Fix things Friday (er, Saturday)

[luzula]

In the last two weeks I have:
- Helped prepare, and then attended, a union workshop day where we sat in groups according to type of workplace, and discussed how to organize better.
- Held an intro for new union members.
- Attended and written minutes for a union city-level members' meeting.
- Worked on finding good candidates for various elected positions in the union, in preparation for the upcoming annual meeting.
- Gone to Stockholm to hold a lecture about forest biofuels and climate, at a seminar day about forest and climate issues.
- Had lunch and networked with a guy working with climate issues in another environmental organization.
- Given feedback on various press release texts about the EU parliament's recent bad decision on bioenergy.
- Proofread and sent out newsletter for environmental org except that nobody seems to have gotten it; must trouble-shoot.
- Donated a fair amount of money to a self-organized women's village in Rojava.
- Eeeemailed as always.

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

That's a lot of work!

according to type of workplace

This is an interesting organizing principle. In the US (when we had unions) they were either industrial (everybody in the same workplace) or craft (every mechanic in the area in one union, every nurse in another).

Did you give the lecture?

[luzula]

This is an interesting organizing principle. In the US (when we had unions) they were either industrial (everybody in the same workplace) or craft (every mechanic in the area in one union, every nurse in another).

No, it is the first of those organizing principles, I just don't know the right terms in English. I guess I should have said that we sat in groups according which industry we belonged to. Like, I'm in education, but a cleaner who worked in a school would also be in the same group.

Yes, I held the lecture and it went fine.

In the US (when we had unions)

Is it really that bad?

Tragically, yes

[jesse_the_k]

...I'm no labor historian, but here's what I've observed.

As long as I can remember, there's been "fair share" legislation (state level). Employers deduct union dues from paychecks and pass that to the union. Individuals can't opt out. The theory being all workers benefit from the protections unions create. Some Southern states never had "fair share" (unions? fuck, we're used to unpaid labor!), but now few states have it.

Killing unions has been on Republican strategy since 1980, and it's basically succeeded.

In hard economic times, when the benefits unions created (hourly wages, the weekend, health insurance) are a distant memory (and never taught in schools) people have opted out of paying union dues. Hence, unions are broke.

Pink/white color unions -- state employees, teachers, nurses -- started here in Wisconsin. In 2011, our governor *spit* passed Act 10, outlawing almost all government unions and killing fair share.

The blue collar unions -- factory, truck drivers, building trades -- have declined as the US economy has swiveled away from basic production.

TBH, the larger blue collar unions were rich enough to support corruption--most famously, the Teamsters (initially a craft union for drivers, then expanded to cover many industries).

I'm stopping now because I don't want to cry.

Re: Tragically, yes

[luzula]

What, union dues were automatically deducted from everyone's wages? Aren't you then forcing people to be members? Which sounds a bit questionable to me. And of which union? Did they portion out the dues to the different unions people are members of? But okay, I see the advantages in getting a steady income for the unions, and also the principle of diverting funds from companies to workers in general.

In Sweden you pay your dues directly to the union. The dues used to be tax-deductible, as well as the dues for the unemployment ensurance, which is administered by union-affiliated organizations. But about ten years ago a right-wing government made the dues not tax-deductible anymore, and also raised the unemployment dues. This had the consequence (as intended) of lowering union membership. : (

Could write lots more on the way unions work over here, but too tired. Let's have that conversation on Skype some day? : )

Re: Tragically, yes

[jesse_the_k]

Absolutely! Let’s Skype about this!