This is a really smart thing, though. Any unions that align contract dates with UAW and others who also do so, gains a huge lever to use both now and later.
He’s speaking as a union rep, I get what you’re saying but he just can’t call a general strike. It would take years alone to get different trade union contracts to align to expire on the same year to get what he wants to do across. For example I’m in a steelworker union and my contract expires in 2027. If we sign a new contract in 2027 and participate in a general strike it wouldn’t be backed by our union and could be punishable. However if they vote to extend the current contract 1 year near the end of the contract (very likely) we would actually have steelworkers and auto workers contracts expiring on the same year which could be interesting if these assholes actually communicated with each other union to union.
Sorry if you knew all this but I took your comment as in a “why not sooner?” or “what are they waiting for?” context so I felt compelled to answer.
Five years certainly seems distant. I think if no civil war starts in the next five years, then the Earth will just drop out of orbit and fall into the Sun.
Unfortunately the Taft-Hartley act made political and solidarity strikes unlawful. Solidarity strike ≈ General strike. There are some very minor differences, but I don’t see that mattering.
The NLRB decides whether or not it violates labor law. I can tell you with absolute certainty that this strategy has worked on a smaller scale for decades.
Don’t get me wrong, I want a general strike. I want a full economy general strike. I am so tired of abusive employers being able to get away with the BS they do. I have some faith in the NRLB, and I hope they don’t pull any BS of their own when the time comes.
No worries! I didn’t assume you were against widespread action or anything like that. I’m an organizer, so what I’ve learned is that most people are completely (intentionally) uninformed about our rights as workers. I didn’t think you had all the info, so I went to educate
Fair enough. I am a massive proponent of educating people on what they are missing as well. I’m trying to make sure my stepdaughter knows all about them before stepping into employment, but it is kinda hard to teach a teen. I have read pretty sizable portions of the FLSA, FERPA, and FMLA and their various modifications.
My biggest worry with a “coincidental” ending of many union contacts simultaneously is that we will have an even more conservative Congress in 4 years and they end up pulling shit that just completely guts the whole labor rights concept. Hell, they are successfully bringing back child labor instead of forcing companies to compensate adults properly.
A political, solidarity, secondary strike etc. is where a union or group under an in-force bargaining agreement are not allowed to strike just because their friends/fellow workers are striking. While not under a collective agreement then they can strike. If everyone’s agreement expires simultaneously, then it is possible for any or every group to strike.
If I had to guess, I’d say the actual answer isn’t jail but “start shooting” while also pumping propoganda about those lazy union guys who just don’t want to work.
A general strike would result in the fall of the federal government. Secondary action is illegal because it's so powerful. This is an interesting way to get around that, with every contract just happening to align with the other.
I’d say less than a week. Capitalism is something that we have to wake up and make happen every single day. How many days worth of food does the average person have? Definitely not 45 days. People would have to start self-organizing within 2-3 days, and in doing so, they would actively make something that isn’t capitalism, which directly challenges those in power.
This is why every time there are emergencies or protests, the media is obsessed with “looting.” If there’s no food because of a hurricane or whatever, it is every single person’s duty to redistribute what there is equitably. The news and capitalists (but I repeat myself) call that “looting,” even when it’s a well-organized group of neighbors going into a closed store to distribute spoiling food to hungry people.
Rebecca Solnit writes about this in detail in A Paradise Built in Hell. It’s really good. She’s an awesome writer.
I love her. You know all of those outlets that try to respond how all the news is bad by doing good news, but it’s always just the orphan crushing machine all over again?
Solnit is like an actually rigorous and deeply insightful version of what that thinks it is doing. I think she herself would push back on anyone who says she tries to figure out “human nature,” but insomuch as that’s a meaningful thing to do, that’s what she does. The book’s central aim is to investigate what human beings are actually like when existing social expectations and power structures are removed, and it’s both well-researched and surprisingly optimistic.
