So You Want To Do A Direct Action?

November 19, 2019 10:04 AM

“ Strikes by unorganized workers led to the founding of unions. Strikes won the first union contracts. Strikes over the years won bigger paychecks, vacations, seniority rights, and the right to tell the foreman “that’s not my job.” Without strikes we would have no labor movement, no unions, no contracts, and a far worse working and living situation. In short, strikes are the strongest tool in workers’ toolbox—our power not just to ask, but to force our employers to concede something.” How To Strike And Win by Labor Notes covering everything from Why Strikes Lose - Ways To Not Quite Strike - Organizing Organizers - and more.
posted by The Whelk (11 comments total)

All the articles I've seen on striking assume you work for the place you work at. Contractors who work for companies whose sole purpose is to be a middleman between employers and workers are pretty much impossible to strike against, which may be part of why so many big companies hire lots of contractors.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:25 AM on November 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

Ways to Not Quite Strike was a revelation. As a Florida public school teacher, we have no right to strike, per our state constitution. We don't actually even have unions, just collective bargaining units, and they're very weak.

Strategies like Work to Contract and Work to Rule can be really disruptive and really empowering if you can implement them massively with fidelity, but even those are made doubly hard by how many teachers are free-riders (bc Right to Work laws) and seem almost willfully ignorant of the way unions work.
posted by toodleydoodley at 11:30 AM on November 19, 2019 [4 favorites]

Really interesting that those essays don't just include putting pressure on your employer, but also include putting pressure on your union! Direct democracy starts where you're at and goes up from there.
posted by entropone at 6:45 PM on November 19, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm surprised that refusing overtime with union encouragement is considered a strike. You're still working, you're not doing anything less than 100% of your assigned duties, and yet it's still a strike. I knew the laws in the US were extra union unfriendly, but I didn't know they were this bad.
posted by Hactar at 8:25 PM on November 19, 2019 [1 favorite]

but also include putting pressure on your union

Capitalists can't break the union if the socialists break it first!
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 9:30 PM on November 19, 2019

This is relevant to my tech-worker interests so thanks.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:58 PM on November 19, 2019

Contractors who work for companies whose sole purpose is to be a middleman between employers and workers are pretty much impossible to strike against,

Just more difficult. See the coal workers in Kentucky blocking trains. If a union can convince substitute workers from crossing their picket line then a strike against a contractor is still effective.
posted by Mitheral at 6:52 AM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've been reading Goliath by Matt Stoller, and it's filling me with sadness. In addition to many of the above-described situations in which striking simply isn't an option, the book has laid out how dramatically the legal and societal landscape has changed since those initial positive results this post describes.

So yes, striking had great results. And many, many, many people have spent many decades ensuring that can never happen again.
posted by pwinn at 2:01 PM on November 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I mean, a lot of the most successful strikes in recent times have been illegal Wildcats. The sitdown strike or the go slow were created back when the Auto industry was un-unionized in the 30s to preventi them from just re-filling the striking factories with copious unemployed labor
posted by The Whelk at 2:37 PM on November 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just more difficult. See the coal workers in Kentucky blocking trains.

I misphrased. What I meant is: I'm a contractor. I can't be part of forming a union at the place I work; I don't technically work for them. I can't be part of forming a union against my employer; they're in another state, and I don't know any of my supposed coworkers.

There's a whole lot of office jobs being done by contractors who have no way to (formally, legally) organize against either the companies that manage their workplaces or the companies that sign their paychecks.

I haven't seen any "how to union" articles that discuss what to do if you literally cannot talk with your coworkers.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:36 AM on November 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

How to form a union using suoer mario brother metaphors
posted by The Whelk at 3:28 PM on November 23, 2019