WEBVTT - How Strikes Build Democratic Workplaces 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:04.960 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:09.600 Welcome to Day It Happened Here, a podcast increasingly well 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.080 named as as the Days go On. I'm your host, 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:17.280 Bio Wong, and it occurs to me over the course 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:20.960 of the many, many, many, many many union episodes we've 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:24.320 done in this podcast, we haven't really done much coverage 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.000 of just straight up how do you do a strike? 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.480 So today we are going to be covering a pretty 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:32.640 long running strike. We're gonna say how many days has 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:34.680 been going. It's unclear when this episode is gonna come out, 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.440 so who fucking knows how long it'll be when when 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:41.040 you hear it. But yeah, with me to talk about 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.760 this strike is Spencer Jordan, who is a rank and 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:46.560 file member of the Urban or Workers Union. Spencer, welcome 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:47.040 to the show. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.240 Hey, thank you so much for having me Miah. 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:51.479 Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you about this. So 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.120 this is what day is today. I should know this 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.840 April fifteenth, and as of April fifteenth, you've been outright 0:00:57.920 --> 0:00:59.200 for twenty five days. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.160 Yeah, that's just about right. Yeah, it started on the 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.280 twenty second of March. We held our strike vote like 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:08.760 a solid twelve days before. 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.440 Before we actually went out on the picket line. 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.840 And one that strike vote with fourteen yes is a 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.600 single no, and I think four extensions pretty good. 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:20.840 Yeah. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.720 Yeah, so ninety of those voting voted yes. Yeah, which 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:27.679 good of good ratios. Good ratios. 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.920 I think like typically you want at least like mid 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.480 seventies if we're going to do this kind of thing. 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:39.000 But you know, as listener to the show hopefully understand 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.520 by now you can't just like call a strike and 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:43.920 have it happen. You know, you have to do a 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.720 whole bunch of organizing. So I want to kind of 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.320 start at the dynamics of the organizing of how this 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.360 shop got going, because this is a pretty small shop 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.640 from the sounds of it. And yeah, yeah, so do 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:57.600 you want to talk a bit about what the basic 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:00.520 process of getting this organizing started was like and what 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:02.840 the sort of like social mapping look like and stuff 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:03.160 like that. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:10.440 Yeah, So the organization process started around like a year 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.840 and a half before we actually had our unionization vote, 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.240 which was actually we had the vote in March and 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:21.080 we got our win on April seventh, two years ago, 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:27.840 so we actually just had our union two year birthday birthday. 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:31.840 But yeah, so preceding that was, like, like I said, 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.239 about a year and a half organizing that involved, you know, 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.239 the typical thing of like one on one conversations with 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.400 like all the staff, making the you know, color coded 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.919 spreadsheet and everything, which all of this was not my 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:48.840 my purview. I'm a lot more involved now than I 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.480 was at the start of the process. And I was 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.079 approached by like one of our lead organizers really shortly 0:02:56.120 --> 0:03:00.360 after being hired just to kind of you know, read 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.919 the dipstick as too, like my sentiments about it and whatnot. 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.200 I was pretty on board right away. I mean, you know, like, 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:12.440 I'm from the Bay Area, so it's not. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.320 There are there are only two types of people from 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:18.359 the Bay Area. You wouldn't be having one of the one. 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.720 Of the ship, Yeah, exactly, exactly. So I'm of the 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:21.400 ladder type. 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.560 So you know, it being pro union is isn't a 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.440 isn't like a foreign thing to my background. You know, 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.960 you don't look like a techwork Yeah, yeah, especially like 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.760 my family's from the Midwest and everything, so there's yeah. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.880 My my aunt actually just learned that she was like 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:39.960 a clerk working. 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.280 For the railroads back in the day when my railroad 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:43.720 jobs were still like a big thing. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:45.560 You could have anyways. 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.040 But yeah, so I had had my like own sort 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.520 of like just observations of like whoah, like what's what's 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.920 going on in the workplace aside from like my own 0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.920 just like prediliction to thinking, you know, more. 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:00.560 Worker power is better. 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:03.880 Yeah, also kind of seeing like some of the factors 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:07.240 that precipitated it, Like, for instance, like when I was 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.680 hired here, I was hired in my interview, it was 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.320 the one of the owners and the manager of my department, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:20.600 my department being salvage and recycling department of the urban 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.320 or which is kind of like not super public facing. 