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Speaker 1: UM George flit uprising. You know, UH in Minneapolis, there

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Speaker 1: were nurses union nurses who walked out the door UM

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Speaker 1: to support UH. You know, people who were uh basically

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Speaker 1: having an insurrection against like police violence in in Minneapolis

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Speaker 1: when the when COVID pandemic hit off, year of everything

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Speaker 1: going off, nurses and nurses were going out and confronting UH.

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Speaker 1: Union nurses were going out and confronting anti mass protesters.

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Speaker 1: Like I was literally getting screamed out by like some

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Speaker 1: Looney Tunes doctor holding a banner that said nurses are dying.

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Speaker 1: Go home with like twenty other union nurses. And we

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Speaker 1: were the only people out there who are like together,

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Speaker 1: who are you know, immediately impacted by this stuff? And UM,

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Speaker 1: And I think it made a difference, Like I think

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Speaker 1: it's important and so I think that UM. And there's

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Speaker 1: some idea called social unionism. So if you get to

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Speaker 1: the point where building a union and you're making progress,

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Speaker 1: and you get to that point where you have a union,

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Speaker 1: always be advocating for to the extent that you can

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Speaker 1: that your union is engaged in the kind of UM,

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Speaker 1: like connecting with your community around your workplace, figuring out

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Speaker 1: the things that are impacting people's lives outside of unions,

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Speaker 1: because I think that's another thing that um for a

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Speaker 1: long time, unions just ignored or let atrophy because they

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Speaker 1: didn't think it was their problem anymore. Was you know,

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Speaker 1: mutual aid helped build the labor movement. You know, workers

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Speaker 1: would get would literally like in West Virginia and Maitwan,

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Speaker 1: Uh they had uh company police throwing people out of

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Speaker 1: their apartments who are on strike, and the there were

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Speaker 1: you know, all of a sudden, two thousand of your

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Speaker 1: fellow workers showing up and throwing the police out of

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Speaker 1: own and putting people's uh, you know, belongings back in

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Speaker 1: their house or you know. And I believe we're getting

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Speaker 1: back to that point where you know, teachers went on

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Speaker 1: striking West Virginia and the union and the teachers did

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Speaker 1: everything they could to support their students while they were out,

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Speaker 1: because like I think there's this idea that a lot

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Speaker 1: of union workers at this point are you know, everyone

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Speaker 1: is like, you know, the American workforce is so desperate

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Speaker 1: and so and they've had just been pushed around so

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Speaker 1: much that you know, there was this idea for a

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Speaker 1: time like in Wisconsin was or what was the Scott

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Speaker 1: Walker consint uprising, wasn't it. I think it was like

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Speaker 1: right around occupy It wasn't around there, And like there

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Speaker 1: was this idea that's like, oh, you're a nurse, Oh

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Speaker 1: you're a teacher, Like you should just be happy that

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Speaker 1: your job has some kind of meaning to it, right,

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Speaker 1: And it was a lot of like weird discourse around

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Speaker 1: in the media and about like how dare these people?

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Speaker 1: I think that they deserve anything. And the thing is

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Speaker 1: is that how can you, like, as a nurse, how

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Speaker 1: can I take care of my patients safely when I'm

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Speaker 1: constantly having, um like, more and more work put on me, right,

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Speaker 1: and that that immediately affects the people that I'm taken

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Speaker 1: care of. So that when when we went on strike

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Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, it was around our safe staffing. Um

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Speaker 1: and if I've seen management make decisions about staffing that

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Speaker 1: kill people, and I've seen management make decisions that lead

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Speaker 1: to my coworkers getting injured. Um I management made decisions

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Speaker 1: that led to me getting COVID and messed me up

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Speaker 1: for a year. And so when people in these kind

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Speaker 1: of care worker roles, which I think has become a

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Speaker 1: more prominent part of the US economy as people are

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Speaker 1: getting older and they need more like care work, home

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Speaker 1: care workers, nursing home workers, hospital workers. UM. Parents don't

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Speaker 1: can't rely on family the way they used to to

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Speaker 1: help take care kids. School has become like this really important,

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Speaker 1: like uh institution for you know, working class survival. UM

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Speaker 1: that you can't do those jobs as a worker if

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Speaker 1: you don't have the resources. So like our our children

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Speaker 1: were at the Chicago public schools and there that you know,

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Speaker 1: the Chicago Teachers Union, which was taken over by the

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Speaker 1: rank and file UM, I think in two thousand five

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Speaker 1: or six by you know, a group of black women

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Speaker 1: led by Karen Lewis. They set up a group called

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Speaker 1: like a rank and file caucus called the Caucus of

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Speaker 1: Rank and File Educators or Radical Educators. CORES might be

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Speaker 1: messing on that, but it's called CORE. They went out

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Speaker 1: on striking and as a you know, as just this

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Speaker 1: was before my kids were old not to be in

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Speaker 1: those schools. I was out there still taking them coffee

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Speaker 1: and donuts, right because I knew that they're in there.

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Speaker 1: Because things stuck. By the time my kids were old

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Speaker 1: enough in nineteen for it to be a big thing,

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Speaker 1: and the teachers when out striking Chicago. It had gotten

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Speaker 1: so it's so bad that Chicago teachers like Chicago Public

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Speaker 1: schools have the the lowest number of staff two students

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Speaker 1: of any school system in Illinois. It's not even like

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Speaker 1: half right and um, And it's funny because the state

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Speaker 1: had been constantly trying to erode the power of the union.

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Speaker 1: They're making Chicago teachers like pay their for their own

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Speaker 1: retirement basically in a way that no other like workers

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Speaker 1: have to. Um. They were making it so that Chicago

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Speaker 1: teachers could only go on strike. Over of the teachers

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Speaker 1: voted to go on strike. UM. So when So what

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Speaker 1: that does is there's kind of like a a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a flip where oh, we have to make

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Speaker 1: of you know, people agree to go on strike. Well,

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Speaker 1: let's organize so much that we get people to agree

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Speaker 1: to go on strike, and then how powerful is our

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Speaker 1: strikes our strikes going to be. We're literally like one

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Speaker 1: of the things I do as a steward is I

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Speaker 1: connect with all the different unions and at the University

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Speaker 1: Chicago where I work, through a labor council, we were going,

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Speaker 1: as you know, university workers to all the picket lines

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Speaker 1: of the public schools around our neighborhood and we're bringing

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Speaker 1: out coffee, bring out donuts, talking to people. Hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: a nurse. We were on strike like six or like

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Speaker 1: two or three months ago. What do you all need

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Speaker 1: connecting with people? And then and then like at one

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Speaker 1: point when the teachers were like, we're not getting what

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Speaker 1: we want and this is LORI lightfoot is trash the area. UH,

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Speaker 1: we helped organize this mass march where multiple marches of

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Speaker 1: teachers and school workers and we're all out in the

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Speaker 1: streets dodging cop cars until we have this big convergence.

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Speaker 1: And it was really beautiful. Like we had like multiple

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Speaker 1: people with like multiple banners and different columns, each one

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Speaker 1: saying we will win, going through the streets of our neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: UM and like messing up like the commercial traffic area

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Speaker 1: in uh, in our very bougie neighborhood. UM. But that

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Speaker 1: was happening all over the city. And it's just like

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Speaker 1: when you see that happen, it's because we're literally in

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Speaker 1: the support of the community for those strikes was so

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Speaker 1: overwhelming because people knew that. It's like these people, aren't it.

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Speaker 1: I mean, like, first off, it's a hard job there's

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Speaker 1: no reason why anyone doing that job shouldn't have like

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Speaker 1: a materially comfortable life. That's how stressful it is and

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Speaker 1: how much work they do. Um and I really like,

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Speaker 1: I really need to emphasize this enough. People. There's this

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Speaker 1: whole thing was like, oh, teachers don't work over the summer, Like, oh,

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Speaker 1: but no, no, Like their job sucks. They have to

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Speaker 1: they have to deal with these kids all day. And

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Speaker 1: the other thing is like, you know, the part of

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Speaker 1: it that you don't see is they have to do

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Speaker 1: all a lesson plans, They have to great all the stuff,

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Speaker 1: have to do all this stuff like after the school

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Speaker 1: day end, they have to do all the suff honestly

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Speaker 1: all the time. This job is awful. It is extremely hard,

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Speaker 1: and like they don't Yeah, the conditions are extremely bad.

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Speaker 1: I'll never forget when I'll never forget when I ran

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Speaker 1: into my seventh grade science teacher on the summer she

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Speaker 1: was waiting tables at a local restaurant, you know, I mean,

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Speaker 1: And so I think that there's this assumption that like

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Speaker 1: that especially care workers get some sort of you can't

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Speaker 1: you know, you can't cash in fulfillment, right or prestige

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Speaker 1: or whatever that doesn't pay the rent, that doesn't put

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Speaker 1: you know, groceries on your table um that sort of thing.

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Speaker 1: And so, you know, I think we're beginning to see

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Speaker 1: this thing resurgence. And it started with teachers and I

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Speaker 1: know for and teachers and nurses have been out fighting

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Speaker 1: like hell for the past like five years, and it's

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Speaker 1: beginning to kind of like spark other kinds of organizing

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Speaker 1: outside of outside of the care work areas. And a

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Speaker 1: lot of this stuff was It's funny how it was

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Speaker 1: kind of like predicted by occupy and like revolt of

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Speaker 1: the carrying classes. Someone who wrote a really cool book

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Speaker 1: that just came out, David Graeber, who was talking about

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Speaker 1: like why is it that we're seeing all these people

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Speaker 1: who are out in the streets like during occupy, who

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Speaker 1: are like social workers and nurses and teachers and all

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Speaker 1: this stuff. There There's something going on here, and I

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Speaker 1: think that so you'll see places where organizing conditions are

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Speaker 1: easier because the pressure on especially care workers right now

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Speaker 1: is immense in a way that it isn't as immense

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Speaker 1: other places. But look at for those like when you're

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Speaker 1: thinking about unions and whether to do build a union

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Speaker 1: at your workplace or do some sort of collective organized

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Speaker 1: in your workplace? Do you have the dynamics where you

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Speaker 1: guys are can the boss shut down your uh, your

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Speaker 1: your workplace and move it like ten miles without completely

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Speaker 1: destroying their like their business right? And so you know,

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Speaker 1: we've seen strikes happen in grocery stores, um and uh

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Speaker 1: Massachusetts there was a really like uh pretty well publicized

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Speaker 1: grocery worker strike and apparently there was like internal documents

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Speaker 1: got released to like shareholders about how that was like

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Speaker 1: one of the most like it was like for a

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Speaker 1: month in the winter or three weeks, and they said

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Speaker 1: they lost like of customers refused across the picket line.

