WEBVTT - The Union Comes for Brunch 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:10.000 Also media, welcome to take it up. And here a 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:13.280 podcast that is I don't know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:14.800 I'm gonna speak for the rest of my hosts who 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:16.599 aren't here so they can't stop me and say that 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:21.160 this is a podcast normally opposed to brunch. I'm your host, 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:25.280 Miya Wong, And today we are talking about something that 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:27.960 we kind of haven't been covered, we haven't covered as 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.240 much as I think we should have, which is unionization 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.839 in small businesses. We've talked a lot about unization and 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:36.760 sort of larger things. We've talked about sort of mid 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.960 mid sized chains. But today we're talking about the unionization 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.680 of a place called Friday Egg I'm in Love in 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.199 Portland's which it's it's if if if you sort of 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:50.279 imagine the platonic ideal of what do you think a 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.120 place called Friday Egg I'm in Love is going to 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.160 be like it is in fact that And with me 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:58.640 to talk about this is Soul and Janey from the 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.320 Friday Egg Workers Union. Yeah, both of you, welcome to 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:02.720 the show. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:03.720 Thank you so much. 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:05.200 Yeah, thanks for having us. 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.720 Yeah, I'm excited to talk about this partially, you know, 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:11.720 I mean as you've sort of discussed a little bit 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:13.800 because I want to get into a bit later the 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.360 specific dynamics of sort of small business union stuff. But 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:22.480 first things first, I wanted to sort of talk about what, actually, 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.240 you know, how did you all decide to unionize, because 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.080 I think this is a bit different story than the 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:29.760 kind of thing we usually get on this show. 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.520 Absolutely well, I've been at this particular restaurant since twenty 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:38.600 nineteen and it's been something that's come up every now 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:43.120 and then. I think we're just a very queer workplace. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.520 We're a very leftist workplace, and we tend to have 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.200 a lot of common ideals. And I feel like what 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:55.840 makes our unionization effort unique or maybe not unique, but 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:59.040 just different than a lot of like we need to 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.880 start a union right now all kind of efforts is 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:04.640 there wasn't a thing that caused it. We were all 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.360 like me and five other people were just sitting around 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.720 a table and decided, Hey, we should just start a union, 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:13.760 and so we kind of looked into what that looks 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.840 like and the snowball started rolling downhill. 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:20.440 Yeah, and this is something I think is really interesting 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:22.520 because you know, I mean, one of one of the 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.840 things you get really commonly in sort of like anti 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.880 union propaganda. You see this, like I so a lot 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.480 of my family were engineers, right, and engineers do this 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:31.960 all the time where they're like, oh, we don't need 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:34.360 a union. We're like happy, we're well paid, everything's great. 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:36.480 And then you know, you look at you, you look 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:38.000 at what happens to them, and it's like, oh, well 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.280 now you have boeing Right, It's like, well, you you will, 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:44.600 you will, you all never organized, you no longer have 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:46.760 any power in your planes are like falling from the sky. 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.120 So yeah, this this is a I'm gonna I'm taking this, 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.000 taking my soapbox moment to be like you two out there, 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.160 even if your job is good, at some point it's 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.960 going to not be and you should unionize first before 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.160 they i don't know, like be google and decide that 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.320 I don't be evil. Actually constrains them from making money 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.200 and decide to be evil, So get get out ahead 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:10.440 of them before. 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:12.560 I couldn't agree. 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:20.200 More absolutely, this has felt very, very proactive. I haven't 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:24.239 been there nearly nearly as long as some of my comrades, 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:30.280 but the general like consensus is that like things are 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:36.360 pretty good. So instead of letting things go bad. Let's 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.960 let's make you know, major steps to protect what we have, 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.880 especially as like you kind of notice how this small 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.960 business is slowly, slowly starting to operate like not a 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:50.560 small business mm hm. 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.400 And we had a one of our food carts was 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.480 upgraded to a brick and mortar at the beginning of 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:03.880 this year, and pretty much that in that moment that 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:10.160 that started operating as a real restaurant, it things really 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.160 clearly I think started setting in that like that this 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.200 is a bigger operation than it used to be, and 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.200 they very like the owner very much still has the 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:23.479 intention of making it as good of a place to 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:28.039 work as he can, which is to be appreciated. But 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:33.239 it's also understandable that as things start to grow, it's 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.280 a lot better if it's a collaborative process in terms 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:38.400 of making it the best place to work that it 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:44.800 can be. And I think getting a seat at the 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.160 table is something that we have to make for ourselves, 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.400 but it doesn't necessarily have to be a threat or 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:53.080 a retaliation. 