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:26.200 We like go to the dump and like root around 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.880 through the garbage, like you know, is or whatever, get 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.200 to get stuff for the store. But that manager, you know, 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.120 he was there in the interview, and we got to 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:43.000 the portion where the owner explained what at will employment is, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.600 oh and she and she went, so we're at will here. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:52.560 So Sam, well, Sam was my manager. Swell, how long 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.360 have you been here? Twenty one years? He's there, hands 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.520 folded on the table. Yes, what at will means is, uh, 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.000 it could be tomorrow. I could say, you know, Samuel, 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.760 it's been a great twenty one years. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.039 I really appreciate all the work you've done. Today's your 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:12.920 last day. And he has to sit there and go. 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:15.880 Jesus Christ. 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.520 And then she says, of course, likewise, tomorrow Samuel could 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.880 come to me and say, hey, Mary Lou, it's been 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.920 twenty one years, I've enjoyed it. 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:26.960 I'm quitting. 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.880 So you know, the sort of sword over his neck 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.479 is being cast is somehow equal to him not being 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:35.680 like indentured. 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:41.760 Yes, it's also just I mean, like you know, yeah, 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:44.960 on the basic level. Yeah, it's like, Okay, your opponent, 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.200 I guess they argue, put it your boss. Your boss 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.800 can just instantly fire you for any reason whatsoever, for 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.279 any bout of time. And then also you could quit 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.800 the job. And then I really just as a plane, 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.040 just like as a management tactic, like are you like 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.120 trying to piss off your support? And it's like, what, 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:09.080 I have never had a boss like just do that 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:10.479 in a hiring meeting. 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.480 What, Yeah, I mean have you have you worked at 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.920 like a like a like I saw a small like 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:19.800 mom and pop quote unquote business. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.480 Yeah, I mean that's that's probably That's probably why because 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:27.479 I've usually had like larger my shitty jobs have either 0:06:27.520 --> 0:06:31.680 been like government jobs or like like larger companies, so 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.080 there was less of the like I heard a line 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:37.560 recently that I wish I remember where it was from. 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.240 It might be a line from Star Trek. It's like 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.600 one of the Ferengi rules is just like treat your 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.760 employees like family, exploit them ruthlessly, which I like, you. 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:51.799 Know, that's a that's a traditional line in business, especially 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:56.479 in small business, and it's it's no stranger here. Yeah, 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.280 that question of like wanting to piss off your supports 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.400 or whatever, it's a I don't know if pissing off 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:09.120 is necessarily like the concern, but the ownership here definitely. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.920 I've gotten the impression that they enjoy showing their power, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:18.280 and I've gotten the impression that the sort of like 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:23.320 uncertainty and like my mom would call it jockeying for 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.800 position that you have to do is a dynamic that 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:29.480 they I can't say, I really can't say they honestly 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.400 because the other owner, he hasn't been very active in 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:36.760 the business since since my hiring, but at least Mary 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.120 Lou Yeah, tends to lean on. 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.560 That's kind of like the uh, the special quality that. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.560 You get with like a small business and organizing in 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.680 a small workplace is that like you know, you can 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.680 see sort of in their public communications the way. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.520 That like the Zucks and the Bezoses and. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.080 The rest of them feel about their employees, and you know, 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.800 you can get a sense of perhaps how they might 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.760 act towards their employees if they like interacted with them 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:11.000 on a daily basis. But in a small business setting, 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:13.480 you really get a keen. 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:14.840 View into how like. 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:24.120 The power of the employer mixes very readily with a 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:30.760 person's like predilection towards discipline, pred election towards like personal 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.120 what did you call it personal battling? 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.320 Almost yeah, well, and it's and it's also like it's 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.240 inescapable in a way that it isn't with like you know, 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:41.960 if you're dealing with people who are you know, you're 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:43.839 at a larger company, you're not dealing with the person. 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:47.600 Like there's an old Chinese expression that is like heaven 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.880 is high and the emperor is far away. So you know, 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:52.520 it's like you know, like a lot of times you're 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:54.520 dealing with Okay, yeah, there is like you know, your 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.760 Zuckerberg is there, but he's like he never interacts with you. 