I may not be a power poster here on hexbear, but for those who were around - I got laid off this past summer then rehired by my employer in one of the most fucking pointless layoffs ever.

However, knowing the way the wind blows, I'll be getting laid off again this year most likely. However, having a union is nice and I've found that organizing really rocks and if you have a union, you should do what you can to become a cadre and more involved.

I'm at the point now where I'm visiting members to get them on board with the contract campaign we have coming up. While this doesn't effect me directly (the contract will be negotiated after this year so I might still get laid off), I do feel like by getting folks ready to strike, I'm also potentially building power to push back against the layoffs as well. While applying to jobs has felt so empty and hollow (like, it's still exercising a bit of agency and control over my life, but we all know how that goes), organizing feels fulfilling. Even when a member isn't entirely on board, just the chance to discuss, hear their concerns about work, etc. feels great.

In summary, if you have a union, get involved in whatever capacity you can to help organizing. There's spreadsheets and other things for our less socially-outgoing comrades as well - coordinating organizing efforts is just as important (we basically have 4 different ppl variously coordinating ad-hoc, so a centralizing there would definitely improve the org but we'd need a data person and don't have 'em).

Obviously my personal hope is my organizing efforts get enough comrades ready to strike that maybe we can head off layoffs, but even if not I feel like organizing my members will spit in the eye of my employer as those who remain fight (and who knows, maybe claw back some of the layoffs for their own workload).