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:56.560 This is something I think is kind of important with unionizing, 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.600 especially places that are kind of you know, like or 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:01.880 you know, we're even where the sort of the boss 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.640 is legitimately trying to like do the right thing, which 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:07.719 like it's kind of true of like my work, right, 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:11.480 like you know, like the people above my bosses are 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.160 kind of a fiasco, but like my immediate like bosses 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.000 are like you know, it's Robert and Sophie, right, Like 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:23.440 they're pretty chill. But you know, like like one of 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.360 the dynamics that sets in is like, you know, it's 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:30.920 not what the actual conditions are, isn't necessarily always going 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.200 to be under their control, even if you know, like 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.880 even if they want to do the right thing, and 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.839 the demands of things like scale and you know, the 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.960 demands of sort of market competition have this sort of 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:45.880 disciplining effect on what, you know, like what what your 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:47.919 working conditions can be if you're going to sort of 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.640 compete with like I don't know, you're you're like doughnut 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:54.839 shop that like torches is union workers, right. 0:05:56.360 --> 0:06:01.359 You know for example, Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:07.560 Pure purely abstract, purely abstract. Yeah, absolutely, you know, seeing 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:13.480 a shop of you know, twelve become you know, two shops, 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:17.480 a food car and a commissary kitchen of thirty five, 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.440 that definitely, you know, it's just pushing the business in 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.680 a direction very naturally. It feels very much like a 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.720 part of how systems work, even if our even if 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:34.279 your owner has really good intentions, just the nature of 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:41.360 like how capitalism works is uh starts to change things 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.080 as Yeah at scale for sure. 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.680 Yeah, And that that gets into something else that I'm. 0:06:56.520 --> 0:06:57.640 Sort of interested in. 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:00.600 How the sort of unionizing process went. This is a 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.119 very I mean, I guess going from twelve to thirty 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:05.040 five is a big increase in the number of people, 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.960 but that's still a very small shop. So can you 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.320 talk a bit about what it's been like kind of 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:14.800 organizing in you know, I mean organizing a number of 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:17.160 people that you can very easily fit into a room. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.679 It's been interesting and it's been exciting in that way 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.360 because we are able to cram into a room and 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:29.200 the energy is very palpable and so like inspiring momentum 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.000 to get shit done in each other has been really 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.200 really wonderful in that way. But I think also it's 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.880 it makes it easy for us to be very tactical 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.400 with how we are handling this process, where we're making 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.680 sure that at all four locations there's a majority, if 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:56.559 not unanimous, approval and support and membership in the union. 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:03.119 And the more that the more that I'm meeting union 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:07.320 organizers and union reps and people from IWW, the more 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:11.080 that I'm realizing we're in a situation where we can 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:16.960 establish some really lovely precedent for similar workplaces who want 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.760 to start a union, who are about the same size 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.200 as us, or even like neighbors in our like on 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:28.080 the on the streets that are locations are at where 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.800 we can do things like there's not enough precedent in 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:39.240 the IWW for a service industry in general, but particularly 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.040 it's it's very common to be in the negotiating process 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:45.960 and one of the things that will be offered to 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:50.360 the employer in exchange for whatever you're negotiating on is 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.880 like a no strike clause, like okay, we'll just we'll 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:55.679 give this to you of like we're just not gonna 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.080 be able just to strike for the duration of our contract, 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:01.600 and so exchange we can get some other stuff that 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:07.599 we're asking for. But because we have such a strong majority, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.400 and in all four locations we have a strong majority, 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.240 I think we're currently planning on keeping the right to strike. 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.559 Hell yeah, and you know we're not planning on it 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:22.800 I hope that we don't ever have to do that, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:27.520 but just having that as precedent I think will help 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.640 our community and other similar unions. 