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Speaker 1: I mean, and I think we're thinking it's like getting

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Speaker 1: to the point where you can go on strike. It's

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Speaker 1: a lot, it's a process, and it takes a lot

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Speaker 1: of work, and I think that people underestimate what that

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Speaker 1: looks like. Hence we see hashtag general strike things all

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Speaker 1: the time. Um, but like when you get there, I

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Speaker 1: think that we're at a point now where people have

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Speaker 1: a lot more sympathy for workers, and workers have become

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Speaker 1: more visible in a way that they weren't before, Like

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Speaker 1: the essential workers over the past year and a half

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Speaker 1: have been the only workers that sometimes people will see, right,

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Speaker 1: so you'll see things also like you have you know,

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Speaker 1: Amazonians United, which is a union that's organizing, but they're

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Speaker 1: trying to organize something called a solidarity union. So they're

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Speaker 1: not you know, at least the ones here in Chicago,

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Speaker 1: and I think some of them in New York. And

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Speaker 1: this may be changing. Things are always shifting around, but

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Speaker 1: for a long for a while, through like the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: they were organizing on a like in contrast to the

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Speaker 1: best Summer uh Amazon campaign. Sorry, there was a a

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Speaker 1: business union tried to organize a union in Alabama, Investment

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Speaker 1: Alabama at an Amazon warehouse, and there was a lot

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Speaker 1: of like media attention to that. Democratic politicians, we're paying

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Speaker 1: attention to it, you know, Joe Biden said, I support

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Speaker 1: the right of workers to choose to have the choice.

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Speaker 1: Stabby union some really milk tast bullshit and a lot

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Speaker 1: of celebrities showing up. And what wasn't happening was you

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Speaker 1: weren't seeing a lot of evidence that the workers themselves

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Speaker 1: were very excited about the union. And it turned out

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Speaker 1: that that campaign failed. UM whereas workers at Amazonian's united

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Speaker 1: up here like in Chicago, and granted it's a very

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Speaker 1: different organizing environment in Illinois than it is in Alabama. Um,

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Speaker 1: they haven't been focusing on getting contract. They've been focusing

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Speaker 1: on getting work changes. Like they're like, we want to

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Speaker 1: have water, like we need water breaks, and so they

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Speaker 1: would they have these stand up meetings at the beginning

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Speaker 1: of every shift, and they had coordinated where you have,

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Speaker 1: you know, thirty of your coworkers all say we're not

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Speaker 1: starting until we get water, and then management panics because

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Speaker 1: they're not used to that kind of demand. They're used

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Speaker 1: to We're going to have a campaign then we can

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Speaker 1: you know, mess with votes and that sort of thing

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Speaker 1: and make people afraid. Collective action overcomes fear, right, So

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Speaker 1: when you have collective action, even through a regular like

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Speaker 1: a more regular conventional union campaign, those collective actions are

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Speaker 1: what leads to successful unions. So like, um, so, you know,

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Speaker 1: they'd say, we aren't starting the shift until we get water,

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Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, a manager disappears and

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Speaker 1: then comes back with palates full of water, right, and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden, people are like, I'm gonna have

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Speaker 1: a drink water before I start like all together and

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Speaker 1: then they go off and do their thing, and it's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, things like that build the power of the

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Speaker 1: union to the point where they shut down that warehouse.

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Speaker 1: But then Amazonian United popped up in the three new

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Speaker 1: warehouses that they set up in Chicago. So it's like

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Speaker 1: when you build that kind of collective power and people

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Speaker 1: feel like this is how you get things, then it's

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Speaker 1: hard to repress. Right. It's one thing where like we

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Speaker 1: lost an election, why did we even bother? It's another

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Speaker 1: thing where like, no, we want like all this, like this, that,

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Speaker 1: and the other thing like we got you know, like

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Speaker 1: our regular schedules fixed, we got like water on our shifts.

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Speaker 1: We got this. You know. That's what gets people into

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Speaker 1: the mindset that they can change things. And I think

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Speaker 1: this is the thing that a lot of people don't get.

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Speaker 1: It's it's like, the difficult part isn't getting people to

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Speaker 1: agree that things are sucked up at your workplace. Most

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Speaker 1: people understand that things are sucked up in their workplace.

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Speaker 1: Difficult part isn't saying that, like, well, this is a solution, right.

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Speaker 1: The difficult part is getting people to understand that collective

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Speaker 1: action is the only way to solve the problems right

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Speaker 1: even within unionized workplaces, getting your coworkers to understand that

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Speaker 1: if we don't do this as a collective, we will fail.

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Speaker 1: And so like when there was a like the first

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Speaker 1: successful private hospital union drive in North Carolina popped off early. UM.

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Speaker 1: Throughout that campaign, they were constantly like demonstrations of collective power.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna do a vigil. How many people are gonna

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Speaker 1: show up to the visual We're gonna all walk around

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Speaker 1: stickers saying like safe staffing, safe lives or like you know, UM,

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Speaker 1: patients over profits. That sort of stuff and building that

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Speaker 1: kind of collective power together is what gets you, UM,

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Speaker 1: It's what gets you a successful like, that's what builds

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Speaker 1: a union. Fundamentally, union is UM. There's the legal thing

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Speaker 1: and then there's the real thing, and the real thing

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Speaker 1: is only as powerful as people are willing to fight

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Speaker 1: for and build that kind of collective power together. When

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Speaker 1: nurses were on straight and I talked a lot about

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Speaker 1: nurses because I know a lot about nurses, but like

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Speaker 1: you know, or like you know in um in Iowa,

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Speaker 1: when the John Deere strike happened, people were out on

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Speaker 1: those picket lines and people were ready to get hit

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Speaker 1: by cars to like stop scabs from coming like crossing

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Speaker 1: the picket line. And if you're not willing to do

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Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And I'm not saying that you

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Speaker 1: need to put your body on the line for things,

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Speaker 1: but you do need to be willing to draw outside

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Speaker 1: the lines. Right, there's the law, and then there's what

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Speaker 1: you can get people to do. And you will be

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Speaker 1: surprised when people start moving. They move fast and they

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Speaker 1: get really riled up like this, funk, this, this is

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Speaker 1: what we're gonna do. And sometimes unions try and like

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Speaker 1: bottle that energy up um or you know, if you're

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Speaker 1: in a good union, you use that energy to fix things.

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Speaker 1: So I think that's kind of where land on all

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Speaker 1: this stuff. It's like be aware of like the pitfalls

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Speaker 1: of what organizing at work means. Everyone has a right

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Speaker 1: to organize at work everywhere in this country. If you

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Speaker 1: get fired for like for organizing, you can fight that

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Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Yeah, it is, it's federally protected,

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Speaker 1: like it's this is this is a federal government thing.

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Speaker 1: Like you know, this is this is this is what

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Speaker 1: we got in exchange for everything else is like like

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Speaker 1: this is you know, like this this is what we

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Speaker 1: got in exchange of putting our guns down, is that like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the the the actual FEDS will be like, no, you

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Speaker 1: can't do this. Yeah, I mean, and sometimes that doesn't

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Speaker 1: sound like fold consolation and it doesn't always work. But

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Speaker 1: and I guess this is the other thing is there

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Speaker 1: are people who are like, this is how we're gonna,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna when socialism as everyone's in the union.

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Speaker 1: And I guess, like my take on it is is

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Speaker 1: this is how we build all the networks and get

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Speaker 1: the skills and all the necessary things to be prepared

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Speaker 1: to do bigger stuff down the road. So when we

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Speaker 1: when workers are talking to each other across like you know,

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Speaker 1: at when the Chicago when Chicago teachers went on strike,

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Speaker 1: they didn't just go on strike as the teachers. They

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Speaker 1: also talked to the They lined up their strike to

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Speaker 1: go out at the same as education like the school

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Speaker 1: workers who are in sc you and they went out

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Speaker 1: at the same time, um in order to incre improve

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Speaker 1: the power of the strike, because the more workers who

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Speaker 1: are out, less able the bosses are to like like

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Speaker 1: to undermine the boss either with people scabbing on each

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Speaker 1: other or whatever. And I think it's just like and

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Speaker 1: like that's the point of our labor council is Like

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Speaker 1: when like the grad workers at Universe Chicago go on strike,

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Speaker 1: we got teachers out or we got well, there were

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Speaker 1: teachers from CTU out on those picket lines. There were

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Speaker 1: nurses and a new on those picket lines, and we

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Speaker 1: were doing everything we could to communicate to each other

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Speaker 1: because like in my work, it doesn't matter that I'm

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Speaker 1: a nurse and you're a secretary. We have the same boss,

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Speaker 1: we have the same problems a lot of the times.

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Speaker 1: And so I think people people want to do the thing,

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Speaker 1: which is to all have the glorious general strike that

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Speaker 1: like overthrows capitalism or whatever or fixes all the problems

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Speaker 1: at your work. But you know, starting everyone forgets all

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Speaker 1: the necessary intermediate steps to get to that point. And

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Speaker 1: sometimes it means just get the union in the door

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Speaker 1: in the first place, because like at a campaign I

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Speaker 1: was a part of here in Chicago where my University

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Speaker 1: Chicago bought a non union hospital that was out in

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Speaker 1: the community. Just getting in there, they were able to

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Speaker 1: expose like basically an entire hospital wide scheme of like

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Speaker 1: racial racist like practices around raises and compensation and that

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Speaker 1: is like that first step and then fixing that right

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Speaker 1: because you don't want to have like white worse nurses

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Speaker 1: making more than black nurses and black percent more than

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Speaker 1: like did immigrant nurses like Filipino or like Mexican nurses.

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Speaker 1: Get everyone on the same page so that you're fighting

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Speaker 1: together instead of fighting each other. And you know, those

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Speaker 1: are those first steps that you take. And then and

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Speaker 1: then you start reaching out to people on other other

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Speaker 1: workplaces or other work areas and build that kind of

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Speaker 1: militant see across unions so that you can support each other.

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Speaker 1: So maybe a secondary strike is illegal right now, but

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Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you don't have you know, teamsters

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Speaker 1: who won't cross the picket line, right you know, how

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Speaker 1: do you go out and make it or you can

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Speaker 1: build that solidarity so that like in Buffalo and the UM,

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Speaker 1: the c w A nurses went on strike and they

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Speaker 1: want pretty impressive things around staffing ratios. They literally had

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Speaker 1: other unions going out and picketing board members of their

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Speaker 1: hospitals businesses and like getting really really like aggressive with

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Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. So I think that I think

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Speaker 1: that people need to just big takeaway is it's the

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Speaker 1: biggest barrier to any of this stuff is just getting

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Speaker 1: people to believe that collective action is possible and they

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Speaker 1: can get you wins, and then making sure that you

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Speaker 1: take your time and be patient and understand that there's

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Speaker 1: going to be losses in the grand scheme of things.

