shoutout to whoever suggested i reach out to them… i messaged one of the organizers through instagram just before the weekend hit and they said they would be happy to meet and discuss my situation on Monday!!!
i am still on the fence with how well this is gonna work out but if there is a possibility to join the union then recruiting coworkers will be a bit of a challenge but a welcome one so i am excited. About 60% of them like me anyway but those i can convince have connections with the rest of the staff so i hope they can help me out here. I haven’t thought about new hires but i know about 3 people are close to walking out the door and i won’t stop them really because it sucks here. 😔
I will post about my meeting on monday… any advice for me before meeting someone from the PSL would be helpful thanks!
So many good resources and advice in here. You will find what I say through any of these resources, but one I want to highlight is organize yourselves and then get a union involved.
Unionizing with an organization can often give you a false sense of security that they will protect you if you or any of your coworkers get fired. They most likely won’t. They don’t have the money or resources necessary for a lengthy court battle for non dues paying members. And organizing yourselves gives you power during negotiations so the org doesn’t have as much power over the workers bc you did it for yourself.
Get to know your coworkers and get them to trust you. Talk to people you haven’t talked with much. Organizing is won in personal relationships. It’s not won in emails, flyers, etc. also get to know their issue and how it affects them personally. Questions like “What’s that like for you?” “How does that affect you and your family?”
Another quality question: “Do you think the boss should make 100% of the decisions about our wages, benefits, and working conditions or do you think we should be apart of that decision making process?”
Most workers will say things like I will sign a card when the time comes or I don’t really care about this job. These discussions are a lot easier when you have a personal relationship.
Super key is inoculation, tell your coworkers what management is going to do because there’s nothing worse than you start getting close to winning then management gets wind of it and starts doing all the things and everyone flips because they weren’t aware it would be happening. 3 top phrases from bosses. You’re not allowed to talk about that at work… you are, they’re lying. It will be so expensive… people mostly want a union for more money no one is going to agree to lose money… A union is a third party going to cause disruption… a union is you and your coworkers. They will also offer raises and coffees and all sorts of perks. Once the threat of the union is gone so is all of that.
Organizing convos:
- Talk about things they like about working there
- Things they want to change.
- Point to how both things they like and things they want to change are solely in managements control.
- Find a union win in your job sector. Point to what workers did to win that and ask what it would mean for them to have that. (Bonus if it connects to their issues which is why you want a bunch of these in the back pocket).
- Ask them if they support forming a union. (Clearly and directly)
- Inoculation as i mentioned earlier.
- This is how we win… Getting list of all coworkers. Talking to them. And building support. Stop talking to people who aren’t supportive immediately about anything Union related. Get to 60-70% support. Take it to a Union. Vote.
- Action. Who can you talk to? What list can you get? Who can you start building relationships with?
At some point create a group chat so people can get updates and information about what’s happening and it’s relayed quickly.
Thank you for this!
Happy to help. Feel free to reach out whenever
I helped organize a restaurant, and have some sobering things to say. My biggest piece of advice for someone going into labor organizing,… you’re not just forming a union, you’re involving yourself in class-warfare. The enemy is entrenched, and many of your coworkers (like em or not) who are on the fence might choose the path of least resistence (which is definitely NOT your path).
Labornotes’ “secrets of a successful organizer” has pretty much been our handbook. Big recommend.
Document EVERYTHING, every single day, even your coworkers interactions with mgmt, etc. Managers keep a log at the end of every shift, and so should you now that you’re an organizer/steward. Record one on one convo’s with mgmt.
Be perfect. I mean absolutely perfect, in every way you possibly can. If you’ve ever made a mistake at work, it will be used against you.
Don’t involve managers or supervisors at all, in any capacity, whatsoever. The company WILL try using that, and any other legal gray areas you may not know about, to decertify proceedings.
Read the entire NLRA from start to finish, and learn how to navigate the NLRB website up and down. Learn how to navigate OSHA, and all those govt websites in case you ever need to help a coworker file a case against the company. Learn your rights. And then,… use govt agencies as tools when you can, but never ever lean on them since they’re tools of class collaberation (basically). And remember too, if u do help someone file an osha or harassment case with the govt (or HR), then expect that worker to be targeted from then on. Be prepared to put up a fight for them, or your just signing them up to lose thwir job. Oh, never ever go to HR. They work for the company, and will squash anything and everthing important.