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:34.960 Yeah, absolutely, I think. You know, this is something that 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:37.760 going back to if you look at the sort of 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.080 heyday of American unionism, if you look at like the 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:45.320 fifty sixty seventies, like those contracts didn't have no strike 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:47.160 clauses in them. Some of them did, so sometimes it 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.280 was like a federal thing. But the thing about no 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.000 strike clauses is that it makes you know, we've talked 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.280 about this a bit before on the show, but one 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.040 of the sort of issues when you have a union 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:01.679 is like, okay, so even if you get a contract right, 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:03.760 and that usually takes that takes a long time, takes 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.320 a lot of fighting, the company is immediately going to 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:08.840 start trying to violate the contract. And so you know, 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.040 your your contract is only as strong as your ability 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.720 to enforce it. And you know, one of a really 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:15.960 really good way to enforce it is by being able 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:19.560 to go on strike. But normally, like yeah, people aren't 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:23.960 organized enough to actually like fight their employers on it, 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:25.320 and so it just ends up being a kind of 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:27.640 standard part of contracts, and yeah, it's really exciting that 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.160 y'all are committing to fight for that from the beginning, 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.800 because it's it's it's hard, it's it's not an easy 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:34.320 thing to do. 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.840 Now, the more I learn about how unions operate, the 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:41.520 more I'm realizing that, you know, it doesn't necessarily stop 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:46.640 people from getting fired, it doesn't necessarily stop people from having, 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.600 you know, injustice happened upon them. But it just gives 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:53.679 you the ability to fight in the first place. And 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.160 I think a lot of employers who are facing a 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:04.320 workplace who are wanting to unionize, like recognizing that it's 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:08.600 it's it's not like a threat. It's not like, Okay, 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:11.880 we're uh, we're going to have this union and everyone's 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.600 going to go on strike the next day and our 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.000 business is going to tank. But it's they're just asking 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.520 for the right to to have a better negotiating seat. 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.640 Yeah, this is something I actually think it's really interesting 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.319 about this campaign where there's this really kind of I 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.679 don't know, I think if you're able to build a 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:36.200 precedent of being able to negotiate a contract that doesn't 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:38.720 have no strike clause that allows you to go on strike, whatever, 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.440 you know, whenever you want is something that is like 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:45.360 characteristic of liking of you know, of a of an 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.160 incredibly militant shop. But I think if you can, if 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.080 you can actually get the precedent of you know, having 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:55.679 companies treat this as normal, because it's something that should 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:57.959 be normal, right like this, this is how a lot 0:11:58.000 --> 0:11:59.760 of the US used to work, right it used to 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.760 be you were on like an auto line assembly line, 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:04.160 there'd be there be a guy in a back with 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:06.760 a whistle and if and if you know, if a 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:09.240 contract violation happened, or like you know, if if the 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:10.959 company is asking you to do something that you aren't 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.400 you know that you're not like contractually obligated to do 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:15.680 the person would you know, the union person would blow 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.320 the whistle, immediate strike, the entire assembly line goes down, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.320 and you know, it turns out you actually can run 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:26.319 a completely functional like economy like this. But the kind 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.959 of the mentality of the people who own who own 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.320 businesses right now is that you should never at any point, 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:35.520 like you know, you should never at any point let 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.160 your workers do anything at all. You should immediately fight 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.320 them at the moment they try to unionize. And I 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.720 think you know, having a president of like you know, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:46.440 of of being able to get this kind of stuff 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:52.360 without immediately having to launch, like you know, like immediate 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.160 immediately kick off a series of strikes with your employer. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:58.000 Is is a good one? Is a good one to. 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:02.760 Set that we have so many people that are super 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.120 interested in like being a part of this organizing effort 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.679 because because we all like being there, like I think 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.640 is huge in comparison to like lots of stories that 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:16.080 we hear about and yeah, really wanting to like bring 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:21.200 that to the restaurant industry because yeah, that's unions are 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:27.280 you know, criminally under recognized within service work. Yeah, and 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.880 arguably an industry that needs it the most. 