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Speaker 1: Don't don't don't mistake what looks like a setback when

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Speaker 1: it's actually a victory for like a victory, like for

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Speaker 1: a real like a defeat and um, and talk with

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Speaker 1: people like that's what they hate that, Like, bosses hate

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Speaker 1: it when we're talking with each other and talk to

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Speaker 1: people you're not comfortable with. That's the That's the other

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Speaker 1: thing is that people are very nervous to talk to people.

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Speaker 1: Like it's always funny when you run into people who

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Speaker 1: are ra ra like unions, ra ra like socialism, YadA YadA, YadA,

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Speaker 1: and they don't talk to their co workers, right, and

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Speaker 1: your coworkers are the people you're gonna be around for

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Speaker 1: maybe some years, and that's where you spend a huge

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Speaker 1: chunk of your time and like, but you don't know

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Speaker 1: what's going on, they're like, Oh, they're all hostile. They

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Speaker 1: don't want to know anything, they don't want to do anything.

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Speaker 1: Funny thing is is that oftentimes the most people who

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Speaker 1: seem very skeptical and anti union can be flipped, and

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Speaker 1: sometimes those people become the best, like the most dedicated

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Speaker 1: people to the union. It also means that you're going

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Speaker 1: to talk to people who disagree with Like there was

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Speaker 1: a Trump dude who was on like the bargaining committee

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Speaker 1: for like our last strike. He fucking loved that thing.

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Speaker 1: He was like, we're going on strike, but you know,

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Speaker 1: it's also a union full of black women, and he

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Speaker 1: shut the funk up when you know, it wasn't like,

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Speaker 1: you know, being racist and ship, but you know you're

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Speaker 1: gonna be with those people. And part of the thing

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Speaker 1: is is that it's about how we're all moving together

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Speaker 1: rather than making sure everyone is on the same page

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Speaker 1: for every single thing, because the biggest thing is the

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Speaker 1: collective action and building that collective power, and hopefully the

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Speaker 1: collective power is hopefully the collective power outweighs. It's if

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Speaker 1: you stand firm on principles like anti racism and fighting

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Speaker 1: against discrimination and misogyny that sort of thing, it actually

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Speaker 1: builds the power of the union. I think that's the

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Speaker 1: other things that people are like, oh, I don't you know,

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Speaker 1: like you know, working class people are all racist or

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Speaker 1: reactionary or whatever. So I'm going to do that And

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Speaker 1: that's how I'm gonna get That's my inn. And it's like,

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Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of people who like,

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Speaker 1: they really don't like you. They don't like being around loud,

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Speaker 1: racist assholes or people who you know, say slurs, like

403
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Speaker 1: especially if it's like I mean, you can make the

404
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Speaker 1: arguments like this is that's their way of dividing us.

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Speaker 1: Our goal is to be together. And historically speaking, the

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Speaker 1: one thing that's done the most too fight working class

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Speaker 1: racism is union organizing. Ye. So, and I think also,

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Speaker 1: like you know, in terms of like building something that's

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Speaker 1: actually you know, durable and powerful on top of sort

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Speaker 1: of just the division. I mean, you know, even when

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Speaker 1: it becomes stuff like transphobia, right, it's like, you know,

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Speaker 1: if if you can convince people to fight like first,

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Speaker 1: like fight for the person next to them, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: I mean this is this is the thing that people

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Speaker 1: like said a lot during the Dween the Brainy campaign.

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Speaker 1: But it was like, you know, if people like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: like if you can get someone to uh fight like

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Speaker 1: fight for the person next to you in a concrete

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Speaker 1: way in the work in a way that's actually real

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Speaker 1: for something that doesn't directly affect them. You think, you

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Speaker 1: know a A, it's just like the amount of power

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Speaker 1: that you've built there is incredible. And then be also, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I forgot where I was going with that, Daniel, please

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Speaker 1: cut that. Hold on, hold on, I can kind of

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Speaker 1: build off. Let me just say this, My personal experience

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Speaker 1: is that queer women run the labor movement and that

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Speaker 1: like and that if you think that people who have

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Speaker 1: been bullied from the day they like stepped into like

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Speaker 1: a into a kindergarten aren't going to be the people

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Speaker 1: who are most equipped to fight bullshit, bullying from a

431
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:45,359
Speaker 1: boss or injustice or bullshit you're fucking like, like, just

432
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:47,960
Speaker 1: get the funk out because you haven't been in a

433
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:50,360
Speaker 1: union and you don't know what you know. I mean,

434
00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 1: you like the like people. Unions are at their best

435
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: when they incorporate, you know, all, like when they are

436
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,600
Speaker 1: fighting for everybody, because what a boss can get away

437
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:05,679
Speaker 1: with with the weakest person, that's what they'll do to

438
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:07,840
Speaker 1: all of us if they get the chance. And so

439
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,280
Speaker 1: I think that there's this idea that's like, oh, we're

440
00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: going to set we're not going to we're going to

441
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:15,879
Speaker 1: ignore this or that sort of thing. It's like, you know,

442
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 1: that's when people like, you know, people will turn away

443
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: from unions as they feel like they're not being listened

444
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 1: to or taken seriously. And you don't know what people's

445
00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,600
Speaker 1: like identities are just because you see how they look.

446
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: And so I think that it's real important for us

447
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: to understand that if we're going to fight these fights,

448
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 1: we need to do so with the understanding that it's everybody,

449
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,840
Speaker 1: and that the working class is a giant, multi racial

450
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,720
Speaker 1: conglomeration of every identity in this country. Um, and that

451
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 1: the more marginal your identity is, the more useful having

452
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: a union is to like solving your problems. Like I said,

453
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: like racist racist compensation practices, there was no way that

454
00:25:56,080 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: was going to get fixed, Like it wasn't even uncovered.

455
00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,399
Speaker 1: People didn't understand it was happening in till like the

456
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:02,600
Speaker 1: union got in. Doesn't mean there are other ways to

457
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: fix things, but it's one of the one of the

458
00:26:04,760 --> 00:26:16,879
Speaker 1: most powerful ways to fix things. I think that people

459
00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: just like don't understand because they don't have experience. Because

460
00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 1: they don't have an experience, they end up with they

461
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,720
Speaker 1: end up with misconceptions about what they're going to get

462
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,320
Speaker 1: into and then they get disappointed. And I think the reality,

463
00:26:30,359 --> 00:26:33,040
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that the reality is not as

464
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,120
Speaker 1: bad as sometimes it seems. But also you gotta go

465
00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:38,480
Speaker 1: into all this ship with open eyes. Yeah, And I

466
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: think that there's and that's the other thing one of

467
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: the fun things. Maybe this will make it to the podcast.

468
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: I don't know, but um, one of the fun things

469
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: is always like hanging out with like if you like

470
00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: every workplace has like its lefties just about and like

471
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,760
Speaker 1: hanging out with the lefties who just can't get their

472
00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: brains wrapped around the ship that you need to have

473
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: a union. I think that there's like this idea that's like, oh,

474
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 1: I'm gonna talk to my friend. They're like they're like

475
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: they say they're a communists, so that the and then

476
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: then all those people do not always but they're don't.

477
00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:12,320
Speaker 1: They're sitting there, it's like talking a bunch of shit

478
00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: about like the union. They're a bunch of sellouts is

479
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: or that, and it's like literally it's the only thing

480
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: you're gonna do to get your like to fix the problem.

481
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:20,960
Speaker 1: And you're just like, we're just trying to get this

482
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 1: problem fixed. Can we just set aside what you think

483
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:25,800
Speaker 1: needs to happen like that you guys talked about it.

484
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: You're like Spartacus leak meeting or whatever, like, oh, this

485
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 1: isn't a real strike, Like we're not going out until

486
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,440
Speaker 1: like for like you know, three months. And it's like,

487
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 1: you know, it's like the sort of thing where um

488
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: sometimes or oftentimes, and I think it's because a lot

489
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: of people kind of pick up their politics almost like

490
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,439
Speaker 1: an aesthetic as opposed to like a thing that like

491
00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:52,880
Speaker 1: is about like fixing the problems in their lives. And

492
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,359
Speaker 1: sometimes even I'm like, you know, like this is the

493
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 1: problem that I face is like like shit is real,

494
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:01,880
Speaker 1: like a lot of people, and you can sit there

495
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,199
Speaker 1: and talk about this or that, and like you're you know,

496
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 1: you think that things. You know, you've got this perfect

497
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:10,479
Speaker 1: ideal vision of what things should be, and then you've

498
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: got this kind of imperfect thing in front of you

499
00:28:13,840 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 1: that is, even though it's imperfect, it's basically what you've got.

500
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,400
Speaker 1: And so it's like you've got to kind of you've

501
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,920
Speaker 1: got to work with what you have and fix it

502
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 1: up and make it the best that you think it

503
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: can be um, but also understand because it's an organization

504
00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:29,080
Speaker 1: full of people that it's not going to be perfect

505
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 1: every time. And yeah, maybe your union is going to

506
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:33,919
Speaker 1: do some liberal ship you know, and you're gonna and

507
00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,160
Speaker 1: that's going to annoy you. But you know, like, um,

508
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:38,960
Speaker 1: those people are still going to show up on the

509
00:28:38,960 --> 00:28:42,400
Speaker 1: picket line if you're like, if you're organized and you're

510
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 1: good and like, you know, that's it's not the end

511
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,880
Speaker 1: of the world that your union isn't perfect, um, but

512
00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 1: you've got to do everything you can to do your

513
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: best to make it better because if you don't, then

514
00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:56,160
Speaker 1: then liberals will do whatever they're gonna do or conservatives

515
00:28:56,160 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: will do whatever they're gonna do, and then they will

516
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,400
Speaker 1: like furtter away this thing. Like you can destroy a

517
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: union if you aren't engaged. Like a union can be

518
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: destroyed by people who think that you know, they're just

519
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 1: like I just want to get my rays and like

520
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:13,840
Speaker 1: go home, and like, you know, if people's main concern

521
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 1: is like their healthcare or like you know, that hour

522
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 1: of prep time before they start their shift or whatever

523
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 1: should you know, start their school day or whatever. Um,

524
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: you know, a union can like dissolve out from underneath

525
00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: you and people are like, why is no one showing

526
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,800
Speaker 1: up to this thing? It's because you didn't talk to

527
00:29:31,920 --> 00:29:33,720
Speaker 1: people and find out what it is. I think that's

528
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 1: the other thing is like listen, Like there's this idea

529
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,080
Speaker 1: that you're gonna get up and give a big speech

530
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: and get everyone really excited about your about like being

531
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: in a union. But the main thing is listening to

532
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:44,719
Speaker 1: people and listening to people who are critics. You know,

533
00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: your coworkers who have complaints aren't like people that you

534
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:50,080
Speaker 1: should ignore. Those are people who need to listen to

535
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: because those are people who they've got I mean, everyone's

536
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 1: got legitimate problems with how you know work is happening.