Expect backlash for every action. Don’t pick a fight unless you can win it, because losses will destroy morality and momentum. Victories, even small ones, move you forward and build faith. But, be ready to lose more than you win.
Don’t let anarkiddies, and radlibs take over leadership positions, and obviously not conservatives. But, don’t skip over organizing conservative coworkers you might have. They might surprise you, and become some of your most involved supporters (all while shifting them left politically 👍).
Uhh… what else. I’ve heard others mention EWOC. My union worked with them a little. Sure. Pick anyone and everyones ears. Anybody helping you will likely be a volunteer, so just keep that in mind. Your operation will probably be more of a thin kind of “guerrilla” outfit.
Theres a circle of trust and information like a target: organizers on the inside bullseye who do it all; activists who help out at rallys and go to meetings; supporters might wear the buttons and sign the cards; on the fence; and, opposed. You want to move people from the ring they’re in to the next ring in; supporters to activist, activists to organizers, etc.
Fight and win comrade. If i put too much of my own bad experience in here, I’m not trying to dissuade you. Power fucking to you!!! But,… and i mean holy shit,… if i’m being honest, nothing could’ve prepared me for how intense this experience has been.
At the end of the day,… just be there for your people. Whatever happens, you’re doing a good fucking thing, and we’re all proud of you. Seriously.
This is all very good info grounded in reality, even if its less than optimistic. My union drive was hellish, and our departments still got liquidated right before the contract was set to be TA’d. The union we chose was yellow and worse than useless. We fought as hard as we could, though and I’m glad that I had the experience. I never in a million years thought it would be as emotionally taxing as it was
Thank you for your comment!
Be perfect. I mean absolutely perfect, in every way you possibly can. If you’ve ever made a mistake at work, it will be used against you.
Do you think there’s a chance at management going after some coworkers interested in joining the union if let’s say they made a mistake like coming in late? I say this because I don’t want there to be a situation where in an attempt to demoralize us they might go after some employees just because they want to unionize? Can this happen?
nothing could’ve prepared me for how intense this experience has been.
Can you elaborate? No need if it’s too much to write about but it would be nice to know what I’m kinda getting myself into. i am fairly confident in sticking the landing with this thing and i am anxious at the same time but i wont let my anxiety dissuade me.
The first part, being targeted for pro-union status: YES! 1000% YES! And anti-union employees will have the red carpet rolled out if they happen to be late. They’ll get raises for doing bad work. Even someone is the absolute best employee, if they’re pro-union a fart might get them fired. That is the name of their game. They target people and find ways of making it look legit, “oh they were 30 minutes late” even if thats been company culture for years. Go read the NLRA and browse the NLRB.gov site, and it will paint this picture a little more. That’s another reason i say document everything, because it can end up being the proof that someone is being targeted when they need to file a case. If you’re boss lawyers up with union busters then that kind of (illegal) targeting will only intensify, and so will the corporate speak to cover their asses.
No 2… idk if I can without dissuading you. Even little bits of power can create weird internal tensions, and if radlibs / anarkiddies take over a fighting union, then it’s no longer going to be a fighting union. People were constantly dissappinting at every stage, from not showing up to meetings, or pulling teeth to sign cards, or dealing with fallout from the company flipping people by bribery/ intimidation. I’m telling you it’s not similar to war,… it’s literal class war being waged. Just most people don’t see the forest for the trees, and see the power imbalance as an ordained part of nature. They don’t see you as a brave organizer fighting for a better future, they’ll see you as a crazy person trying to upheave the order of things. It takes a real personal toll to organize, and I’ll always have scars from it. I’m still involved with my old union btw, they’ve just broken my heart about 3x times now.
My advice to keep your sanity,… Be prepared to fail from the outset, it’s just a really hard thing to do. Bring those lessons to your next organizing.
Be 10x more serious and thourough than you think you need to be. Anal retentive notes about everything and everybody from day 1.
Build resilience before you start picking fights. You can’t reasonably expect someone to do something for the union if the unions never done anything for them.
I would recommend reading that labor notes book, and following it as closely as possible. My union did at the begining, but when we went public with the union drive and the company started fighting back, we threw the book out. Do what works, and go by the book when u can.
