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!
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.