537
00:29:56,920 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 1: And like just because someone's like, you know, union is

538
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: you know trash, Like then find out why they think

539
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: it's trash and then try and be like I want

540
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:06,960
Speaker 1: to try and fix out what can we do to

541
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 1: fix it together? That sort of thing. I remember when

542
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: when I was working, So I worked at like maintenance

543
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: and a county facility for a while, and you know,

544
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,440
Speaker 1: so I was like a like I was like I

545
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: was like a summer higher basically, and so we we

546
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 1: weren't in the union, but like everyone we were working

547
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 1: for was in the union, and they all like, you know,

548
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 1: these are old ex construction worker guys and you know,

549
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,240
Speaker 1: like they're in the union. But like I remember that

550
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:37,600
Speaker 1: we show these conversations that were like, okay, so we

551
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:39,320
Speaker 1: have a union meeting this week, just like do you

552
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:41,040
Speaker 1: want to be the person who tries to talk about

553
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 1: raising wages? And it was like everyone was just like no.

554
00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 1: And you know, people, you know, like these guys are

555
00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: like very right wing and they were just sort of

556
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 1: like piste off all the time. But it was interesting

557
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 1: because the thing they were piste off all the time

558
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:55,960
Speaker 1: about was that, like, you know, their union didn't do

559
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 1: anything like the union like they they they're they they

560
00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:02,080
Speaker 1: they they they were. They were basically constantly annoyed that

561
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,920
Speaker 1: like the union didn't like the the the union wasn't

562
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:07,800
Speaker 1: fighting for pay raises, uson wasn't sort of fighting. And

563
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,760
Speaker 1: I think that was, you know, an example of how

564
00:31:10,800 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: this stuff sort of just fails if if people aren't

565
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: like if people don't feel like they can actually do

566
00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:23,120
Speaker 1: something like itself. I mean, and they call it service unionism.

567
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 1: There's this idea that like um or like like that

568
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: a business union's job is to kind of serve you

569
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,640
Speaker 1: and you kind of like they do all the work.

570
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,280
Speaker 1: Like one of the complaints that some people who are

571
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 1: not big fans of our union and our hospital is

572
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: that like, oh, well, other other unions have lawyers negotiate

573
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 1: the contract for you. And when we negotiate, we have

574
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,239
Speaker 1: a room full of nurses who are doing the who

575
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,959
Speaker 1: are doing the negotiations, and the goal is to have

576
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: it be as transparent as possible. And like the idea

577
00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: that you're going to hand over negotiate sations to a

578
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 1: lawyer and somehow get a better deal than than a

579
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 1: room full of of the actual workers. And it's funny

580
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 1: because we have our bargaining team and then like will

581
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 1: periodically do something called open bargaining because it's the thing

582
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,880
Speaker 1: that bosses hate. It's like they want to make a

583
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,800
Speaker 1: deal like with a door shut right, um, But there's

584
00:32:20,840 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: no reason why a union has to do that. Like,

585
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: you can invite whoever you want to your bargaining. You

586
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 1: can invite community members to your bargaining if you feel

587
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,640
Speaker 1: like you're man it could because management behind closed doors

588
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 1: will say all kinds of things, and you know they'll

589
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 1: they'll trash talk everyone involved and they'll you know, and

590
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 1: they will make absurd demands about you know, it's like, oh,

591
00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 1: you're all gonna take a pay cut you know on

592
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,360
Speaker 1: this contract, that sort of thing, and they hate it.

593
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 1: They absolutely hate it when like workers actually show up

594
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 1: to these things. And so, um, I think that understanding that, Like,

595
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: I think there's this idea that like some people are

596
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 1: big on like we have to be kind of like

597
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 1: secretive to like get the best deal, and like we

598
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: shouldn't be like we shouldn't be transparent with everyone about

599
00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:15,520
Speaker 1: what's going on because that's how like because then they'll

600
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:18,520
Speaker 1: figure out some way to counter us. But in my experience,

601
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 1: my understanding is that the more transparent your union is,

602
00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:29,440
Speaker 1: the more involved people get, and the more able people are,

603
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: the more willing people are to put their time and

604
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:32,960
Speaker 1: energy into it. Because that's what comes down to, is

605
00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 1: like people out to like everyone's working and busy and

606
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,400
Speaker 1: their life life is hard and sucks, and so like

607
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: do you have time to dedicate to show up to

608
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: like talk to like if you why would you go

609
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,719
Speaker 1: to a union meeting if when you raise the concern

610
00:33:46,880 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 1: like we want higher wages and like the union like

611
00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 1: staffer doesn't care if you get higher wages, because they're

612
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 1: like while we're getting our union dudes, and like what

613
00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: what then do we care? Right, that's like huge problem.

614
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:03,160
Speaker 1: And the part of the thing is that those problems

615
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: don't get solved if they if they exist, because they

616
00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: that definitely exists in some mu and a lot of unions,

617
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 1: more unions than uh than not um if the workers

618
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:18,160
Speaker 1: don't get organized together. Like we just saw an election

619
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:27,240
Speaker 1: within the Teamsters International where uh the halfa uh Jimmy

620
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,960
Speaker 1: Haffa Jr. One of the half a kids was like

621
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 1: president of the union and was this like not doing

622
00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:37,520
Speaker 1: a great job and um, and like there was a

623
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 1: ranking file like push to get that guy uh unelected,

624
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 1: you know, and put it replaced with a rank and

625
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:48,160
Speaker 1: file worker who wants to put actual time and resources

626
00:34:48,160 --> 00:34:50,680
Speaker 1: into organizing. You know. Like there's nothing sadder than a

627
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:55,560
Speaker 1: than like watching a union campaign failed because the union

628
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 1: clearly is phoning it in, Like that's happened. I've seen

629
00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: it happen, not inside my union, but in other unions

630
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,479
Speaker 1: and uh and I mean like at my workplace, there's

631
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,200
Speaker 1: several unions and I've seen I've seen a failed campaign

632
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: and it's like obvious, like there's you know, I'm not

633
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: I don't co sign everything that someone like Jay mccavalary.

634
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,719
Speaker 1: I think that's altay share McCay bleary has to say.

635
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:21,799
Speaker 1: She wrote like no shortcuts. Um, I don't sign off

636
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,239
Speaker 1: on everything she has to say, but she has some

637
00:35:23,320 --> 00:35:26,919
Speaker 1: really insightful things. It's like if you're not organizing to win,

638
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 1: like you'll fail, and like you have to take this

639
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,480
Speaker 1: so seriously. And that's where like I'll say that, like,

640
00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 1: if you've got a choice between I'm gonna put time

641
00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: into a political political campaign versus a union campaign, You're

642
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: going to get way more bang for your buck. You're

643
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:43,319
Speaker 1: gonna get so much more experience. You're gonna get like

644
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,520
Speaker 1: a durable organization that's going to be around for years

645
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: if you put that time into a union campaign. Because like,

646
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: imagine winning an election, right, um, except the politician you're

647
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: running against is the incumbent, and they can um basically

648
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,440
Speaker 1: drag every one of their constituents into like a meeting

649
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:07,279
Speaker 1: and tell them how awful you are all the time,

650
00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 1: and lie and say whatever they want, and then they can,

651
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 1: you know, do all kinds of tricks to like basically

652
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,680
Speaker 1: dismantle your campaign. So I guess, like the thing that

653
00:36:16,719 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 1: I would say is that like if you if you

654
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 1: do it the right way and you actually win one

655
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 1: of those campaigns, you're going to come out way ahead

656
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 1: and sort of understanding, like you have to talk to people,

657
00:36:26,560 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 1: you have to be super organized, you have to know

658
00:36:28,239 --> 00:36:32,840
Speaker 1: what people's issues are in their different targeting units. UM.

659
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,160
Speaker 1: You have to find people like part of like it's

660
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,960
Speaker 1: successful campaigns. I've been part of literally going on a

661
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 1: search to go find like the people that need to

662
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:46,040
Speaker 1: be like signing cards and stuff. And you just have

663
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 1: to be a very good listener, ready to talk and

664
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 1: listen and hear what people have to say. Um, and

665
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:56,440
Speaker 1: then turn that um information into knowledge, knowledge and power

666
00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:01,480
Speaker 1: um and UM. I think that, uh, if you pull

667
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: it off, you have done something substantially harder than say

668
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:07,759
Speaker 1: like winning a school board election or something like that.

669
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it really is. It's like taking

670
00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:14,239
Speaker 1: like those kind of skills that you would use to

671
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:17,479
Speaker 1: like win some sort of small municipal election, and it's

672
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,759
Speaker 1: like exponentially more hard because the rules are just so

673
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:25,640
Speaker 1: tilted against you winning. So if you are serious about it,

674
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 1: if you're serious about changing the world, if you can't

675
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 1: like someone. Yeah, I think Murray Bucksen once said, if

676
00:37:32,160 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: you can't run for dog catcher, you probably shouldn't be

677
00:37:35,160 --> 00:37:39,040
Speaker 1: talking about revolution, you know, But I think that probably

678
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:41,840
Speaker 1: more you know, more appropriate to be, Like, if you

679
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 1: can't win a union election, you probably shouldn't be talking

680
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:47,600
Speaker 1: about revolution because even if you want to do all

681
00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,880
Speaker 1: the things, you need to have the ability, the skills,

682
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 1: the ability to mediate conflict, getting everyone on board, to

683
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: do the collective action that like you would need to

684
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:00,400
Speaker 1: do to successfully kind of like carry out like you know,

685
00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: it's one thing to have the grand insurrection, it's the

686
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,400
Speaker 1: other thing to carry it forward and keep hering it

687
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:08,800
Speaker 1: to the point where you're over the line you've completely

688
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: changed the world, right, So, and I think that and

689
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:15,719
Speaker 1: so I just think that like UM and I think

690
00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,320
Speaker 1: that's similar things go with like you know, tenant organizing,

691
00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:22,719
Speaker 1: community organizing. There's various types of organizing that use those

692
00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:26,040
Speaker 1: similar skills that you get in like a union campaign, UM.