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.600 But with this it's like no, like the small business 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:02.720 tyrant is right there in your face all the time, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.160 and all of the weird petty shit that they want 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.040 to do, and all of this sort of like you know, 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:08.800 and I would say, this isn't just just like a 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.000 unique thing of like small business owners. Like people in 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.400 all positions, like in all portions of of like the 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.199 class society have in them kind of like the capacity 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.200 for cruelty. And there's just people like that, but they 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:23.880 don't normally have the ability to just do it to 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.360 you directly in your face. And that's yeah, and that's 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.120 like that's you know, this is what you've been talking about, 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.000 is like, yeah, you have like these small business tyrants 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.880 like every Suddenly in the same way that's like I 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.679 don't know, you're dealing with like like one of the 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.320 random King Louis and you're like in the court and 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.719 suddenly just like the fact that this guy doesn't like 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.040 people going to the bathroom means that everyone around him 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:46.000 doesn't get it, doesn't get she doesn't get a shit, right, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.000 Like it's just like, yeah, it's weird. 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:50.559 Yeah, no exactly. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:55.280 It's like it's actually an argument that she's deployed in 0:09:55.320 --> 0:10:00.000 her Reddit correspondence, which has been simmingly a pretty active 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:01.880 of part of her spare. 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.240 Time that she's not spending at the bargaining table with us. 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.679 You know, made this comparison of like, this isn't a 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:09.719 question about. 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:10.559 Oligarchs or whatever. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:14.120 And it's true, like the small businessman is not an oligarch, 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:20.640 but the small business is a microcosm of like the 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:27.560 larger capitalist social order. And while the small business man 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.800 might not have the scope of power of the oligarch, 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.760 or like the actual capital resources of an oligarch, the 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.280 behavior certainly rhymes yea yeah. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.760 And again it's like it's a lot of it is about. 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:44.400 It's just how much power you have access to, right, Like, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.560 lots of people can be like this, but only the few, 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.320 the proud of the small business type get to do it. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:52.880 Yeah, totally. 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.680 And you know, ultimately the employer or wherever they are, 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:01.480 they're in this privileged position of being a to Yeah. 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.199 You spend most people more than like a third of 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:07.960 your life at work. Yeah, the employer has this unique 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.320 power to dictate what that third of your life looks like. 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.440 You know, yeah, we talk about I mean, shit, we don't. 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:19.400 People are not so much talking about democracy writ large 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.160 in the US in the same way now that they 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:26.920 used to. But you know, you talk about this idea 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.480 of like living in a democracy, but democracy ends at 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:31.080 the shop door. 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:36.840 Yeah yeah, And like the kind of power that these 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.040 people have is something that like these people get to 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.080 control when you can go to the bathroom, like what 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:47.040 clothes you where, like literally what you can do, what 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.360 you can say at any given time. If you employed 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.520 the exact level of control that your boss has over 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.000 you on a state, it would be a totalitarian state. 0:11:56.559 --> 0:11:59.200 And yet everyone seems to think that this is sort 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.880 of like you know, and this is an nugument I've 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.560 been making about like Trump is that like yeah, this 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:07.200 is this is this is what sort of Trump and 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.120 Elon and like that whole Caudra and and you know, 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:10.600 and Beck if you want to go into the sort 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.400 of idealogues behind it too. This is what people like 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.880 Peter Thiel want when when they say run the government 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:18.800 like a business, what they mean is that they want 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.120 to like to import the sort of like just the 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:25.280 pure tyranny of the workplace and expand it into the 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.880 entire political system so that they're they're like sort of 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:32.719 just pure like totalitarian corporate rule can't be challenged. 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.199 Yeah, yeah, I mean, wasn't it Miscellani who coined the 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:36.200 term the corporate state? 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.400 Probably, although it would not surprise me if it was 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.240 like some other fascist theorists and Wessolini just started saying 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.880 it because yeah, but yeah, like that's you know, that's 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.560 a substantive thing here. And what this also means is 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.480 that like, even in ways that are sort of hard 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.960 to see, like a fight over democracy in the workplace, right, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.400 is a is a part of the larger struggle against 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.719 all of all the things that's happening. Because if you know, 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.240 if we're going to survive this, and if we're going 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.360 to make sure that we don't all live in a 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:10.800 world where you like, if you say the wrong thing, 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.120 you can be sent to a prison camp. Democracy, if 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:15.840 you want this to survive, is going to have to 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.520 march into like into the layer of the beast. It 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:21.400 is going to have to go into the source of 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:23.960 this tyranny itself, which is the workplace, and it's going 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:24.960 to have to crush it there. 