The field guys at my company are joining the IBEW. Wish I could as well, but there doesn't appear to be an option for office guys / estimator / project managers.

Doug Henwood wrote:Finally getting around to reading the UAW-VW neutrality agreement. Yes, the UAW pledged to undercut its own workers at "legacy" automakers (and CAW workers up north) - which is not only a repudiation of any idea of worker solidarity, but a guarantee to the VW workers that they'll always lag the Big 3 in pay. See highlighted bit on p. 11:"maintaining and where possible enhancing the cost advantages and other competitive advantages that VWGOA enjoys relative to its competitors in the United States and North America, including but not limited to legacy automobile manufacturers"Also (p. 8 ): "The UAW agrees that it shall not approach or seek to speak with Employees who do not approach it."With shitty clauses like this, it's amazing the vote was as close as it was.http://www.no2uaw.com/uploads/2/2/0/0/2 ... eement.pdf

Strikes are down 99% in the US. Second Amendment fetishism aside, there s an old saying that the working class s ultimate weapon is withholding labor through slowdowns and strikes. By that measure, the U.S. working class has been effectively disarmed since the 1980s. Here s a graph of the annual number of work stoppages since 1950 (which includes lockouts as well as strikes ”unfortunately, there s no way of distinguishing between the two). They re up from the recession low of 5 ”yes, 5 ”in 2009, but not by much: there were 15 in all of 2013. Between 1947 and 1979, the average was 303. (The data begins in 1947; I started the graph in 1950 just to have neat decade markers.) They produced a total 290,000 days of what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls œidleness ; the 1947 “79 average was 24,550,000. That s a 99% decline.Jane McAlevey, the ace labor organizer and author of Raising Expectations (And Raising Hell) ”just about to appear in paperback from Verso ”says that her mentor, Jerry Brown of 1199 New England, used to say that workers should strike at least once every two years just to remind them of their power. Those were the days.http://lbo-news.com/2014/04/02/a-workin ... -disarmed/

Justin Foley wrote:That graph seems to suggest bad things, but you can't assume strike activity = labor power. Union activity has moved over into electoral politics over that same time horizon with limited, but in some cases real, success. [...]Labor's future doesn't mean replicating the tactics of 50 years ago. At least not over the foreseeable time horizon.= JustinWell, lobbying and shovelling money into the Democratic Party's coffers -- the strategy of the last 30-odd years -- doesn't have a particularly heartening track record. I would be curious how anyone could see it as a record of anything but devastating failure, in fact. I'd be really curious what you make of Jane McAlvey's Raising Expectations and Raising Hell or Steve Early's recent Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a movement in distress. I'd also love to hear what you make of Sam Gindin's analysis. I ask because I consider him among the top 2 or 3 most incisive living voices and minds on the state of organized labor in North America (also a wonderfully accommodating and humble dude). He was a 27-year staffer with the Auto Workers. Here's the teaser for his article on the UAW defeat in Chattanooga: For a number of reasons, U.S. unions are on the defensive “ from concerted attacks by employers, the political and cultural effects of 30 years of neoliberalism as well as their inability to build resistance in workplaces and communities. The unionization rate in the private sector is down to 6.7 per cent and a central pillar of union strategy has been to organize the unorganized. The United Auto Workers (UAW) “ which lost tens of thousands of members in the past decade “ has emphasized the centrality of organizing non-union foreign-owned auto plants, recently located in the almost completely non-union and politically conservative south. The strategy was to make a breakthrough in one plant, and build from there.The Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee was their key target. The union worked out a deal with the company, supporting the concept of Germany's ˜works councils, and a series of agreements, to gain the company's neutrality in what was to be a three-day vote. The agreement included the union's acceptance of forms of partnership with the employer, a verbal commitment to keep wage costs below that of the Detroit Three, and evidently, promises not to engage in house visits with perspective members. As well, there was little organizing in local communities “ something absolutely essential in a culture hostile to independent unionism, with low-wage workplaces, high unemployment, and general support for conservative ideas.http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/939.phpWhen I talk to paid organizers off record, they're quite honest about the fact their unions' overall strategies range from absent or misguided, at best, to cynical and self-defeating at worst. They acknowledge (off record) that top brass does not want an active base with a voice, let alone a militant base. These aren't apparatchiks needless to say, but they are dedicated unionists and staffers who know very well that the state of organized labor is fucking dire, and it has been for decades.Those who put a smiley face on everything are more part of the problem than the solution in my estimation. Not unlike Democratic Party hacks who suggest that despite the fact the Dems govern to the right of Nixon, it's all good. We can either accept that trade unions have been in crisis for decades or we can deny it. Density is a crude measure in some respects but it still captures an important reality. Let's stick with the US (OECD data): 1980: 22.1% of workforce1985: 17.41990: 15.51995: 14.32000: 12.92005: 122010: 11.42012: 11.1Anyone who speaks about the outdated strategies of "50 years ago" is not exactly looking reality in the face, from where some people sit. More Sam: The Crisis in Trade UnionismFor some three decades now, labour has been stumbling on, unable to organizationally or ideologically rebut the attacks summarized as ˜neoliberalism. Though the Great Financial Crisis held out the promise of finally exposing the right and its supporters and potentially opening the door to a union offensive and possible revival, the attacks on labour actually intensified and labour continues to have no coherent counter-response. http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/878.phpThat is reality. Dealing with reality is a good starting point, I think.