693
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:30,319
Speaker 1: And it's just a very different type of UM politics

694
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,400
Speaker 1: and organization and skills that you would get from you know,

695
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:37,440
Speaker 1: showing up for your local justice dem and you know,

696
00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:39,840
Speaker 1: like knocking on the doors of strangers, you'll never you

697
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:42,080
Speaker 1: may never speak to you again. You know, when you're

698
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:44,279
Speaker 1: talking with your coworkers, those your coworkers are going to

699
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: be there until you're you know, you retire or you're

700
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: fired or you quit. So anyway, that's I guess that's

701
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:54,680
Speaker 1: another good takeaway I think from all this. So one

702
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:57,960
Speaker 1: thing I wanted to make sure to get to is,

703
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,120
Speaker 1: so I think there's a lot of people who are

704
00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,960
Speaker 1: listening to this who working out non union workplaces and

705
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,160
Speaker 1: want to try to start this, and I wanted to

706
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:13,160
Speaker 1: know what would be your recommendations for them, you know, how,

707
00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:15,759
Speaker 1: how how do you start this process? What does this

708
00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 1: look like? In what kinds of conversations should you be

709
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 1: having with your coworkers? Yeah, for sure. So, um, I

710
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:27,520
Speaker 1: think one of the first things that I think a

711
00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,799
Speaker 1: lot of people, a lot of people don't understand is

712
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 1: that there's an amount of risk and stuff too organizing,

713
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 1: and that you're like, first off, like you should be

714
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:41,480
Speaker 1: chill and like not like running around telling everyone you

715
00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:43,080
Speaker 1: want a union because that's a great way to lose

716
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,640
Speaker 1: your job. Um. I think the thing is is that

717
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 1: you build relationships and find out what's happening, like just

718
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: like you know, take from your experience and figure out

719
00:39:55,040 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 1: what's like in uh, like, man, it really sucks, like

720
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:00,320
Speaker 1: I got like I got screwed o here on my

721
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: vacation requests, or like I you know, man, are raises

722
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:06,279
Speaker 1: were really shitty this year And I heard like you know,

723
00:40:06,400 --> 00:40:09,719
Speaker 1: boss talking about like how much like like they've made

724
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:13,799
Speaker 1: so much money that sort of thing. Um. So I

725
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:18,000
Speaker 1: think that it comes down to you have to be

726
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:21,839
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a combination of like like an

727
00:40:21,840 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 1: investigative reporter and like someone who is just really good

728
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:29,440
Speaker 1: at like talking to people and just kind of like

729
00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:34,440
Speaker 1: understanding what's making them tick and understanding also that maybe

730
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,880
Speaker 1: you're not the person who's going to get everyone on board,

731
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,879
Speaker 1: but that finding other people who every Like I think

732
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 1: the big thing is like who's like the most respected

733
00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:47,000
Speaker 1: person on like in your work area that sort of thing,

734
00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,160
Speaker 1: who like they know that the unit or they know

735
00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:52,799
Speaker 1: the work area, they've been there the longest, they have

736
00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:55,480
Speaker 1: like the most experience. People look up to them. There

737
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:57,480
Speaker 1: are the people who train other people that sort of thing.

738
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:00,759
Speaker 1: Those are the people who everyone looks too. When it

739
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 1: comes down to these sorts of things, and you know,

740
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:06,120
Speaker 1: just you don't have to be friends with everybody, but

741
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:08,799
Speaker 1: like doing it's I think it's really good to just,

742
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 1: like two, be open to listening to everybody that you

743
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,600
Speaker 1: work with and finding out what it is that's really

744
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:22,000
Speaker 1: going on. Yes, I've noticed like in a lot of

745
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,919
Speaker 1: places that I've worked, like the bosses often don't really

746
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:30,200
Speaker 1: know what's going on either, like they and I think

747
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: that that that's something they can give you. If you

748
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:35,319
Speaker 1: understand how the process works and who's doing what and

749
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: what people like need, that gives you like a big

750
00:41:38,600 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 1: advantage over the bosses who just have no idea what's

751
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:49,200
Speaker 1: going on, which I think, Yeah, I think it's very

752
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: it's very normal for bosses to really not know what's happening,

753
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:56,600
Speaker 1: and there's always someone who does, like figuring out the

754
00:41:56,640 --> 00:42:00,799
Speaker 1: people who really know how things work are like those

755
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: are like the those are the people who, um, you

756
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:07,759
Speaker 1: want to be talking with and figuring out like where

757
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:13,319
Speaker 1: they kind of stand on things, and um, you know,

758
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:15,359
Speaker 1: I think like the first step is like just having

759
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: good relationships and people trusting you and you know, you know,

760
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,560
Speaker 1: if you know, Like, I don't think everyone needs to

761
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: be a superstar workers sort of thing to be a

762
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: good union organizer. But like they always say, it's like

763
00:42:28,120 --> 00:42:31,480
Speaker 1: people who have the most problems oftentimes are people that

764
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,239
Speaker 1: are don't make great organizers because people don't see them

765
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:39,839
Speaker 1: as people to follow. But um um, but I think

766
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,239
Speaker 1: that it's important to just like talk with your to

767
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: like just figure out what's going on first. That's your

768
00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:46,759
Speaker 1: first step. Figure out what's going on? What are the

769
00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:50,080
Speaker 1: things I mean? And you can come around together in

770
00:42:50,640 --> 00:42:52,760
Speaker 1: you know, and like and how do you get people

771
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,960
Speaker 1: outside of the workplace? So you talk like how do you,

772
00:42:56,239 --> 00:42:58,600
Speaker 1: like do you have like a group chat or signal

773
00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:01,359
Speaker 1: chat or like a what to app chat or Facebook group?

774
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:03,319
Speaker 1: And where do you just like start kind of like

775
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,160
Speaker 1: and you know, be very care be careful about who's involved,

776
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:08,479
Speaker 1: and just kind of like low key to like start

777
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:12,040
Speaker 1: talking with folks and identifying to people who, um, who

778
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 1: are outside of your work area, who know people Like

779
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:17,320
Speaker 1: sometimes it's you know, you'll talk to people and they're like,

780
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about a union, but you'll

781
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,320
Speaker 1: be like, do you know anyone who cares? Who who

782
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 1: has said anything about unions before? And so talking to

783
00:43:25,960 --> 00:43:29,040
Speaker 1: people to find out who they know, Like these are

784
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:31,600
Speaker 1: all this kind of like crucial first steps to like organizing.

785
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:35,920
Speaker 1: And I think the thing is is that, like there

786
00:43:35,960 --> 00:43:38,960
Speaker 1: have been times where you'll have a non union workplace

787
00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:43,359
Speaker 1: where if the people in a particular area of of

788
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,080
Speaker 1: like a of like a hospital or like a workplace

789
00:43:46,160 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: or whatever, we'll do some collective thing that gets some

790
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:51,719
Speaker 1: sort of results. So I think it's always like it's like,

791
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:55,920
Speaker 1: let's get people to sign off on a petition about

792
00:43:55,960 --> 00:44:01,320
Speaker 1: like you know, like if of your coworkers are unhappy

793
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:03,399
Speaker 1: with like races or something like that. Like the more

794
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:06,960
Speaker 1: people that are involved in those first steps, the more

795
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:11,319
Speaker 1: likely it is that it won't result in retaliation and

796
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,840
Speaker 1: like you'll end up getting some sort of victory. Um.

797
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,879
Speaker 1: So I guess like the thing that I would say

798
00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: is just like be be ready for like people to

799
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 1: look at greet you with skepticism because like it's it's hard,

800
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:30,960
Speaker 1: it's a hard thing to do, and always just be

801
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,960
Speaker 1: finding out what is bothering people and then look at

802
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:36,560
Speaker 1: little things that you can do to kind of like

803
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: flex power, like to like collectively flex your power. And um,

804
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:45,719
Speaker 1: it can be as small as like everyone bringing up

805
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:49,160
Speaker 1: the same issue at like a work meeting, right like

806
00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:52,160
Speaker 1: if you and it could be like, hey, let's talk

807
00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: about this is this work meeting, this is and if

808
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 1: we all say something together like, we're going to be fine. Right. UM,

809
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:02,239
Speaker 1: So like starting with those first steps, I think it's

810
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:04,600
Speaker 1: the first like thing, Like the first thing is know

811
00:45:04,719 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 1: what's going on, build relationships, be a trustworthy person, Like

812
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 1: you can't be like the unit gossip or the the

813
00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 1: work area gossip that like knows that's in everyone's business

814
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:17,200
Speaker 1: or stirring up stuff and be successful at this UM.

815
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:20,239
Speaker 1: But if you are, you know, if you're someone that

816
00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:23,440
Speaker 1: people like trust or look to or you know, like

817
00:45:23,480 --> 00:45:25,760
Speaker 1: a person that people are like they help solve our problems,

818
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 1: those are the people who I mean, you're going to

819
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,040
Speaker 1: be well set to begin to kind of take the

820
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:34,040
Speaker 1: steps on that and then you know as you kind

821
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,880
Speaker 1: of build those kind of like build that organization step

822
00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:43,360
Speaker 1: by step. No, no union UM is going to invest

823
00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:47,000
Speaker 1: the time in a union campaign if it's just you

824
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:50,160
Speaker 1: and like to other people like you need like you

825
00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:51,920
Speaker 1: need to get a room. They're always say like, well,

826
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:53,520
Speaker 1: if you get a room full of people together, I'm

827
00:45:53,560 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 1: willing to talk to them. And that's kind of the thing.