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:25.640 Mm hmm. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.760 Yeah, yeah, I mean you said it very very aptly there, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:35.440 Like the corporate structure maras the totalitarian structure. And you know, 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.520 not only does like fighting the corporate structure at the 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.079 level of labor makes sense in that right, labor is 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:50.880 what enables the flow of capital that sustains the totalitarian state. 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.920 But also, like you said, you're you're you're addressing the 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:00.840 structure in its I don't know, I almost think of 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.240 it as like the you know, like Grendel's mother in 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.079 the then or whatever, and like, like, you know, the 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:12.520 the authoritarian thing is like it's like Grendel maybe, and 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:18.200 like Grendel's mother is like this capitalist, hierarchical structure. Yeah, 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.040 you know, you take it on with an insistence on 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:27.240 workplace democracy as kind of libby as that's that sounds. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:32.920 Okay, speaking speaking speaking of capitalist will tellitariotism. Here are 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.240 the ads that we are required to run by our. 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:51.640 Let's hear them, and we are back. 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:58.000 So let's get back a little bit towards the more 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.240 concrete parts of the union, though, I do you have 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.840 more to say eventually at some point about the way 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.360 that sort of labor liberalism co opted democracy in the 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.800 workplace from like you know, the idea the old sort 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:13.440 of like anarchist idea of workers control right. But Okay, 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:15.080 So one thing I wanted to talk about before we 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.720 sort of get into the more formal stuff about about 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:21.160 the strike is I was I'm really interested to hear 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:24.200 you talk about what the process of kind of onboarding 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:26.280 you to get more involved in the union is, because 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.960 this is something that like, Okay, every functional union wants 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.160 to do this, Like if your union is not trying 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.800 to bring people like its members like more to get 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.480 more involved in the union and become more of the 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.640 people becoming like core organizers and becoming you know, like 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:44.360 they're the people who are doing your bargaining people are 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.920 doing anything like your union is, there's weird shit about it, 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.840 and you should probably like be looking into that, but 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.080 it's pretty hard. So yeah, can can you talk a 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.200 bit about the process of like how you were brought 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.720 in and what sort of worked and what didn't. 0:15:58.680 --> 0:15:59.040 Well. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:06.040 I think ultimately, like the easiest thing is a sort 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:11.000 of ramping up degree of like responsibility within the organization. Right, So, 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:12.800 like at the start. 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.360 I would come to some of the meetings, I would 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:16.040 miss some of them. 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.360 I would be like, Oh, I'm fucking so busy with 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.320 whatever is going on in my life, and you know, 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.280 I was supportive and sort of involved, but you know, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:28.160 I wasn't like, I mean, I stain wasn't doing things 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:36.320 like this. And you know, eventually one we like kind 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.640 of persisted as a union over a longer period of time, 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:47.360 the necessity of involvement became more like obvious to me, right, 0:16:48.120 --> 0:16:52.400 And that's that's a hard ask, you know, Like you're organizing, 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.560 you want momentum and you want yeah, you want to 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.120 be able to change your conditions for the better as 0:16:58.160 --> 0:16:58.920 soon as possible. 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:00.640 Yeah, And with. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.840 URBANIR, you know, lots of workplaces that need unionization have 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.159 high turnover, right, and urbanor is no different. And so 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.040 I saw, you know, like some of the more committed 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:16.919 elements of the bargaining unit. 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:21.440 Be fired or quit or whatever. 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:26.000 And you know they'd be replaced with other people and 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.119 you have to begin to work organizing over again. And 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:29.800 with some of them you succeed with something that you don't, 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.520 you know, you have different dynamics. I feel like the 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.959 hiring procedures may have changed a little bit afteryone our election, 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.040 but you know, I can't say that for certain. So 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:45.720 the sort of like necessity of like keeping that like 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.879 flame going, especially after we had won the election, we 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:50.720 were in contract bargain for a long period of time. 