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.640 Yep, yep. Well, and that's the other exciting thing about 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.480 this shop is that you know, you're talking about sort 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:39.800 of like they're not being enough service organizing with it 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:42.880 with the IWW. And that's true of like basically all 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.600 unions because and especially shops at your scale, because you know, 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.480 a lot of these unions are using like a very 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.000 kind of crude cross cost benefit analysis and their their 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.560 assessment is like, well, why should we bother to organize 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.480 like this shop that has thirty five people at it 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:01.240 because you know, this is it like we're like the 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:02.840 amount of dews money we're going to get out of 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.200 it is like not you know, is not is not 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.280 worth the effort. But on the other hand, you know, 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.200 like do you know how many workers there are, like 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:13.280 how many of these like how many of these tiny 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:15.680 shops across the there are across the entire country that 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.560 if you know, and if everyone just refuses to organize them, 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:22.800 then you're leaving like tens of millions of workers just 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:23.880 sort of like screwed. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:28.400 Yeah. I can't speak for all IWW, but I know, 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:32.720 like talking with like the Portland branch definitely mirrors our 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.960 shop and at like how queer and leftist it is. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:41.200 And is that surprising that they're working with the IWW 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:45.080 or with the Coalition of Independent Unions which is a 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:49.200 Pacific Northwest like union for unions kind of thing. It's 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.800 not surprising that like our values are aligned and it's 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.080 like making making for something like really fun and like 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.960 you know, setting a new kind of industry standard for 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:00.359 service industry. 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.120 Yeah. Unfortunately, speaking of industry standards, I have to go 0:15:04.160 --> 0:15:08.680 to an ad break. It's in my contract somewhere probably, 0:15:08.680 --> 0:15:10.800 although I don't think my employers have read my contract 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.880 in a long time. But you know, such are the 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:15.880 dictates of a podcast that that your senior bosses don't 0:15:15.880 --> 0:15:21.880 listen to. Yeah, we will return in however long the 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:39.360 ads are and we are back, So okay. Another thing 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:43.160 that I kind of wanted to talk about is what 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.520 has it sort of been like in terms of, like, 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.880 you know, so like, how how has you know, in 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.080 a shop that's like this small? How has the sort 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.040 of like organizing conversations gone right, Like is everyone just 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.760 sort of close enough that you know, you were able 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:58.480 to kind of do this organically, or was there still 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.840 sort of a like mapping process for all of the 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:02.840 shops or. 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:08.080 Well, luckily it has gone pretty smoothly. But we were 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:13.640 advised early on to create an interest map where we 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.240 go through the list of every coworker that we have 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.160 and talk about like how well do we know them? 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:21.400 Do we think they would be down? Like, well, this 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.720 person would obviously be down. This person, I guess we'll 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.960 just have to talk to them and see and apart 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.640 from a few cases, it has been very successful and 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:37.440 easy so far. It's really lucky that almost all of 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:39.040 our coworkers our comrades. 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.880 Yeah, I think like our first like conversation was I 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.480 think about ten people at like a bar close to 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.160 like the main Hawthorn shop, and like once we had 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.600 like that get together. Yeah, it really became about, like, 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.600 you know, how do we get our satellite locations, you know, 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.600 on this on the same page, you know, with like 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.520 a super majority at one shop, you know, then just 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:05.280 moving on to you know our little you know, the 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.920 Pioneer food cart and then our Commissary kitchen and then 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:13.800 the Mississippi location. That was just you know, hiring a 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.320 whole new staff for and you know, getting them in 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.399 you know, collecting them into the fold. And yeah, I 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:22.960 ww was very helpful and like how to like kind 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.199 of create those processes to like ensure that you know, 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:31.320 we were approaching people in the right way. And yeah, 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.119 it getting a proper headcount. 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:41.439 Yeah that can be a disaster. Yeah, oh god, Like 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.760 my union, we're still trying to hash out whether some 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:46.640 people are in the union or not, and like people 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:49.120 will leave the company. Then this happens all the time, right, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.719 Like one of the things you discovered really quickly when 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:54.760 you need a union organizing is that your like management 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.960 doesn't actually know how anything works, or like even who's 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:01.800 working for them and what they do. They have absolutely 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.400 no idea, and so you have to do their job 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.120 and figure out what everyone does. 0:18:07.520 --> 0:18:13.240 What management would be so mad at you for saying, you. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.480 Know, look if they if they did, if they didn't 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.000 want me to talk negatively about they should pay me more. