THE GROWING LABOR MOVEMENT

One of the most powerful sentiments I’ve heard about the changing times with the COVID pandemic is that with times of global transition like this comes a broader conversation of what the world will be like after that change has come.

Currently, deep, meaningful conversations such as this have led to protests, worker shortages, and one of the most important debates, in my opinion – over workers’ rights.

This past year has led to a great number of employees going on strike, such as the 10,000-plus John Deere workers from 14 separate locations, 1,400 Kellogg’s workers from six locations, roughly 60,000 IATSE film crew workers (staging and production technicians), and many more.

With the increase in demand for products from many companies due to the pandemic came an even bigger need for workers to make these products. And, because of the amount of workers who started seeing the disparity in the work-from-home jobs compared to unruly conditions at places like John Deere (such as consistent overtime, 10-12 hour workdays, unending tensions between workers and management about layoffs and pay, cuts to retirement plans, inadequate pension plans, and inadequate wage increases) workers facing similar conditions are starting to revolt against outdated and inhuman work expectations.

Even here in Oregon, there was recently a successful strike from workers in the Nabisco plants that resulted in a yearly pay raise, higher 401k contributions, and a $5,000 union contract ratification bonus.

Because of these victories, a lot more workers are beginning to open up to the conversation of joining a union, going on strike, or using collective bargaining skills to demand better rights. Even for my own minimum wage job at a store, I’ve had lots of conversations on the idea of joining a union with other workers that have been met with similar positive emotions.

However, these discussions taking place do carry risk, because technically an employer can take disciplinary action if a worker is caught talking about unionizing while on the clock. So, the best course of action is most likely to discuss these issues with other employees outside work or during lunch breaks.

Unions can bring a lot of benefits to a worker because they utilize a much more democratic system for negotiating pay, benefits, and overall treatment of employees. If you are interested in joining a union, going on strike, or demanding better workers’ rights, the best course of action is to develop a close-knit group of your fellow employees, aside from the managers.

(Those managers are excluded from this conversation because they usually have to go through hours of training to destroy any thoughts of joining/forming a union, which is why when you have conversations with a manager you are expected to have them by yourself, away from other workers.)

Once you have a majority of the workers in this group, it’s best to not necessarily idealize just a union, but instead gather a list of grievances that the workers might have, such as pay, treatment, harassment policy, etc. Just be empathetic to one another and understand that all employees have separate ideas of positive management change. This unionizing process is not something that can be done in a day, week, or month, even – and even then, it’s hard to accumulate the necessary consent to force management changes.

Once everyone has an idea of what they want from a better workplace and seems comfortable with the changes proposed, the next step as a group is to look for a union to join, which can range in several ways based on your industry. Once you find the right union, a union representative will contact your workplace and initiate a democratic vote for the change to an official union workplace.

This process is very much easier said than done, speaking as someone who tried to unionize their workplace. Part of the problem is that especially in a store that separates each type of

worker (stockroom, security, cashiers, day/night shift, sales floor, etc.), these conversations are not very accessible to everyone unless you are a full-time worker for any position in the store.

Ideally the best way to have these conversations, from what I’ve found, has been from working in a fast-food restaurant, where there’s only one type of worker in a small space with plenty of understanding where the manager is at each moment and knowing who you can truly trust, along with the smaller number of workers.

Overall, I’d say that unionizing is one of the most beneficial and rewarding movements and conversations you could try to pursue, even if it’s not successful, because each attempt is a learning experience that increases your friend group and gives a better idea of what an ideal workplace can be: where direct conversations between workers becomes more common and the faces you see at work have more meaning than someone simply meant to help you do a job.

If you manage to get such an effort to work, the workplace would be more moldable to what you and everyone else needs, and no longer would it be “just another crappy job.”

Works cited:

Jessica Corbett, “Nabisco Strike Ends After Union Members Approve New Contract,” Common Dreams, September 19, 2021. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/09/19/nabisco-strike-ends-after-union-members-approve-new-contract

Josh Funk, “Workers at all of Kellogg’s U.S. cereal plants go on strike,” ABC News, October 5, 2021 https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/workers-kelloggs-us-cereal-plants-strike-80418885

Andy Rose, “Union calls deal to avert strike ‘a hollywood ending’ as negotiations continue for workers in other parts of the country,” CNN, October 16, 2021 https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/16/entertainment/union-strike-deal-hollywood-iatse/index.html

Michael Sainato, “Over 10,000 John Deere workers strike over ‘years’ of poor treatment,” October 14, 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/14/john-deere-workers-strike-contract-union