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:54.080 Made me feel like a sort of sense of like 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:56.560 I need to be more active in this because like 0:17:57.280 --> 0:18:01.600 this is an important struggle, and like I see our 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.680 like main organizers taking on like a fuckload of work 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:10.320 and like needing more voices at the table, needing more 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:14.359 more uh, needing more people to be more involved. And 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:20.800 so like I, you know, volunteered to run for treasure. 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.720 That was the only candidate. Yeah, but theoretically I could 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:25.320 have been voted down. 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:26.959 They could have been like I don't know about thatszer, 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.920 and you know, like ended up having like a little 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.879 bit more direct responsibilities, Like I was like receiving some 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:39.160 of the donations to our strike fund once we started 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:40.879 fund raising for the strike, and to keep track of 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.119 those and you know, put the special bank account and 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.320 then eventually take that money, get it to like the 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:51.320 the IWW branch, uh hand it hand a big check 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:55.359 to Dino, that kind of stuff, and just like having 0:18:55.440 --> 0:19:00.679 like little things to be doing, like yeah, spurs involved 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:04.840 other people, you know, became responsible for like parts of 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:10.359 social media outreach, make graphics stuff like that, and also 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:14.840 like sort of I guess, giving people the opportunity to 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.680 leverage their individual connections within the work because every workplace 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.280 is like clicks and groups and subgroups and all that, 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:29.320 to leverage those connections in like service of bettering everyone's conditions. 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.320 So like to a certain degree, I've I've been like 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:34.840 important as like an envoid to my particular department because 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.800 it's our job takes us away from the job site 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:39.720 or like from like the main the main work site 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.680 often and stuff like that, so there's less of a 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.200 direct avenue for communication there. So I can say that's 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.639 my experience. Yeah, as far as organizing goes, like, I'm easy. 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:53.600 You know, I was already I was already believing in it, 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:58.080 and like there are others that it have that it's 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:04.520 been harder. I will say though, that the strike itself 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.720 is I mean, a strike is a conflict, and when 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:16.240 you're in conflict together, it's an extremely cohering force. Which 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:19.040 isn't to say that like necessarily you want your unionization 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:23.440 to come to a strike, but perhaps like raising a 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.040 sort of consciousness of like the fact that like you 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.080 are ultimately like in conflict with the boss. The boss 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.119 doesn't want you to unionize. The boss doesn't want you 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.720 to force concessions out of them, and that like, as 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:41.080 a union, we are taking on this like responsibility to 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:45.080 look after each other's interests and to support each other 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:48.080 like tangibly in terms like what we do, and also 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.040 intangibly in terms of like the kind of conversations we 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.639 have around like morale planning and stuff like that, you know, 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.600 to succeed together. I think those are like really potent 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.879 cohering forces. And you know, it helps to have a 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.560 good a good opponent. You know, the boss is the 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:10.760 best organizer. And at urban or it's you don't go 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:17.879 along without coming head to head with like the with 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:21.440 with conflict with ownership or with like ownership through the 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:28.719 mediator of management. Like although like support for the union 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.440 might be divided a bit at the workplace, one thing 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:36.720 that's pretty universal is like a frustration with ownership. 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:40.800 Yeah, so okay, speaking of speaking of a frustration with ownership, 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:42.760 it is time for us to go to ads one 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:43.480 last time. 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:45.520 That beautiful but then ever. 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.040 Come back, strike strike, strike. 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:48.359 Strike, strikes, strike. 0:21:48.840 --> 0:22:02.800 Just after this message, okay, we are back from a 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:05.119 bunch of people who almost assuredly do not want you 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:05.879 to go on strike. 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:10.200 But yeah, so let's let's let's let's get into the 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:15.520 process of how you actually organize a strike. Yeah, let's 0:22:15.520 --> 0:22:18.720 start from just like the very beginning, one of the 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.240 kinds of things that were happening that you know, made 0:22:21.240 --> 0:22:22.720 people think that you needed to do this in the 0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:23.240 first place. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:29.520 So the strike itself is a result specifically, like, this 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:35.280 is a ULP strike, So it's in response to something 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:38.480 that falls under the category of unfairly or practice according 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.879 to the National Labor Relations Act, And it's you know, 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.080 backed up by charges filed with the board, as opposed 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.679 to like what's called an economic strike, which is a 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:53.640 strike that is specifically about economic issues at the workplace. 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.520