First mega-thread I’m submitting so go easy on me.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will officially be on strike on August 1st of this year. It’s all hands on deck as people prepare in places like Iowa with their own “practice picket” sessions and people in Rhode Island confirm that they’ll be joining in. The UPS hub in Atlanta was picketed by Teamsters recently and I myself am planning to prepare for the strike with my org.
This is the latest of strikes or soon-to-be strikes in what is now a 3-year strike wave, kicked off by the 2020 protest movement (as well as riots) that shook the whole country during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 uprising brought down several post-Civil War Confederate statues as well as other memorabilia. Many choose to forget that the biggest uprising since 1968 had actually happened. It is an enforced amnesia on a proletariat, in a land where historical amnesia runs rampant, when even the anti-war movement during the Iraq and Afghan wars are barely a memory.
But anyway, ask the org you’re apart of if they plan to get involved or maybe suggest it to them, in order to augment the numbers of the strikers across the country. Make sure to also scout for your local Teamsters local in your area or around whichever region, municipality, local county, etc. you live in.
I would suggest bringing either a flag or your own picket. Flag poles are easy to get off of eBay. Maybe a Teamster logo or whatever logo your organization has.
Frankly, if you have no strike or protest experience, this is as good a time as any to get involved.
Anyway, for now, I’ll leave you with what the Teamsters on their official website say:
“(WASHINGTON) — Around 4 a.m., UPS walked away from the bargaining table after presenting an unacceptable offer to the Teamsters that did not address members’ needs. The UPS Teamsters National Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the package.
Following marathon negotiations, UPS refused to give the Teamsters a last, best, and final offer, telling the union the company had nothing more to give.
“This multibillion-dollar corporation has plenty to give American workers — they just don’t want to,” said Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien. “UPS had a choice to make, and they have clearly chosen to go down the wrong road.”
The UPS Teamsters contract covering more than 340,000 full- and part-time workers expires July 31. No additional negotiations are scheduled.
The Teamsters have repeatedly made clear that UPS members will not work beyond the expiration of the current contract. In June, rank-and-file UPS Teamsters authorized a strike by an overwhelming 97 percent.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.”
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
💖 Come talk in the New Monthly queer thread
💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
⭐️ October Movie Nominations ⭐️
reminders:
💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes struggle sessions over upbears
💜 Sorting by new you nerd
🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here nerd
🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
💙Comprehensive list of resources for those in need of an abortion -- reddit link
Theory:
I worked for UPS for a couple months a few years ago but I walked out of the job when the pandemic hit and the facility I was at introduced a new policy of, "If you're sick, you have to come in and we'll decide whether to send you home or not," because "Too many people were calling out sick." It was definitely illegal (idk if other werehouses were as shady as mine was or not) and I might have been able to fight it but I didn't get it in writing and I hadn't really talked to my co-workers because I'm a dumb lib. I also didn't want to stay and think it over because I felt like my life was at risk. I remember telling my manager, "People are dying!" and she responded, "Well, I have a business to run." Absolute ghoul. I burned through most of the savings I built up working 60's at Amazon for three years before because I didn't want to work anymore because I didn't trust anywhere to take necessary precautions. I remember wishing that I'd set the building on fire.
I hope those bastards get what they fucking deserve and in the meantime that the workers demands are met.
I remember telling someone that "People are dying" and they responded, "People die all the time anyway."
Yeah needless to say my trust in people took a nosedive because of COVID. The amount of just straight-up eugenics shit I saw and heard. Pretty sure I'm scarred for life. But yeah no one talks about that side of COVID trauma, just the "it was bad for mental health to stay at home" side. Hmm I wonder why
Yeah I pretty much checked out and played a bunch of Crusader Kings II which may not have been healthy but it wasn't exactly traumatic. Realizing just how disposable I was was the bad part.
Seriously, I have no idea how to build solidarity with these husks who will mulch me the moment it's more convenient for me to die than for them to face the truth and/or struggle against authority.
For me it was the masks. I've worn masks sanding, cleaning, spraying, painting, grinding, digging. I've worn them as parts of costumes, for paintball, for all kinds of other sports bullshit. I've worn them living in intensely cold climates and for protection from the sun. To me it's the same as putting on underwear or socks or safety glasses or a life vest (which I acknowledge that many people won't do).
But people treated it like this horrible, horrible thing they were being forced to endure and I still cannot grok that. It's such a small thing to ask of people, and the payoff is infinite, and they wouldn't do it.
On top of that - I have bipolar disorder, it's a horrible disease, depression and the resulting misery and isolation have been my curse my whole life. I'm used to being isolated and trapped inside for months at a time so quarantine was at least familiar. Seeing all these people who perpetuate so much violence against disabled people in the course of their normal lives, just by unconsciously participating in this violent system, absolutely lose their shit almost immediately was... very something. Very "If you had what I have you would have died a long time ago". Neurotypical people with vast advantages over me in terms of mental health and stability breaking down and completely losing their shit almost immediately. Don't get me wrong, I didn't do well, but I also threw myself in to 2020 until I broke, so the folks who just sat at home baking bread or whatever and still lost it are unfathomable to me.
Same. I've nearly broken down about this with my therapist a bunch of times, about how can you ever recover from really, really really seeing who the people around you are when the chips are down?
I realized how many of my friends are "tired all the time" and "don't have any energy" and "totally lost their libido" and "just feel gross" the last few years and I'm pretty sure a lot of that is covid and I want to cry because none of them deserved this and there's no way to fix post viral syndromes, nor would they likely be allowed to have those treatments (bc money) if they existed.
When our turn comes, we will make no excuses for the terror.
I'm just terrified of what this is going to do to people over time. I rarely if ever see news articles treating Long Covid as a primary, serious danger from infections. If people get long covid symptoms 10-30% of the time after infection, if the virus attacks and permanently harms the immune system with every infection, if it's the most contagious disease ever by a huge margin, If it's becoming less accutely deadly while becoming more and more infectious and more adept at evading and damaging the immune system?
That starts to look pretty grim if people are getting infected 1-3 times a year, every year, forever. Like really, really, "disease burden unlike anything ever seen in human history" grim. All kinds of sources keep saying "It's over it's over it's over" but never reckon with the long term damage and what it will do to inidividuals and to society. People treat it like the only concern is death from acute infection and there's no other reason to worry.