EXCLUSIVE: UPS dismisses 250 Queens drivers after they protested against long-time employee's dismissalThe unionized drivers at the Maspeth facility walked off the job for 90 minutes Feb. 26 to protest the firing of long-time employee and union activist Jairo Reyes. Public Advocate Letitia James has contacted UPS to ask them to change their tactics.NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - Wednesday, April 2, 2014, 4:46 AMhttp://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/que ... -1.1742718

Teacher's Pet wrote:If anybody ever told me, "you're fired, but keep working until we finish training your replacement" I think I would probably get creative.when my employer was purchased by a foreign company they tried this gambit with a bunch of order entry technicians. For a variety of reasons, one of the largest reasons for screwing up an order was "clerical error". The new owners figured they could fix this with some of their exisiting foreign operations. The soon to be unemployed were pretty much told point blank that their employement would end once they finished training their replacements. I don't think any of the former employees stuck arund long enough to even MEET their replacements.the new owners dropped their ideas about outsourcing quickly, but it was too late...they still had to train new people here in the states and had to find someone to train them since the likely candidates were all gone by then.

Teacher's Pet wrote:Twenty employees were terminated Monday after their shifts ” and the remaining 230 notified that they ll be canned as soon as replacements are trainedIf anybody ever told me, you're fired, but keep working until we finish training your replacement I think I would probably get creative.Lotta packages getting 'accidentally' delivered to Flushing Bay!

That graph seems to suggest bad things, but you can't assume strike activity = labor power. Union activity has moved over into electoral politics over that same time horizon with limited, but in some cases real, success. Strikes don't seem to have the payback that they used to, in part because the management-side of things has been successful about how labor law is administered. 1199NE provides a good example. The Local's recent strike against Healthbridge was a difficult slog against an entrenched and ideological anti-union employer. They had to do it but the prospect for measurable gain was grim. At the same time, the Local's investment in a political program paved the way for a law change that finally allowed home care workers to vote to unionize. When they did, they overwhelmingly voted to join 1199NE. The Local's biggest membership gain in years (and that BU is in the process of ratifying their first contract with actual gains for that workforce) came about through a successful strategy that started with politics. A win against Healthbridge, by contrast, will likely rely on a difficult court process.Labor's future doesn't mean replicating the tactics of 50 years ago. At least not over the foreseeable time horizon.= Justin

Teacher's Pet wrote:Twenty employees were terminated Monday after their shifts ” and the remaining 230 notified that they ll be canned as soon as replacements are trainedIf anybody ever told me, you're fired, but keep working until we finish training your replacement I think I would probably get creative.I remember an employer once asking me to document all of my tasks so that a replacement could easily perform them should I take seriously ill or be hit by a bus or something. I spent months carefully and diligently itemizing everything I do, dragging ass and billing for it all the while, taking just long enough for management to change over and the project to be completely forgotten.

This is the kill-me-now thread