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Organizing is Everything (semi-effort) (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by ChestRockwell@hexbear.net to c/labour@hexbear.net

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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).

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[–] Dimmer06@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Labor organizing truly is everything. For some reason the US left us obsessed with the concept of a "labor" or "workers" party when only a tiny portion of the US working class are even covered by CBAs, let alone active members of their unions. If we ever wish to see working class interests expressed in US politics than it should be obvious that the workers must be organized as workers (not as communities, affinity groups, political groups, tenants etc. though there is still value in those organizations). Even where CBAs do not exist and NLRB elections and contracts aren't really viable we should be organizing groups of workers to improve their conditions where they spend most of their lives - at work. Until this happens it doesn't matter how many Mamdanis get elected, we'll never have even a modicum of power.

[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

For some reason the US left us obsessed with the concept of a "labor" or "workers" party when only a tiny portion of the US working class are even covered by CBAs

i dont see a problem in organsing a workers party, especially because of the way US unions work which makes it almost impossible to have a mass union. a mass workers party would be extremely helpful in coordinating union actions / driving radicalism.

[–] ChestRockwell@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's a "Both and" situation for sure, but labor organizing allows for real resistance as well - as just an example, if Mamdani builds a vanguard of union members, he can leverage their labor as another tool of power (e.g. strikes in resistance to federal incursion is actually probably the only way to resist the violence of the state).

I will say, more unions need to coordinate though. I'm lucky to be at a workplace with other unions (including teamsters), and getting rid of no-sympathy-strike clauses and building cross-union solidarity is obviously another important avenue for building power.

[–] starkillerfish@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

i completely agree

[–] Dimmer06@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

"Mass unionization" would be closer to what I'm describing but the point is that some absurdly large majority of working people in the US say they like unions and are not members of one which has nothing to do with the NLRB or employers and everything to do with how the major unions choose to organize and admit members. Without those pro-union workers organizing and learning through union struggle we will never have the basis for an actual workers party because the average worker will remain ideologically incoherent and socially fragmented. Only through an actual organized and lively labor movement raising the average consciousness of the workers could a workers party actually sustain itself and carry out its work.