828
00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 1: And you know, zoom and stuff has actually made that

829
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 1: a little bit easier UM, which in some ways can

830
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:04,160
Speaker 1: be a weakness because you end up with like it's

831
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:06,479
Speaker 1: a lot less commitment to show up to a zoom

832
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,759
Speaker 1: meeting that it is to UM to show up at

833
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:13,960
Speaker 1: like a bar or a place after work UM or

834
00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:17,120
Speaker 1: a church or wherever it's like a good like like

835
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,640
Speaker 1: neutral safe place that people feel like they can be

836
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:22,160
Speaker 1: honest with each other about what's going on. UM. But

837
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:30,240
Speaker 1: at the same time, just like being the more the

838
00:46:30,239 --> 00:46:32,279
Speaker 1: the more people you get on board with the thing,

839
00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:36,800
Speaker 1: the more likely that it will succeed. You'll attract support

840
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:39,960
Speaker 1: from like an actual union that m is able to

841
00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 1: help you if you decide that that's how you want

842
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:43,840
Speaker 1: to do it, or if that makes sense in a

843
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:47,400
Speaker 1: legal context. And so I just like always like start small,

844
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 1: figure out the small things, be willing to do like

845
00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:54,480
Speaker 1: collective action to get little small victories. And that's a

846
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,480
Speaker 1: great way to get started, I think, and then like

847
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,400
Speaker 1: really do like sleuthing and research, like figure about how

848
00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:04,840
Speaker 1: things actually work. UM. That's like, you know, that was

849
00:47:04,880 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 1: the problem with the best amerket campaign down in uh

850
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:10,400
Speaker 1: down in Alabama with those Amazon workers is they didn't

851
00:47:10,400 --> 00:47:13,680
Speaker 1: know how many people worked at that facility, and then

852
00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:15,120
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they're like, oh, yeah, we're going

853
00:47:15,160 --> 00:47:17,960
Speaker 1: to include like an extra thousand people in this vote,

854
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:22,880
Speaker 1: you know, like six weeks out, and you know, like

855
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 1: I don't want to I don't want to take a

856
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:26,480
Speaker 1: dump on the people who did that. But like, if

857
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:29,600
Speaker 1: you don't know that there's like another thousand people, or

858
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:32,360
Speaker 1: you don't have like everyone on board, you're not going

859
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:35,879
Speaker 1: to succeed. So no, everything you can as you're going

860
00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:38,160
Speaker 1: in and do everything you can to find out things

861
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:40,960
Speaker 1: or make buddies with the friends, but our buddies of

862
00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:44,080
Speaker 1: the people who are gonna you know, know these things

863
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 1: and you know, and then support each other, like it

864
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 1: means showing up when like someone Sometimes what we do

865
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:55,640
Speaker 1: during these campaigns is someone will will have the contact

866
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,239
Speaker 1: for someone who's interested, and then your job is to

867
00:47:58,280 --> 00:48:01,520
Speaker 1: go and find that person where they work and talk

868
00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:03,239
Speaker 1: with them, and then talk with them while they talk

869
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:05,799
Speaker 1: with their coworkers, or back up them while they're talking

870
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:08,280
Speaker 1: to the co workers, because they trust their their coworkers,

871
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:11,960
Speaker 1: trust their coworker. You know, you're a random stranger, you know,

872
00:48:12,040 --> 00:48:13,719
Speaker 1: And then like, don't be afraid to say I don't know,

873
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:16,200
Speaker 1: but I will find out. Right, there's like this, there's

874
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,680
Speaker 1: this pressure I think to like have all the answers

875
00:48:18,920 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 1: to like whatever people's questions are. And I think that

876
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 1: it's like, um, I think that it's like, I think

877
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:33,680
Speaker 1: that it's important to be honest when you don't understand,

878
00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 1: but then do the work of figuring out the answers

879
00:48:35,560 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: for people. Um. And I think people respect that. And

880
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:41,360
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people who are vocally against

881
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,799
Speaker 1: these sorts of things up front, it's because they don't know.

882
00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:47,319
Speaker 1: And if you you know, you're like, no, we've got

883
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:50,360
Speaker 1: a right to do this, or like, you know, the

884
00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 1: the you know, a management will say things like managion,

885
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:58,120
Speaker 1: it will say things like oh you will, um, you know,

886
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,680
Speaker 1: the union will get in between our relationship with you know,

887
00:49:01,719 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: with you and us, right, And the point is is

888
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:07,160
Speaker 1: that like, well, the union is us where the cod

889
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:09,439
Speaker 1: where the people doing it? Like everyone running. You can't

890
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:11,759
Speaker 1: run a union if you don't have a bunch of

891
00:49:11,760 --> 00:49:15,200
Speaker 1: people involved from the workplace. And it's like and making

892
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:18,440
Speaker 1: sure that the people who are um, those people who

893
00:49:18,520 --> 00:49:21,279
Speaker 1: end up being kind of like spokespersons for everyone else

894
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:24,040
Speaker 1: are people that folks trust and they have like a

895
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:29,719
Speaker 1: good like grasp of what everyone wants and yeah, so yeah,

896
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:31,400
Speaker 1: and then like you know, don't get bogged down in

897
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,520
Speaker 1: the legal ship. Like you know, collective action really is

898
00:49:34,600 --> 00:49:37,560
Speaker 1: like your most powerful tool, um all the other kind

899
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 1: of like the grievances and that's some stuff. It's important

900
00:49:40,600 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 1: and you can't let it go. But it's also like

901
00:49:43,239 --> 00:49:47,160
Speaker 1: it's designed to kind of grind people down. So um,

902
00:49:47,200 --> 00:49:50,520
Speaker 1: you know, the more collective action you take, like the

903
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:52,600
Speaker 1: more likely it is that you're going to be successful

904
00:49:52,640 --> 00:50:05,400
Speaker 1: and keep people engaged and excited. Yeah, going back to

905
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 1: what you were saying earlier, this might mind out being

906
00:50:08,719 --> 00:50:13,759
Speaker 1: last episode depending on where this breaksdown time wise, But yeah,

907
00:50:13,880 --> 00:50:16,160
Speaker 1: I think it's also it's just this is gonna take

908
00:50:16,239 --> 00:50:21,799
Speaker 1: time and a lot of work, And I think it's

909
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:25,279
Speaker 1: it's it's important age to understand going in that this

910
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:27,560
Speaker 1: is a long and difficult process. It's not gonna happen overnight,

911
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:31,920
Speaker 1: and be that it's a lot of work, Like you

912
00:50:32,000 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 1: have to There's there's a lot of things that you

913
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: have to do. There's a lot of sort of logistics,

914
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:39,200
Speaker 1: there's a lot of talking, there's a lot of like negotiating,

915
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:40,799
Speaker 1: there's a lot of sort of. I mean just just

916
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:44,960
Speaker 1: even I don't know, before anything gets off the ground,

917
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:47,240
Speaker 1: you have to spend enormous amounts of time and effort

918
00:50:47,239 --> 00:50:50,319
Speaker 1: doing stuff and that's that's that's like it's just the

919
00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:54,040
Speaker 1: reality of it. So yeah, there's there's no there's there's

920
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:56,879
Speaker 1: no there's there's there's there's no magic bullet like there's

921
00:50:56,880 --> 00:50:59,680
Speaker 1: no sort of yeah, there's there's no just like one

922
00:50:59,840 --> 00:51:02,480
Speaker 1: thing you can do that like magically makes it you

923
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:05,560
Speaker 1: need appear. It's a bunch of people coming together and

924
00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:09,279
Speaker 1: like fighting for it for a long time. Yeah, I

925
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:11,080
Speaker 1: think that that's like the main thing is like you're

926
00:51:11,440 --> 00:51:14,920
Speaker 1: it's it's a cliche that's like it's a marathon, not

927
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:19,400
Speaker 1: as prints. Um. Sometimes I hate when people say that ship,

928
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:24,000
Speaker 1: but it's true, like you you really do have like, um,

929
00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:25,839
Speaker 1: you're in it for the long haul, and a lot

930
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,759
Speaker 1: of times it's like your people are ready to do

931
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:33,160
Speaker 1: these things when they're like this is like I don't

932
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:35,040
Speaker 1: want you know, it's one thing to pop up in

933
00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 1: a place and be there for like you know, six months,

934
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,279
Speaker 1: like I need a we need a union, right, No

935
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:42,520
Speaker 1: one you know that works in that place, trust you,

936
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: they don't know who you are, Like they're not going

937
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:47,840
Speaker 1: to follow you to do anything or you know, or

938
00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,719
Speaker 1: take your you know, follow your lead. Um, it's the

939
00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:54,520
Speaker 1: people who are like, I'm gonna be here, this is

940
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:56,560
Speaker 1: my this is where I want to be, and you know,

941
00:51:56,640 --> 00:51:58,680
Speaker 1: this is a I want to be here for the

942
00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:00,799
Speaker 1: next few years, and think of it is like a

943
00:52:00,920 --> 00:52:03,680
Speaker 1: long term investment in the quality of your life and

944
00:52:03,680 --> 00:52:08,080
Speaker 1: the quality of life at your workplace, because to win,

945
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:11,600
Speaker 1: you have to be sticking around, you know. And I

946
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:15,239
Speaker 1: think that's where it gets tough with people who are

947
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:19,920
Speaker 1: in like precarious types of employment or different types of

948
00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:22,080
Speaker 1: and that's where you have to start looking at alternate

949
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:25,839
Speaker 1: ways to organize because maybe you're a precarious worker who

950
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:29,400
Speaker 1: does maybe you drive, like for a right here service,

951
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 1: or maybe you like do delivery or like you know,

952
00:52:32,640 --> 00:52:35,120
Speaker 1: um for an app or whatever to delivery for an app.

953
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:38,680
Speaker 1: And I think the thing is is like that sort

954
00:52:38,680 --> 00:52:41,960
Speaker 1: of thing because of how and you know, these aren't

955
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:44,319
Speaker 1: like new forms of work. This is actually really old

956
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 1: forms of work that are just like been like rebranded

957
00:52:46,719 --> 00:52:50,640
Speaker 1: by tech bros who have decided like they're like they're

958
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:53,520
Speaker 1: like they're great genius is like rebranding the kind of

959
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,800
Speaker 1: like precarious work that was really like prominent like throughout

960
00:52:56,800 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. And it's like, so then what do

961
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:02,080
Speaker 1: you do as you come up with ways to organize

962
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: people regardless of like oh, like I'm you know, I

963
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 1: work for this, like I work for lift or work

964
00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:10,400
Speaker 1: for Uber and it kind of switches back and forth.

965
00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:12,680
Speaker 1: Like the thing is, it's like that's when you start

966
00:53:12,719 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 1: talking with you know, rideshare drivers across different like apps

967
00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:20,279
Speaker 1: or whatever, and then you come up with a way

968
00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:24,359
Speaker 1: to work collectively um to to change sorts of things.

969
00:53:24,480 --> 00:53:27,680
Speaker 1: And sometimes that's it's gonna be it's gonna be tough,

970
00:53:27,800 --> 00:53:29,920
Speaker 1: you know. And that's when I kind of look at

971
00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:31,759
Speaker 1: those that sort of thing is like this is where

972
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:35,280
Speaker 1: it's a learning experience and maybe I don't get everything

973
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 1: I want, but you know it's really important. I mean,

974
00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:40,200
Speaker 1: it's like building these networks that people who care about

975
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 1: like what they're working conditions are like, and you can

976
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,640
Speaker 1: pull things off maybe unexpectedly that you didn't expect. We're

977
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:50,759
Speaker 1: going to be like the thing, you know, like you

978
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:53,080
Speaker 1: may start with something that looks like a union drive

979
00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:56,719
Speaker 1: and then you end up with something that looks like

980
00:53:57,239 --> 00:53:59,000
Speaker 1: very different it could you know, could go in all

981
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,920
Speaker 1: sorts of different direction. So um, you know there and

982
00:54:03,000 --> 00:54:05,360
Speaker 1: look outside of the US, you know, their countries where

983
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,480
Speaker 1: like in UM, I think that there have been some

984
00:54:08,520 --> 00:54:14,960
Speaker 1: pretty successful delivery app organ to organizing in London UM.