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.480 They simply do not any of us enough. That's not 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:27.440 universal from time to time. Yeah, yeah, but I think 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.520 that you know, what's what's interesting about the shop too, 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.440 is it really seems like y'all just sort of speed 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.800 ran doing a good campaign, Like you're doing all of 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.560 the things that that you you you get a good organizers, 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:40.280 but then you know, every once in a while you 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.399 just get a shop where it just kind of everything 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:43.919 just clicks and goes. 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:48.040 It has been five months start to finish, which I 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.679 feel like is significantly faster than most. 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:51.960 Yeah, most of. 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:53.640 That is just down to that there aren't very many 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.359 of us, and so talking to everyone hasn't been that 0:18:57.640 --> 0:18:58.880 crazy of an endeavor. 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:00.520 Yeah, but. 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.399 I think probably in the first meeting or two, we 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.840 just crunch the numbers and realized, Okay, we're not going 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:15.439 to have any trouble having a majority, but we have to, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:19.800 and so the focus of our work went into making 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.600 sure we do it right and learning to inoculate people 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.800 and talk to people we haven't talked to yet and 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:28.800 people for whom it would be a little more sensitive 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:36.439 or more in depth conversation, and educating ourselves on what 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.040 starting a union actually looks like. And IWW has been 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:45.200 very helpful providing these little trainings that I've been able 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:48.280 to go to. It's funny that they're on Sunday afternoons 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:49.879 and so I'm pretty sure I'm the only person at 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.480 our brunch restaurant who doesn't work Sunday afternoons, so I've 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:53.240 been going to those. 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.960 But yeah, this has something been like I don't know, 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:00.919 I feel like it should be a thing that so 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.280 I was at this will I guess we'll have come 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.240 out after the Labor Nights episode that I'm doing. But 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.720 something that I feel like I don't hear much discussion 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.120 of in union organizing that I feel like there should 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:18.639 be is like fighting management on scheduling and like trying 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.520 to fight for you know, people actually A having consistent 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:27.600 schedules and B not just having like I don't know, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.640 like I know a lot of people who find out 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.639 their schedule on Facebook, like four hours before they have 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.560 to go in, right, Like, that's insane, that is that 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.080 is that is not a way for industrial process to function. Right. 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.320 No, thankfully that has not been one of our issues 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:49.120 at least at least not systemically at Fredick. 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:51.840 Yeah, but but it does make it hard to do 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.840 intro organizational training. Is because it's like everyone has weird 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:58.439 scheduling stuff going on, so it's it's hard to like, 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.360 I don't know, I feel like it's it's underrated. Barrier 0:21:01.840 --> 0:21:04.040 to getting a lot of people from different unions to 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.920 work together, is that no one is ever off at 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:07.640 the same time. 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:08.840 That's real. 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:14.280 Yeah, absolutely, I know it's been weird. I think they're 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:19.080 a huge aspect of our success I think is that 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.359 we have been able to like I think the unique 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.720 part about the breakfast place is that it's not open 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:33.199 from you know, am to pm. It's not open from 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:38.800 ten am to eleven pm, like like a restaurant could 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:42.880 potentially be open. We are open for breakfast. We're done 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:50.560 at two on the weekdays, and adding in a standing 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:55.080 union meeting at four pm once a week was very 0:21:55.119 --> 0:21:58.440 easy to add to everybody's schedule. I think. I think 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:01.520 in the nature of the breakfast place lent to that 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:03.760 working very very easily. 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:09.160 Yeah, and our coworkers that maybe need a little more 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:12.440 persuasion that like, hey, no, don't worry this is this 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:14.360 is really happening, and you can be a part of it, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.159 even if you know that their pro union. Kind of 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.399 getting the ball rolling with people sometimes takes a meeting 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.600 or two and being able to have the peer pressure 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:26.359 of like, hey, we're going to a meeting right now. 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.120 I know you're not doing anything after this, and I'll 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.520 give you a ride helps a lot because then they 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.440 go to their meeting and they're like, wow, that was awesome. 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.480 I never knew I could take control of my life 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:40.080 in any way. 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:47.480 Yeah, that rules. There really is nothing like just being 0:22:47.640 --> 0:22:51.040 in a place with a bunch of people who all 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:55.000 are trying to like actually do the thing, like you know. 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:56.679 I mean, I think this is why. You know, like, 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.640 as we're recording this, like a bunch of campus occupations 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:02.000 are going right, and I mean, I don't know, God, 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:06.000 hopefully by the time this comes out, they won't have 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:10.320