This is what happens when you put a guy that fixed bread prices in charge of transportation.

  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    engineers in america, of whatever type, seem completely inoculated against union agitation. STEMlords have such powerful brainworms.

    • GaveUp [love/loves]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      It's because most of them derive their entire self worth and identity from being smarter than others and thus joining a union with "low performers" or "lazier people" are completely beneath them

    • Beaver [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      The top post on the Orange Site right now features a bunch of STEMlord commentators backslapping each other about how cool it is that some C-suite dude from coinbase is getting a $100 million golden parachute. They're getting their throats slit and bragging about how now they'll have a second smile.

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I have two engineer friends who work in deep sea oil. Every time we hang out, after enough beers one or the other starts talking about whatever project or tool they're designing and they immediately start collaborating. I can even point out how they default to collaborative work, but somehow they never agree that the obvious conclusion is group negotiation.

      • jack [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They’re getting their throats slit and bragging about how now they’ll have a second smile.

        damn this rules did you come up with it?

        • Beaver [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Yep, just kinda typed it out. Now you can use it :D

    • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Not all of them, but a lot.

      And most of those open to the idea don't think of themselves as exploited. They want a union so that they can stand in solidarity with others, not to bargain better conditions for themselves.

      I think it is as simple as that: they don't see themselves as exploited. They think they got a good situation economically and as a (sub)class. Hence why their sympathies, and often condescension, are directed at the lower (sub)classes, particularly manual laborers.

      On the current trajectory, this will change. Wages will fall, hours will increase, people will get fired and fear for their jobs. This is actually a fairly interesting space to organize in, as you can get a visceral sense of the power of both material conditions vs. lefty organizing as a conscious project.

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        They want a union so that they can stand in solidarity with others

        it would be nice if that were true

        • AHopeOnceMore [he/him]B
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          It is! At least to an extent. This is people already trying to form a union, and the downside is that they are not militant because it isn't actually organized around getting better pay and conditions, but about having an officially protected say in the work chosen by the company (for example).

          This includes people demanding a disinvestment from war and war contracting, people demanding BDS (opposing Israeli apartheid), people demanding contracf employees (who are treated like full-time employees but poor compensation and protection) become full employees with benefits.

              • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                it would be kind of dope if we had some union coordination here, now that you mention it, I think we could get a good number of people to show up in big cities when needed for actions