985
00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:19,360
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that to a certain extent,

986
00:54:19,680 --> 00:54:25,319
Speaker 1: like formal extent, US unions have not been very successful

987
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:30,440
Speaker 1: in organizing those workers because it doesn't it's hard to

988
00:54:30,600 --> 00:54:35,759
Speaker 1: do from the extant business union model, and so it's

989
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:38,000
Speaker 1: like it's one of those things where you know it

990
00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:42,319
Speaker 1: used to be, you know, they would have like you know,

991
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:44,480
Speaker 1: the fight would be instead of trying to get like

992
00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:51,279
Speaker 1: workers are like a contract at a particular like work site,

993
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:53,279
Speaker 1: you set up a hiring hall, like the i w

994
00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:56,759
Speaker 1: W would set up hiring halls UM and like you

995
00:54:56,800 --> 00:54:58,839
Speaker 1: know for lumberjacks and that sort of thing, and those

996
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:01,400
Speaker 1: workers are always pre areas right, but they would go

997
00:55:01,640 --> 00:55:04,959
Speaker 1: trying set up so that like people would only take

998
00:55:05,080 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: jobs out of the hiring hall and that's how they

999
00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,279
Speaker 1: would control their like their work. And I think that

1000
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:14,640
Speaker 1: more unions needed. And part of this is like if

1001
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:17,840
Speaker 1: there's any union people out there who are in staff

1002
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:19,560
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing is like there needs to

1003
00:55:19,600 --> 00:55:22,960
Speaker 1: be a serious re examination of how we do unions

1004
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 1: in this country. And I think a lot of people

1005
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:28,600
Speaker 1: inside unions understand that, but no one has quite done

1006
00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: it yet in a way that's effective. And I think

1007
00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:33,960
Speaker 1: that we really do need to kind of re evaluate

1008
00:55:34,080 --> 00:55:37,839
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. So just you know, as someone

1009
00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:40,360
Speaker 1: who's going into like a new sort of organizing campaign,

1010
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:46,160
Speaker 1: just understand that like getting the union contract isn't necessarily

1011
00:55:46,200 --> 00:55:48,000
Speaker 1: the end gold end goal is to try and get

1012
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:50,560
Speaker 1: your boss to do things differently so that you're not

1013
00:55:50,680 --> 00:55:53,880
Speaker 1: like miserable at work. And that might look like a contract,

1014
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:56,839
Speaker 1: or it might look like you know, a a one

1015
00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:59,920
Speaker 1: day like uh, you know, app strike or something like that.

1016
00:56:00,040 --> 00:56:01,919
Speaker 1: You know, you'll you'll figure you've got to figure out

1017
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:06,040
Speaker 1: how it's gonna work. Like with you know, in healthcare,

1018
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:10,120
Speaker 1: you know, there's this idea that like, you know, there's

1019
00:56:10,160 --> 00:56:12,399
Speaker 1: the gold standard of the strike where you strike until

1020
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:13,839
Speaker 1: we win and we're out for like you know, like

1021
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:16,000
Speaker 1: two or three months. Well, the problem is is that

1022
00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:20,359
Speaker 1: there's an industry of scab nurses and healthcare workers where

1023
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:23,320
Speaker 1: at any point they can bring in people to replace

1024
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:26,040
Speaker 1: enough of you that a hospital can maintain operations. And

1025
00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:29,520
Speaker 1: unless you're super organized like they were up in um Buffalo,

1026
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:34,600
Speaker 1: uh with c W A like, and have a big

1027
00:56:34,640 --> 00:56:37,200
Speaker 1: network of people and you're ready to go to like

1028
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:39,719
Speaker 1: you know, board like picket board members houses and that

1029
00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:43,520
Speaker 1: sort of stuff. Um, those long term strikes can end

1030
00:56:43,520 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 1: in defeat where you end up with you know, you're

1031
00:56:46,239 --> 00:56:50,239
Speaker 1: all replaced with scabs and and it sucks and it's happened,

1032
00:56:50,680 --> 00:56:52,440
Speaker 1: and then you gotta I guess you gotta learn from it,

1033
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:56,120
Speaker 1: you know, like we've there was a famous strike in

1034
00:56:56,120 --> 00:57:01,000
Speaker 1: Minnesota with healthcare workers and they went out and they

1035
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:02,919
Speaker 1: were out for months and months, and there are people

1036
00:57:02,920 --> 00:57:04,680
Speaker 1: on you know, going to the super kitchen to feed

1037
00:57:04,719 --> 00:57:08,920
Speaker 1: their kids and stuff, and they lost right. And so

1038
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:11,560
Speaker 1: my union tends to do one day strikes, but instead

1039
00:57:11,560 --> 00:57:14,520
Speaker 1: of just being at one hospital, we organized multiple hospitals

1040
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:17,120
Speaker 1: across the country so that it soaks up all the

1041
00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 1: like scat drives up scabs and it really like that.

1042
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:25,200
Speaker 1: I think ideas like intermittent strikes were actually a really

1043
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:28,280
Speaker 1: powerful tool back when you know, back when it was

1044
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:29,840
Speaker 1: the c I oh and it was like we're going

1045
00:57:29,880 --> 00:57:32,840
Speaker 1: to just stop working until he fixed this problem. UM,

1046
00:57:32,840 --> 00:57:34,720
Speaker 1: and that's why they made them illegal and it takes

1047
00:57:34,720 --> 00:57:36,160
Speaker 1: a lot of work to pull them off. But if

1048
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:38,080
Speaker 1: you can't pull them off, that could be an effective way.

1049
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:40,920
Speaker 1: And if you're not in a union, maybe getting people

1050
00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:43,840
Speaker 1: down for a one day like work stoppage at your

1051
00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:46,680
Speaker 1: work or even you know, maybe it's like we're not

1052
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,640
Speaker 1: starting our shift right. I've been in the room. I've

1053
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:50,960
Speaker 1: been in the room where it's like, no, we're not

1054
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:54,320
Speaker 1: going out to take that assignment until like we get

1055
00:57:54,360 --> 00:57:58,040
Speaker 1: our staff situation set up like fixed. And you know,

1056
00:57:58,160 --> 00:58:04,320
Speaker 1: sometimes it's just those collective actions are you know, it's

1057
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:06,400
Speaker 1: not the end, Like there's no end. I'll be all

1058
00:58:06,480 --> 00:58:09,480
Speaker 1: one size fits all solution, just be ready to kind

1059
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:12,520
Speaker 1: of like explore what it means get all the resources

1060
00:58:12,520 --> 00:58:15,760
Speaker 1: you can. There's groups like there's still like the Industrial

1061
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:19,200
Speaker 1: Workers the World, which has really good organizing trainings o

1062
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:22,120
Speaker 1: T one oh one and one oh two. I'll pitch

1063
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:24,680
Speaker 1: that as a member of as a also a dual

1064
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:27,800
Speaker 1: carding member of the i w w UM. But there's

1065
00:58:27,840 --> 00:58:32,840
Speaker 1: also Labor notes UM and other groups like Essential Workers

1066
00:58:32,920 --> 00:58:35,440
Speaker 1: Organizing Committee that's sort of things that like give you

1067
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:38,560
Speaker 1: good like rundowns on how to do the organizing work.

1068
00:58:39,400 --> 00:58:44,320
Speaker 1: So just be careful, always be careful, be aware that

1069
00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 1: people are afraid. Bosses use fear um to scare you guys,

1070
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:52,520
Speaker 1: to scare everybody, and like, the the more people on

1071
00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:54,800
Speaker 1: board with a thing, the less fear. Like it's amazing

1072
00:58:54,800 --> 00:58:56,720
Speaker 1: when you're running up into a strike and you're really

1073
00:58:56,840 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 1: firing on all cylinders and like everyone in your like

1074
00:58:59,320 --> 00:59:02,200
Speaker 1: work areas we're getting together to take a picture, like

1075
00:59:02,200 --> 00:59:04,120
Speaker 1: get ready to go on strike, and it's like literally,

1076
00:59:04,920 --> 00:59:07,200
Speaker 1: i mean when we went on strike, when our hospital

1077
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:09,080
Speaker 1: went on strike, it was the first time where like

1078
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:12,840
Speaker 1: there was like nurses on one places the first time

1079
00:59:12,920 --> 00:59:16,600
Speaker 1: when all of us were in one place ever. And

1080
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:20,840
Speaker 1: it's just massive like coming together thing experience. And it's

1081
00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:23,440
Speaker 1: really hard to describe when you when because you know,

1082
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:26,560
Speaker 1: we're always griping at each other about this or that thing.

1083
00:59:26,640 --> 00:59:28,600
Speaker 1: It's like, but when you're actually all out there together

1084
00:59:28,680 --> 00:59:30,480
Speaker 1: on the same time, when you pull it off, it's

1085
00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:35,360
Speaker 1: really amazing. Um, it's hard, it's it's hard to describe, um,

1086
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,000
Speaker 1: but when you do it, it's like it's like the

1087
00:59:38,000 --> 00:59:41,640
Speaker 1: purest drug. And so've I've heard some people who are

1088
00:59:41,720 --> 00:59:44,160
Speaker 1: union skeptical be like well, you just experienced like the

1089
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:46,960
Speaker 1: good ship and like what about all the defeats, Like, well,

1090
00:59:47,480 --> 00:59:49,800
Speaker 1: get the little hits, get the little hits here and there,

1091
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:52,000
Speaker 1: and get yourself to the point where you can do

1092
00:59:52,040 --> 00:59:54,680
Speaker 1: the big thing. You know, you're the whole thing is

1093
00:59:54,720 --> 00:59:56,920
Speaker 1: like getting people to do the thing is like the

1094
00:59:57,400 --> 01:00:01,960
Speaker 1: is it's like the perennial uh, you know, curse at

1095
01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:04,200
Speaker 1: the left, can you do it? Or curse of you know,

1096
01:00:04,240 --> 01:00:09,720
Speaker 1: like the organizer activist or you know, whatever you wanna

1097
01:00:09,720 --> 01:00:12,360
Speaker 1: call it. You know, it's just but you know, if

1098
01:00:12,400 --> 01:00:16,439
Speaker 1: you don't do anything, nothing happens. You can all sit

1099
01:00:16,440 --> 01:00:20,200
Speaker 1: and complain and nothing changes. So you know the only

1100
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:22,680
Speaker 1: way to changes things is take those complaints and turn

1101
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:25,439
Speaker 1: them into collective action. Yeah, I think I think that's

1102
01:00:25,480 --> 01:00:27,480
Speaker 1: that's that that that that that's that's a pretty good

1103
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:31,560
Speaker 1: positive note to end on. Just go do things. Go

1104
01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:35,720
Speaker 1: do the thing now. Stop tweets, stop tweeting, stop tweeting

1105
01:00:35,720 --> 01:00:41,600
Speaker 1: about it, Go do the thing. Um yeah, I think

1106
01:00:41,600 --> 01:00:44,200
Speaker 1: that's I. Like, I guess one last thing because I

1107
01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:46,400
Speaker 1: talked about social media and talk you know, I talked smack.