There are already mutual aid networks out there, food banks, community gardens, and neighborhood associations. The seeds are planted and the soil is fecund and ready. You cannot crush what is already dirt.
The publicity offers a motive for entry into local organization by many not yet joined.
Current conditions, as of today, would leave much of the population vulnerable, in case of loss of the established order, and much of the rest inclined to the brutality that produces such vulnerability.
Sooner or later, someone in the military would have to decixe between following an order, and not shooting a friend/relative. And as you say… revolution.
it seems reasonable to anticipate visitation by ACAB.
I don’t know, the optics of police literally going into people’s homes and pulling them out and forcing them to work doesn’t seem like something the government would want, no matter what.
Not just the optics, but the very real danger to the police themselves. This is the US. People get shot for arguing. When you know that sometime this month the police will show up at your door, you might take precautions.
it seems reasonable to anticipate visitation by ACAB.
I don’t know, the optics of police literally going into people’s homes and pulling them out and forcing them to work doesn’t seem like something the government would want, no matter what.
Optics? Seriously? Do we live on opposite sides of the television screen?
You really think it would be a positive optic to see on the Evening News policeman going in the house and dragging people out and forcefully driving them to work and making them work at gunpoint?
… is this satire? Why the fuck would you give four years of warning for managers to document “a slow accumulation of poor performance” and other bullshit to shit can pro-union employees. A large strike takes coordination, but four years is ridiculous.
Yeah, they are just letting the companies know that they will be ready for the next round and that they aren't going to accept less than their value like they were in past negotiations.
4 years seems reasonable to me. It takes most organizations six months to do literally anything outside the status quo. A general strike is an attempt to organize a coalition of federations of organizations.
Why the fuck would you give four years of warning for managers to document “a slow accumulation of poor performance” and other bullshit to shit can pro-union employees.
This is the reality of striking. The threat and build up to the strike are just as important as the actual strike, because it’s about more than just not going to work; it involves complex and wide-ranging logistical question, from how to support the strikers (otherwise corps can just wait you out) to how to decide on a single list of demands.
The very real threats you describe are what make outspoken union advocates awesome and brave people that we should all look up to, and it’s why we all have a responsibility to express solidarity and never cross a picket line. Together we bargain; alone we beg!
The reasoning you described can be summed up very simply: UAW doesn’t want to strike, they want changes. And they hope the threat alone is enough to get them.
I know you seemed to have gotten the gist for why it’s been announced so far out, but there’s some other things at play here.
Actual general strikes are illegal under the Taft-Hartley act
US unions generally engage in contract negotiations at different times, and set the specific date the contract expires during the negotiation
In a country of 333 million people, a general strike will take A LOT of planning. Even if only 10% of the country went on strike, it would easily be the largest strike in world history. The entire economy will stop and people will need to be taken care of.
Even if only 10% of the country went on strike, it would easily be the largest strike in world history. The entire economy will stop and people will need to be taken care of.
I am not brash enough to assert any prediction, but such an event as you describe would be momentus, of coordinating protection and distribution on so massive a scale, completely alternative to the systems of the establishment. A successful demonstration of such kind would be transformative in our culture, producing an unprecedented expansion of collectively perceived horizons of possibility for the future.
Absolutely! A strike that large could result in a syndicalist revolution. Laying the groundwork to support that many people in a socialist framework would be an incredible feat, comparable to the Paris commune within that historical context
I imagine part of it is to try and take the time to gather as much support as possible, likely to include re-educating ground level bootlicker employees who hate unions and their own self interests.
Read the article. The UAW has just signed a ~5 year contract, expiring in 2028. He’s calling for other unions, between now and then, to align their contract expirations with the UAW’s. This is not something that’s possible to do in a short period of time, because it relies upon various other union contracts ending, and realistically by the time we get to 2026/2027 no union is going to sign a sub-2 year contract.
It’s kind of dumb, I kind of think they’re doing it for PR, but it also is a reasonable strategy.
