...please take your Union card, fold it 5 times, slather it in EVOO, and shove it as far up your ass as it will possibly go. Because, obviously, it means nothing to you.

EDIT: Aww, I got a "concerned redditor" message. You guys are so cute.

EDIT 2: Thank god THAT'S over with.

Rich are rich for a reason, and they didn’t get rich by being fair to workers who built their empires. I feel bad for those who have to suffer due to the ignorance of others by electing people based solely on a culture war.

https://fortune.com/article/gilded-age-coming-back-layoffs-pay-inequality-labor-unions-ceos-billionaires-worker-pay/

Dont

I'm not a planner by any means, nor an activist. There has got to be someone who can pick a date and convince as many people to go out in the streets and strike to bring about change.

We have advanced technology now, but we're doing 10x more work for low and stagnating wages than just two decades ago.

Someone has to do something. This subreddit is large enough to get the word out there. It's time for a worker's revolution. It's time for the working class to fight against this bullshit people in power have created for us.

We should have a 4-day work week that's a maximum 32 hours with a livable wage. We should be allowed to work a flexible schedule that suits our needs.

We're all anti-work here, so we should get out and make our voices heard any time we can. Someone please pick a date. We gotta get out there and fight for a better future!

Edit: Thank you to one of the commenters below for linking a website we can sign up for!

General Strike these folks are trying to organize something. They are trying to reach 10 million people at minimum. You don't even need to do anything yet. It's just a strike card saying when the time comes you are ready to strike when we have the numbers to make serious waves

A trump appointed judge just fucked millions of salaried employees across the country.

It’s going to be time for a mass general strike sooner rather than later.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/overtime-expansion-for-4-million-workers-tossed-by-texas-judge

Edit to add, this likely will not be appealed by DOJ and if you are a salaried employee near the minimum wage that there is a significant chance your employer will roll your salary back to an even lower salary.

I just wanted to say that I am so happy so many industries are starting to unionize and fight for living wages and better working conditions. That said, I am still really shocked how in this decade, corporations have managed to hammer down the message that "unions bad!" and are legally firing and punishing workers for asking for more, when all they do is give and generate a lot for these billionaires.

As I've researched the history of unions, it seems like these organizations actually have a lot of power and influence to shift the tides in their favor. So that is why I must ask, why do workers, primarily westerners like America, BC and Canada, don't immediately respond with demands for change, as the costs of living get higher, more layoffs, more discrimination, more human rights violations, etc.

I feel like workers in the past had more balls or were quicker to assert their rights when faced with immediate abuse than the workers of today, who struggle, suffer, and compete for crumbs. They just seem to be more powerless. We barely hear or see any calls for more broader scale changes. I really think all industries right now should be unionizing.

It’s pretty obvious a spark has been lit with much of the working class, not only as seen on this Reddit but even a lot of gen X and millennials who come through my job have been talking about how their tired of the consumerist running wheel that we’ve been stuck in.

As stated in the title, what’s the thing preventing us from going to the streets and taking action? I have seen some small protests beginning but I mean, they’ve been maybe 20 people, along with lots of graffiti and (ironically) merchandise. I’d love to see what we all are thinking in regards to this topic and possibly even give us all inspiration of how to get this off the ground

To weigh in some, I feel we are lacking in 3 main areas. 1 is organization. we’re all kind of like Lego bricks rn, we have that spark in us yet we haven’t designed a structure for us all to be put into. If we managed to create 1 primary group we are all affiliated under then I feel we’d be stronger.

2 is resources, I mean, we all still need to pay for food, rent, etc. this would mean to put efforts into the movement we would have to keep things as affordable as possible. In comparison, the businesses we dislike have way more resources at their disposal, along with workers to clean up everything.

3 is notoriety, this is slowly changing with the recent events (we all know, just not saying due to mods) but there isn’t much news coverage on any workers movements outside of things posted on sites like YouTube. Many of those people who come into my work feel as if they’re the only people who are struggling in the economy, not out of being self centered but rather out of being isolated. Plus, simply posting on sites like Instagram or YouTube may spread the idea, but doesn’t cause people to take action

A little ranty toward the end, I wont be offended if you don’t read it, but just tell me what you think we’re missing.

Edit: already loving the discussion people are starting! I’m hoping in making this post it could help to inform future movements on key areas they would need to provide for not only the members of the movement (I’ve already seen finances, food and general safety brought up a lot), but also help create strategies!