Last thing,… just go slowly. Build it brick by brick. My fledgling union built a tent, and the wind keeps blowing it over.
Not who youre asking but:
Do you think there’s a chance at management going after some coworkers interested in joining the union if let’s say they made a mistake like coming in late?
Yes, this is Union busting 101 and they will put you all under the microscope, and will try to find any reason to fire people who are supportive of the union. This happens all of the time, especially if you live in an at will employment state. If you have any kind of employee handbook or policies and procedures, find a copy of it, read it and keep it. They might try to change up policies while youre organizing so that they can reprimand people but that is considered an unfair labor practice so knowing that stuff from the get go will be helpful to let then know you know what youre doing.
The process can be very rewarding, youre gonna push yourself hard and likely out of your comfort zone and you’ll learn a lot. But, it can be gruelling. Someone online told me that if I was going to organize, I needed to make sure I had no personal life and they were right. I dedicated every moment of time I had off (and on) the clock to reading up on labor law, writing proposals, communicating with coworkers, having meetings, etc etc. YOU and your coworkers are the union. You might get lucky and find a union rep who is knowledgeable and who cares and will help with a public campaign and knows their way around contract negotiations, or you might not and its really on you to learn what you can and be confident in what you know.
That’s cool! Didn’t know PSL was starting labor organizing campaigns. I put an effort post I saw on hexbear a couple years ago below so hopefully whoever you talk to shares similar materials/ideas.
Steps for initial union organizing:
1.Get a list of everyone at your site
2.Make a spreadsheet with your estimate on how pro-union they all are (5-point scale: would help organize, would vote yes on union card, neutral, anti-union but could be convinced, would rat you out to the boss so avoid talking union to this person)
3.Start talking to people about unions, carefully, and add them to the spreadsheet
4.If you find someone who’s super pro-union (5), give them access to the spreadsheet too
5.Keep going until everyone is in the sheet
6.If your sheet says you don’t have a majority, identify fence-sitters and the workers they respect, and work on recruiting the workers they respect
7.When you’re getting close to a majority, contact another union in your area and ask for advice and a lawyer recommendation
8.Make sure you’ve talked to another local union and a labor lawyer
9.Get the union card in front of everyone at once, as fast as you can
Special note: 51% isn’t going to be good enough for your majority. Unless you feel you need to take the risk (for some reason) of 1~2% flipping at the last minute and losing the vote, its probably a good idea to wait until you’ve got a solid (like rock solid) 60~75% pro union.
Chapo podcast on making the list: https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/288-so-you-want-to-start-a-union-feat-brace-belden-21019
No Shortcuts, the book. It’s long and detailed case studies: https://janemcalevey.com/no-shortcuts/
No Shortcuts, the interview. It’s honestly better than the book. Very good additional details, especially about step 6 above. I recommend this one the most: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/04/jane-mcalevey-on-how-to-organize-for-power/
Thank you for this comprehensive list!
The person from the PSL i spoke to got the gist of it and encouraged me to try it even if there was a possibility of failure. they seem to think there’s a good chance because im very straightforward and they seem to think im very personable and they said this is a good thing especially when taking the lead on something like this. They are going to go through potential union matches with me on monday but I think teamsters is one of the strongest options from the data I’ve collected, but i am open to any other unions of course. hopefully when monday comes i get an extensive outlook on the union itself and maybe even some info on their lawyers.
oooo i really like the spreadsheet idea and I’ll get to work on that soon. i know for sure that when I’ve mentioned unionizing in brief some of the staff on shift shared interest especially when I could bake in some class solidarity. my coworker mama is like my work mom and even though she isn’t really aware of class consciousness she’s an example of that lived experience and she’s a great listener so i think i will try to work closer with her because she’s really close with most of the members of staff and i think she can be a great tool at getting this project up and running. i think as it stands i might have somewhere around 50% support but i think this number will increase no doubt with the help of mama.
i feel really good about this and excited. I’m very optimistic. Thanks again for the support!
SUCH A GOOD INTERVIEW HOLY SHIT!!! THANK YOU!!
I would highly recommend hitting up EWOC as well, they were so so helpful when I began organizing my union. I’m also happy to talk to you about organizing as well if you wanna pick my brain