1108
01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:48,560
Speaker 1: I like, I've been off Twitter for some months now,

1109
01:00:48,800 --> 01:00:52,000
Speaker 1: is it really cleared my brain. But you know, um,

1110
01:00:52,040 --> 01:00:56,880
Speaker 1: being on finding the social media space where your your

1111
01:00:56,880 --> 01:01:00,400
Speaker 1: coworkers are at is really important and that might mean

1112
01:01:00,440 --> 01:01:03,720
Speaker 1: setting up like a discord or you know, what's app

1113
01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:06,600
Speaker 1: or a Facebook group. You can set up secret Facebook

1114
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 1: groups that no one could see. And yeah, like like

1115
01:01:09,320 --> 01:01:14,240
Speaker 1: Facebook will periodically shut them down. But like our hospital

1116
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:16,400
Speaker 1: has like a like a Facebook group with like two

1117
01:01:16,440 --> 01:01:20,760
Speaker 1: thousand nurses and we and that's where we got really

1118
01:01:20,800 --> 01:01:23,000
Speaker 1: amped up. And it was a way for us to

1119
01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:24,920
Speaker 1: be talking with each other and talk each other through,

1120
01:01:26,160 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 1: um the stress of setting up you know this thing.

1121
01:01:29,320 --> 01:01:33,480
Speaker 1: And then also like you know, people workers can't organize

1122
01:01:33,560 --> 01:01:37,600
Speaker 1: like like people will do organizing even if like they

1123
01:01:37,600 --> 01:01:40,560
Speaker 1: don't have like that full support. So like some coworkers,

1124
01:01:40,760 --> 01:01:43,960
Speaker 1: not coworkers, but members of my union went on strike

1125
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:46,760
Speaker 1: at Cook County this year, and the whole thing was

1126
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:51,200
Speaker 1: organized practically without like staff, right because the staff were

1127
01:01:51,640 --> 01:01:55,320
Speaker 1: barred from being in meetings, like in person meetings because

1128
01:01:55,360 --> 01:01:58,360
Speaker 1: of COVID and they couldn't go into the hospital because

1129
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:03,000
Speaker 1: of COVID. So people were very pissed about how things

1130
01:02:03,000 --> 01:02:04,680
Speaker 1: have been going and they were talking to each other

1131
01:02:04,760 --> 01:02:08,480
Speaker 1: and we organized that strike. They organized that strike on

1132
01:02:08,480 --> 01:02:12,440
Speaker 1: their own practically, um. You know, it lined up. They

1133
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:14,600
Speaker 1: were off there. You know, they didn't have the no

1134
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:18,480
Speaker 1: strike clause like operating at the time, and um, and

1135
01:02:18,520 --> 01:02:22,760
Speaker 1: they pulled off like a pretty like a significant victory

1136
01:02:23,000 --> 01:02:25,320
Speaker 1: um from their one day strike and it really um

1137
01:02:25,360 --> 01:02:29,080
Speaker 1: really you know, like got them some big wins. But

1138
01:02:29,320 --> 01:02:31,600
Speaker 1: and they didn't they didn't need the union to do

1139
01:02:31,640 --> 01:02:33,400
Speaker 1: it for them. You know, the union was kind of

1140
01:02:33,400 --> 01:02:36,800
Speaker 1: like a facilitation tool rather than like the thing that

1141
01:02:36,880 --> 01:02:38,320
Speaker 1: got it done. I think that's the other thing is

1142
01:02:38,360 --> 01:02:40,560
Speaker 1: that there are people who think that like it's all

1143
01:02:40,560 --> 01:02:43,600
Speaker 1: dependent on like having like this hero staffer sort of

1144
01:02:43,600 --> 01:02:47,040
Speaker 1: thing situation, and at the end of the day, like

1145
01:02:47,120 --> 01:02:49,360
Speaker 1: if it's not the workers doing it themselves, nothing's going

1146
01:02:49,400 --> 01:02:55,360
Speaker 1: to happen. Yeah. Yeah, the power, the power is with

1147
01:02:55,400 --> 01:02:57,800
Speaker 1: the working class itself, and if the working class doesn't

1148
01:02:57,880 --> 01:03:01,040
Speaker 1: use it, nothing will ever happen. Yeah. But if it

1149
01:03:01,080 --> 01:03:08,080
Speaker 1: does use it, I will trail off here. Sounds good. So, John,

1150
01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:10,480
Speaker 1: is is there any place that you want people to

1151
01:03:10,480 --> 01:03:16,280
Speaker 1: find things that you do? Like, Yeah, I used to

1152
01:03:16,360 --> 01:03:22,320
Speaker 1: be on Twitter. Um periodically will show up on uh

1153
01:03:22,600 --> 01:03:27,160
Speaker 1: varn vlog, which is uh see Derek Varnes m vlog

1154
01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:34,200
Speaker 1: on YouTube. Um, there's I recommend people UH listen to.

1155
01:03:34,600 --> 01:03:37,040
Speaker 1: There's a group of podcasts called the Emancipatient Network. I

1156
01:03:37,360 --> 01:03:43,840
Speaker 1: really like their stuff specially UM. There's a what's it

1157
01:03:43,880 --> 01:03:47,040
Speaker 1: called General Intellect Unit, which talks about like cybernetics and

1158
01:03:47,160 --> 01:03:50,800
Speaker 1: the left. Um. They have a lot of particularly cool

1159
01:03:50,800 --> 01:03:54,440
Speaker 1: stuff that's just come out recently about UM, about strategy

1160
01:03:54,520 --> 01:03:57,800
Speaker 1: that I think is really important for everyone to understand. Um.

1161
01:03:57,960 --> 01:04:02,400
Speaker 1: I was a founding member of the uh Libertarian Socialist

1162
01:04:02,440 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 1: Caucus at d s A. But I'm no longer in

1163
01:04:04,440 --> 01:04:07,439
Speaker 1: d s A. There's a but that group is still

1164
01:04:07,480 --> 01:04:10,600
Speaker 1: kind of kicking around. We're coming up with new things. Uh.

1165
01:04:10,880 --> 01:04:13,680
Speaker 1: Then then I guess like, Um, the University of Chicago

1166
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:17,480
Speaker 1: Labor Council is a group that I spend a lot

1167
01:04:17,480 --> 01:04:20,760
Speaker 1: of time with. And there's also a tennants United High

1168
01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:22,800
Speaker 1: Park with Loan, which is a tenant union that you

1169
01:04:22,880 --> 01:04:29,960
Speaker 1: helped set up. And to hell. Yeah, so you know, UM,

1170
01:04:30,160 --> 01:04:33,080
Speaker 1: go out there and you know, don't don't listen to

1171
01:04:33,080 --> 01:04:35,760
Speaker 1: me or don't try and find follow me. Go like

1172
01:04:36,440 --> 01:04:38,680
Speaker 1: you go figure it out and you're our neighborhood and yeah,

1173
01:04:39,120 --> 01:04:41,320
Speaker 1: and set up a mill set up a million different

1174
01:04:41,360 --> 01:04:44,680
Speaker 1: you know, like labor councils and worker committees and tenant

1175
01:04:44,760 --> 01:04:49,120
Speaker 1: unions that yeah, like build build power. That's why I

1176
01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:52,320
Speaker 1: think I sometimes we are afraid of the term power.

1177
01:04:52,360 --> 01:04:55,720
Speaker 1: I think that power is that it's best when it's everybody.

1178
01:04:55,800 --> 01:04:57,480
Speaker 1: And so I guess I might say it's like go

1179
01:04:57,520 --> 01:05:01,560
Speaker 1: out there and build community and worker power are and um,

1180
01:05:01,920 --> 01:05:06,040
Speaker 1: don't be afraid because fear is the one thing that

1181
01:05:06,080 --> 01:05:10,120
Speaker 1: they've got to wave over our heads. And sometimes you

1182
01:05:10,240 --> 01:05:12,439
Speaker 1: just got to take that jump and do the thing.

1183
01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:15,000
Speaker 1: And uh and that's how we're hopefully going to win

1184
01:05:15,080 --> 01:05:18,360
Speaker 1: one day, say in the world. Yep. And you can

1185
01:05:18,480 --> 01:05:21,360
Speaker 1: do this just like all of these things, everything we've

1186
01:05:21,360 --> 01:05:25,160
Speaker 1: been talking about for the past like two hours, these

1187
01:05:25,200 --> 01:05:28,439
Speaker 1: were all just done by ordinary people. Like there's there's

1188
01:05:28,520 --> 01:05:30,440
Speaker 1: there's it's all. It's all done my random people. And

1189
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:33,680
Speaker 1: you know that random person can be you. You just

1190
01:05:33,720 --> 01:05:39,120
Speaker 1: have to go and do go to the thing. Yeah.

1191
01:05:39,280 --> 01:05:42,840
Speaker 1: So yeah, this that this has been It could happen here.

1192
01:05:43,320 --> 01:05:45,840
Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at happened here pod

1193
01:05:45,880 --> 01:05:50,680
Speaker 1: and also on Instagram there and uh yeah there's other

1194
01:05:50,720 --> 01:05:54,520
Speaker 1: cool zone stuff. Oh I guess yeah, there's there's there's

1195
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:57,439
Speaker 1: a new show called Megacorp that that we have that's

1196
01:05:57,480 --> 01:06:00,600
Speaker 1: about how corporations are bad and the first season about Amazon.

1197
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:04,160
Speaker 1: It's out now. Okay, it just doesn't have a Twitter,

1198
01:06:04,600 --> 01:06:07,080
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's it's called Megacorp and you can find

1199
01:06:07,120 --> 01:06:18,480
Speaker 1: it wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Yes, okay, bye, It

1200
01:06:18,520 --> 01:06:20,800
Speaker 1: could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media

1201
01:06:21,120 --> 01:06:23,720
Speaker 1: or more podcasts from cool Zone Media. Visit our website

1202
01:06:23,720 --> 01:06:25,840
Speaker 1: cool zone media dot com, or check us out on

1203
01:06:25,880 --> 01:06:28,440
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

1204
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:31,280
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It could

1205
01:06:31,280 --> 01:06:34,280
Speaker 1: Happen here, updated monthly at cool zone media dot com

1206
01:06:34,320 --> 01:06:36,240
Speaker 1: slash sources. Thanks for listening.