Comment on If You Want Me To Support You, Form A Union
PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Its a lot easier said than done, esspecially in an easy-to-enter, oversaturated field like tech or retail. There are so many workers, its hard to organize on a meaningful scale, and the barrier to entry is often low enough that the company can fire the whole team and have a new one overnight. So far as I can think of, the only fields sharing a similar low barrier to entry and abundance of workers, that has successfully unionised are all in hollywood, with things like writting and acting, where there was far more money involved.
Thats not to say people shouldn’t unionise or that its impossible, but given the current state of the economy its also absurd to directly put blame on those who are most vulnerable and most likely to face retaliation.
If you’re going to victum blame, it should really be on senior staff that harder to replace, and other unions for not showing more support. Or, you could just blame the people actually responsible: the rich and powerful who built and maintain the current system.
Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
If actors and writers can figure this out, two fields it’s that are even easier to “enter” so can tech.
PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
As I noted, there is also a lot more money involved in movie production compared to retail. On the actor/writer side, you have more individuals involved who don’t risk starving when they form a union, and on the studio side, they can less afford to delay or trash shows and movies. Compare that to, for example, walmart workers who likely have little in the way of savings, nonetheless funding to establish a union, and work for a company that could close down a dozen stores to kill a union an not even notice it in their balance sheet.
Again, I’m not saying they shouldn’t unionize, but given the enviroment, the system is stacked against them. Blaming vulnerable workers for not unionizing is like saying the poor don’t have money because they didn’t work hard enough, or didn’t invest in the right things. Instead of blaming them, we need to be looking at ways to support them. This might be pushing legislators to improve workers rights and social safety nets, it might be helping them to join larger unions (such as how a lot of IT workers end up covered by other unions), or it might be providing more tools and education on how to organize into unions, ultimately, the important thing is recognizing that these are people who need help and trying to offer it to them rather than jist telling them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.