'm proud to say that four people showed up to the last sports day they tried! Pizza is something that has historically been seen as "literally the least they can do" and "I'd rather have the $10 that they budgeted for this." It's very hard to sway workers as cynical as ours with cheap treats, because they are not just unable to afford luxuries like pizza from a restaurant: they're unable to afford basic needs like rent. No amount of pizza can take the pain of that away.
As for days off, unless the company is paying them at time-and-a-half, most guys won't be able to take them. They rely on overtime shifts to make ends meet. I don't know anyone who takes vacation except the president and the salespeople.
I'm waiting to hear back from the IWW now before I get too gung ho on the committee. But I think it's safe to say that the cost of living crisis is so acute right now that it will be an excellent tool for us: we can always show our coworkers the wage-to-rent graph, and talk about how we can actually enforce regular raises with collective power. All of these guys have asked for and been denied raises so many times, most of the ones I've talked to are just fucking tired and don't want to have to be the one to advocate for themself anymore. They were always happy to hear that one of us was going to fight for something for them, even if it was unlikely we could actually get it.
Sound good!
Don't hesitate to contact any and all unions available to you. Even if they don't seem like they typically organize your industry. They can tell you No but sometimes shops end up in a union that sounds kind of weird because it was the best fit. If there have been any local struggles you've heard of where it seemed like the union did a good job, contact them. Even if they are in a totally different industry you might get some intel on your options. And if you know anyone who is a member of any candidate unions, ask them what they think.
There is probably a District Labour Council for your area and they are probably worth talking to as they will know the lay of the land.
And of course when I say "you" I mean your committee because its important that these tasks be spread out democratically. Everyone needs to participate equally.