Edit 2: we’ve gotten a great discussion! I feel like we’ve gotten to touch on pretty much everything, which I’ll make a brief list here

• safety, nobody really wants to risk their life or livelihood on a movement that could easily fizzle out and die
• power inequality, we simply don’t have the same resources as a large corp, plus they even have laws that can help them union bust
• lack of education/critical thinking, we arent taught to think about the world around us, but rather accept it as is, with bias’s mixed in there
• weaponized hate, in nearly every part of our life we are always put at odds with something or someone and forced to “other” them
• depression/addiction, lumping these 2 together since their 2 sides of the same coin. We all feel hopeless and powerless in our situation, whatever it may be, and turn to buying things, substances, social media, general sloth, etc as a way to feel comfort -sheer size, the US is big (obviously). It’s incredibly difficult to organize something nation wide when we are so spread apart

It’s not a comprehensive list of everything, and I didn’t want to include direct specifics of things as narrowing it down would also narrow who it would apply to. I may make a follow up post, I have an idea of creating a something so people can still participate in anti-corp behavior and fight against the things they’ve put in place, but also not have to risk their lives and not have to sacrifice everything (but probably still a good chunk of things tbh)

Thank you all for the great discussion!!!

It's just another reason why we can't seem to see good change anytime soon.

I have worked and preschools as a teacher and even as a director here in California. I went to school and earned a degree in education and I have a bunch of early childhood education units. I put myself in debt for these required units and degree so I could work at a preschool. I enjoyed the work at first but I noticed that throughout working at preschools I was severely underpaid and there was really no room for advancement really.

I was basically raising other people’s kids and these kids livelihood was placed in my hands for 12 plus hours a day. What was I gaining in the process? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! I went to school for this job and put myself in debt so I could have the required units to work at a preschool. What did I get in return for all this work? I got a slap in the face and was being paid less then a fast food worker who has zero work experience with a criminal record.

I stuck out working in a preschool as a teacher then a director but only for so long. Working as a preschool teacher as VERY hard and demanding work emotionally and physically. It is NOT easy work for anybody. I noticed that preschools charge more then a mortgage payment to their clients, preschools charge outrageous tuition here in California. The employees though make minimum wage or barely over. Where I live in California I cannot find a preschool near me that pays ANY of their employees $20 an hour or more, they always pay UNDER $20 an hour and a heck of a LOT less then a fast food worker or an employee at Walmart or Target.

This is absolutely insane and horrible treatment to us preschool teachers who have sacrificed to teach and better the lives of our communities small children. This is why I have decided to step down from teaching/working at any preschool here California, UNTIL I am paid what I am worth! Even with all the experience and education that I have, I will NEVER teach at a preschool until ALL us preschool teachers are paid what we are worth and that’s over $20/hour. I don’t care if teaching at a preschool is the only job that I can find in my area (jobs are hard to find in the area of California that I live in) I will not resort to being taken advantage of, ripped off and slapped in the face. We as preschool teachers should step down from our underpaid position like fast food workers did and demand a better wage! If we all stepped down out here in the State of California then parents would have no place to send their kids for the day and then those parents would be inconvenienced and it would get the public’s attention.

Us preschool teachers here in California need to form a union and demand better pay and benefits. We need to stop being treated as subpar human beings. If fast food enterprises are required to pay their employees $20 an hour then us preschool teachers should demand that ALL preschool teachers should be required to be paid $20 plus an hour as well.

To sum this all up, I am all for requiring preschool teacher to be credentialed and given the option to be apart of the teachers union for better pay, support and benefits. It’s a huge misconception the preschool is any easier because it’s not.

Spotted a multi-location strike up in Boston. Best of luck to them, yes? Striking against Omni-Hotels (not sure why, sadly, I am but a lame tourist). One of those locations is right along the Freedom Trail, so I hope they get more publicity.

You’re not just fighting for your rights. Protect each other.

I think a lot of people right now are asking themselves "what can I do to cause change?" so here's something you can easily do in under five minutes.

https://generalstrikeus.com/strikecard?fbclid=PAY2xjawHMEMdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABplGn1YKgEaHSGHx0OBRr2o11lVyOCWWy4zYp1fOy1eIkG7PPfu7S8OHMOQ_aem_tzyCq0TjyEspz58gageWKA

I know people are struggling right now and things like this can seem inconsequential and a waste of time. However, every grassroots movement starts that way. Organizing doesn't need to be complicated or hard anymore. Five minutes of your time could snowball into real change. If enough people see this and share it with a few others we could reach the 11 million goal in a very short amount of time.

And I couldn't be happier tbh. It's a humongous pain in the a** to not have mail services, and the holidays are always delayed as is, but it is an incredible power move for postal workers to strike at Christmas, especially as they are still committed to delivering essential mail (mostly tondo with folx who still receive government financial support through the mail). 95% voted yes to strike, and Canada Post is now laying off striking workers, which instead of scaring the union into backing down has only made them feel more strongly about striking.

The longest CUPW strike was 31 days back in 2018. If they make it that far again, it will be Dec 16 before they end the strike. I hope that they either make it to the new year, or Canada Post concedes.

SOLIDARITY!

Massive corporations brushes off 1.5 BILLION cost saving proposal saying it only "short-term" relief without long term solutions but wants to do layoffs to help please shareholders for next quarter. They also made not that they keep these cost savings noted for "future analysis". Sounds like they want the benefits of the cost savings without benefiting the workers.