Is this a silly idea or could it actually work?

Have you ever unionized a place before? Do you know an established local you could reach out to? Are you able to be low key about it for a while so your ass doesn’t get canned for rabble rousing? Finally, can you talk to coworkers and become close with them before going full pinko union mode?

I fed like these are the questions to ask yourself before heading in. Also working at Starbucks sucks right now, with drive thrus and online ordering, you’ll be swamped. Prime radicalization hours, maybe, but you need to know what you’re getting in for

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33 points

I fed like

We got a live one, folks!

:fedposting:

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You caught me!

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29 points

Ahh these are some very good questions, the kinda stuff I need to know but wouldn’t have even thought to ask.

I’ve never unionized a place before. But I think I would be good at talking to coworkers.

The job would be awful tho, I hadn’t actually thought about that. Idk if I’d even end up hanging around long enough to actually start the unionizing

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26 points

Not sure if unions still do this but back in the day you could be a professional salt. Union would train you on how to do it and so on.

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22 points
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the IWW still does zoom conference training for unionizing workplaces, it’s pretty good.

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9 points

Not sure if unions still do this but back in the day you could be a professional salt.

Amazon unionisation efforts at JFK8 involved multiple salts working in coordination as a team with one another.

Salting is not only still something being done professionally but something that is expanding in the current labour movement, and quite sophisticated.

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14 points

I think people doing salting usually work with a union and get a bunch of training with the union.

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Peep anything by labor notes, like this, to learn more! https://labornotes.org/secrets

Ooh look https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=3852C26ECC48E858B4BDA0AA9C07ABED

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It’s often a long process, and you’ll probably have to lay low for a while. It’s a commitment.

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1 point
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40 points
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Salting is a good idea. You should (typically) do it in cooperation with a union.

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37 points

It’s called salting, it can work, but as pointed out by other commenter, not so easy as 1, 2, 3

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22 points

Salting OK!

I’m gonna read up on it

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21 points
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4 points
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We’re not rn but I think I’ve heard mention of the idea before

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17 points

As others have said, it’s called salting. It’s very gallant and cool.

But, it can take years to get a committee and a authorization vote. Maybe shorter for a local sbux, but you can’t just walk in with some red and black flags and say you wanna unionize. It takes time to earn people’s trust and time to get them to have faith that unionizing is worth the risk of losing their jobs.

You may not win a union, you may just get better pay and benefits and safety for your fellow workers as a concession and the union effort might dissolve because of it. That’s cool to get for your fellow workers but obviously, we have higher aims than pure economism and reformism - we don’t want a bigger, “fairer” slice of the pie we want the whole god damn thing and the knife the bourgeoisie used to cut it. It’s a big ask for workers without class consciousness but it’s possible to develop (and also we need it to overcome the challenges of poverty, war, and climate change as well) and you can be part of that by getting a union in your little local Starbucks for sure.

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