From time to time I will see a post that is like “don’t buy THING because COMPANY is screwing their employees”. In most cases, I am willing to believe that the company is screwing there employees, I work for a company, I know how business leaders think. But here is the thing, if you want me to help you, I need you to help your self first, and that means unionizing.
When the writers strike happened over the residuals on streaming services, I canceled my subscriptions. I don’t by Coffee from non-unionized Starbucks. I canceled my Prime account when Amazon was doing all their union busting. When my truck delivery was delayed by Ford because auto workers were striking, I called Ford customer service every day saying “pay them so I can get my truck or I will buy something else”. I am a member of the working class and I will support my fellow working class members.
But if you are going to agree to bad employment contracts and let the business people screw you because you don’t think you need to unionize. Sorry buddy, I am not going to help you when shit hits the fan.
I am looking at you Software Developers, I am looking at you IT Professionals, I am looking at you every employee in every fucking industry. Help yourself now before it is too late.
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Worth adding - let’s all shop from unionized businesses whenever possible. There’s strength in solidarity.
Or better yet, worker-owned coops.
Not agreeing to bad employment contracts means being unemployed. All employment contracts are bad.
And you fix that problem by unionizing and renegotiating.
How do I unionize a workplace that hasn’t hired me yet?
Absolute victim blaming, capitalist bullshit. Go fuck yourself.
How is telling people they need to unionize capitalist? If anything its Marxist, seas the means of production now before they screw you over and I will stand by you comrade.
Its a lot easier said than done, esspecially in an easy-to-enter, oversaturated field like tech or retail. There are so many workers, its hard to organize on a meaningful scale, and the barrier to entry is often low enough that the company can fire the whole team and have a new one overnight. So far as I can think of, the only fields sharing a similar low barrier to entry and abundance of workers, that has successfully unionised are all in hollywood, with things like writting and acting, where there was far more money involved.
Thats not to say people shouldn’t unionise or that its impossible, but given the current state of the economy its also absurd to directly put blame on those who are most vulnerable, least likely to succeeded, and most likely to face retaliation.
If you’re going to victum blame, it should really be on senior staff that are harder to replace, and other unions for not showing more support. Or, you could just blame the people actually responsible: the rich and powerful who built and maintain the current system.
Edit: Just to provide an example for context: Stats are iffy, but most seem to agree that about 15 million people work in retail the US. You’ll need a significant portion of the workforce in the union to be able to negotiate. Its obviously more complicated than a straight percentage, but for the sake of example, we’ll say you need 20% membership. That means you’ll need a union (or collective of unions) of 3 million people, matching the NEA and dwarfing unions like the Teamsters, SEIU, and United Auto Workers. Again, I’m not saying we shouldn’t try, but this isn’t a simple or easy process. For those involved, its risky or outright dangerous, and they’ll need all the support they can get if they want to have any chance of success.
Its a lot easier said than done, esspecially in an easy-to-enter, oversaturated field like tech or retail
If actors and writers can figure this out, two fields it’s that are even easier to “enter” so can tech.
As I noted, there is also a lot more money involved in movie production compared to retail. On the actor/writer side, you have more individuals involved who don’t risk starving when they form a union, and on the studio side, they can less afford to delay or trash shows and movies. Compare that to, for example, walmart workers who likely have little in the way of savings, nonetheless funding to establish a union, and work for a company that could close down a dozen stores to kill a union an not even notice it in their balance sheet.
Again, I’m not saying they shouldn’t unionize, but given the enviroment, the system is stacked against them. Blaming vulnerable workers for not unionizing is like saying the poor don’t have money because they didn’t work hard enough, or didn’t invest in the right things. Instead of blaming them, we need to be looking at ways to support them. This might be pushing legislators to improve workers rights and social safety nets, it might be helping them to join larger unions (such as how a lot of IT workers end up covered by other unions), or it might be providing more tools and education on how to organize into unions, ultimately, the important thing is recognizing that these are people who need help and trying to offer it to them rather than jist telling them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
hard agree
People act as if the everyday person has this imaginary power. That’s going to make things better. No. Collected efforts have this power that makes things better. And for some stupid reason, at least in the US, we are extremely against using that power.
people would rather try to support it as an individual instead of support it as a collective, so instead of it being an actual impact, it’s only like a drop in the bucket that the companies can ignore. all for a pittance of extra income.
But if you are going to agree to bad employment contracts and let the business people screw you
Hold on, let me get my helmet …
Are you helping them form unions, or just casting feces from an ivory tower?
I smell something
