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I’m all for unionization, but sometimes bad actors need to be starved out. The whole time you’re working to unionize a workforce, you’re still working at that company under their terms, making them profit.
If you work at Starbucks, the company is banking on your labor. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the process of unionizing, they’re making money. If you do successfully unionize, there’s a good chance they’ll kill your store, like the recent one in Boston.
In the mean time, the sale of your labor still affects labor’s market price. When you keep working for them under the standard conditions for the standard wages and perks while they squeeze as much labor as possible out of you, the act of selling them labor at that price impacts the market. It tells Starbucks that their current model works, and it signals to other business owners that they can follow suit.
All those little bullshit greedy business practices trickle down from scumbag to scumbag and if there’s someone to swallow it, they’ll keep it up.
What will stop it isn’t unionizing one store. It’s changing your standards of what you’ll put up with.
The demand for remote work after COVID terrifies employers because it’s a demand their workforces made spontaneously without any organization, and that those who failed to meet have paid dearly for.
Change your standards. Change the deals you’re willing to make and encourage others to do the same. Complacency will give you a bad deal whether you have a contact or not.
Unionization improves conditions everywhere over time. When a significant proportion of jobs are unionized even non union jobs now need to compete with the union jobs. Unions set the standard.
You’re right though that one store at a time won’t work. It needs to be the entire company at once, otherwise as you say, they’ll just close that store.
Changing your standards is a nice idea, but it’s not always practical for people in less privileged financial positions. Capitalists learned to keep their workers living standard bad enough so they can’t save up to improve their position but not so bad that they get completely desperate and revolt.
The 40 hour working week and 8 hour work day were originally fought for by Australian unions and are now a widespread standard for full time emoyment. Americans in many ways don’t have a clue what strong worker rights and regulations look like, and I encourage them to see what they could have if they fought for it.
It’s exactly the people in less privileged positions whose standards matter the most. I live week to week, I’ve been homeless, I’m not remotely well-off, but the job market right now needs labor enough that my standards and decisions matter. And there’s enough roughly equivalent available employment to make that happen.
Personally, I got a new job on the first of the year and quit on the spot.
I take it you’re solo and able to make those sacrifices but others may have family to support or not be in good enough health to be homeless, or be in a marginalized group where being homeless is flat out dangerous. Were you on the streets or did you have a car or friends and family to crash at? I agree it’s important to respect your standards and not let companies take advantage of you, but some people cannot go without a job due to responsibility, health, or safety and in those cases unionization is an important tool to be able to exercise your power as a worker without having to deal with quitting.
Unionize then leave
Personally my approach was to build a vocal and open anti-corporate and anti-capitalist environment among my co-workers and then leave as soon as humanly possible.
I do agree that unionization ultimately betters conditions, but for some of these companies you’re going to be better suited just not engaging with them. No union deal is going to make the 60 minutes per hour 60 seconds per minute constant squeezing of labor by toxic business practices stop when that’s the corporate culture a company lands on.
If no one pushes back there will be no “better” jobs…
I recently won an election victory at my workplace, and I’m really trying not to throw in the towel as one of the central organizers. Our local doesn’t have paid organizers to help so we are literally doing all of this from the ground up.
Hard to want to stay when your employer drags negotiations out for 1+ year, all the while having wages frozen due to negotiations, or alternately, having your employer try to cut your existing benefits to the legal minimum in your state (happening to another unionized dept. at my job) when you finally get to financials. And this is at a small/medium non profit. Doesn’t matter what sector you’re in, the bottom line is what matters most to these assholes. My dept. hasn’t even elected a bargaining committee yet. Someone who’s in a union please provide me with some positive words cuz this shit is haaaard
Have you tried reaching out to the national organization for help? What drew you to partner up with a union that couldn’t support your effort? I hear how difficult it’s been but you have already come so far and should feel so proud of the work yall have done! I’m sorry it’s been so difficult. Also, if you have an opportunity that is better for you, pursue that shit.
Great advice. And if you can get the national more involved you might start by addressing the wage freeze, which is an unfair labor practice charge waiting to happen.
