This sucks. These prices and these wages (and my own lack of them) doesn't fuck in the slightest.
And based on my recent posts and notes...y'all wanna strike huh?
Well since you insist on not doing it without formal organizing, can I ask if you've heard about the IWW and if you have, have you joined it?
"By age, workers ages 45 to 54 had the highest union membership rate in 2022, at 12.6 percent. Younger workers—those ages 16 to 24—had the lowest union membership rate, at 4.4 percent.
In 2022, the union membership rate for full-time workers (11.0 percent) was double than that for part-
time workers (5.5 percent)."
I'll take that statistic from the BLS file on Unions as a 'probably not' since I don't have many older people following me.
Well, joining this union can provide you with all the formality and organization you'll need to get started and without compromising your say as an individual worker.
TLDR: Anyone, yes even if you're unemployed, can join as long as you have at least $6/mo and aren't a manager. No union bosses either. The idea is that it's One Big Union. Meaning it's strength lies in it's solidarity from unifying workers across All types of employment.
It's just a matter of finding your local union and they will help you with the rest.
Worried you might stand out?
In 2021, 14 million U.S. workers - or about 10.3 percent of the American workforce - were members of a union.
That's 1 in every 10 workers. And
In 2022, 16 million wage and salary workers were represented by a union[...]" (Bureau of Labor Statistics Union2.pdf).
You quite literally will be just be one of the tens of thousands joining a union everyday.
Social scientist Damon Centola's new research shows a cascade of change is triggered when 25% of a population embraces an idea.
Minority views of what is acceptable quickly become majority views. Historically, majority- rules economic thinking assumed change happened when 51% of a population wanted it. But in 1977, Harvard University's Rosabeth Moss Kanter studied tokenism in the workplace. She found that women as small minorities were subject to an oppressive culture of discrimination and harassment. But when women occupied 20%-35% of leadership roles, work culture shifted.
Centola's 2018 small-group experiments show how sensitive the tipping point is. Sometimes adding just a single person to the committed minority meant hitting 25%-and the transition from failure to success. Varying numbers of activists were planted into groups in 10 trials.
So if 10% are already unionized then we're halfway there... in a way.
Why join a union?
It's largest tool is collective bargaining, that's why organized strikes work better, it guarantees you have people supporting you. Using numbers helps enforce demands and rights be met.
We know unions work because they gave us all these things already.
So like... Yeah..
Join a union. Even if it's not IWW. Join one.
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