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Comment on My work is organizing right now, this afternoon, and I don't know what I'm doing. What are the best practices? What are the pitfslls?

NateNate60@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Has anyone mentioned the word “union” in these communications yet? It needs to be gotten across that without a formal union, your bosses can just crush your little organisation with very few realistic legal consequences. They can make up bullshit reasons to fire you or reduce your hours as punishment. What is happening is just collective bargaining but without the legal protection of being a union.

Unions rarely strike. The threat of Industrial action (which is not just limited to striking) is usually an effective enough bargaining chip that in most cases, bosses offer concessions in negotiations without needing to resort to it.

There are limited forms of Industrial action as well. For example, the union can say that everyone should refuse overtime or that they should reduce their work to only the bare minimum required of them (which is called “work-to-order” or “work-to-rule”). Other tactics involve a large number of employees calling in sick on the same day. All of these allow workers to show their power without needing to sacrifice their paycheque.

If you contact the local chapter of a larger union organisation, they can provide resources to help organise your workplace. Google Search “Chicago restaurant workers union” and find the one that matches you and your colleagues’ values most, then reach out for help organising.

Employer intimidation is forbidden during the process of formally organising a union and will be prosecuted by the National Labour Relations Board.

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noxy@yiffit.net ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
What is happening is just collective bargaining but without the legal protection of being a union.

This is false. Per the NLRB:

You have the right to act with co-workers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: talking with one or more co-workers about your wages and benefits or other working conditions, circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, openly talking about your pay and benefits, and joining with co-workers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this “protected concerted” activity. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer’s attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action. However, you can lose protection by saying or doing something egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false, or by publicly disparaging your employer’s products or services without relating your complaints to any labor controversy.

www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/…/concerted-activity

A union can be as little as two workers who team up to improve their working conditions. Having a Union CONTRACT can be a thing, but it’s not required for legal protection, which can actually have some teeth if the bosses slip up in their union busting
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