I work at a non profit and we just won union recognition and are slowly moving towards first contract negotiations and I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING. Would love to chat with some folks about their experiences, especially if you’ve negotiated around contracts/grants/etc.
That’s awesome! Our local doesn’t have any organizers, it’s super small with only like 1 lawyer and 2 union reps (for many businesses in the county). Is this typical? I’ve mentioned elsewhere but the entire organizing effort has been me and a few of my coworkers with no union support in terms of strategy. Im.thinking we picked the wrong one, but no turning back now.
I’m gonna be real with you, it’s better if you’re doing all the work. If your union is rep heavy, people will start to view it as something separate from themselves, you lose engagement, and you lose the aspect where people learn to self govern through struggle.
Unions with lots of paid staff also tend to be heirarchal, where a bueracratic can overrule am organizing committee.
You’re doing it the hard way, but also in the way that’s going to go best for you and your Co workers in the long run.
That makes a lot of sense. I connected with someone at another unionized non profit and they shared their experience with me. They shared that they decided on another Union that we were considering and said that they were super bureaucratic, took months to respond, And their tactic was to be very friendly with management in order to get demands met. their contract ended up looking great but it does sound like a lot of that was due to worker action. They said that they felt that it was a good thing that we have so much autonomy so I should appreciate that. I just think the rest of the organizers are so burnt out and barely engage even though I try so hard to keep us a cohesive team. Like, we work with people in severe crisis all day every day for low income wages being scared we will get fired every day so I get it but god damn I can’t do it alone and it’s making me want to quit. How do I motivate people?
There are problems that come with being in a big union. You might not matter to them. Your needs can get lost. Especially if you are unusual workers. You might not end up with support. They could fuck you over just as easily.
Don’t forget that as institutions, the way big unions got to be that way was by making substantial compromises. They are full of red baiting and other things. I say take your chances with a smaller org.
Y’all are really making me feel more secure in this even though it’s still going to be a helluva fight. Hope I can keep going
@ratboy
It… depends. Recently, the big unions have been better, but it depends on which one.
There is definitely a history of anti-communism since the founding of the AFL-CIO.
Yeah, I imagine with the resurgence in unionizing recently they’ve probably wanted to capitalize on their images. But they do seem to vary greatly from local to local. Mine is pretty big but my lil branch of the local seems…very small lol. But, as others have said it sounds good that we have so much autonomy in the way we operate, it’s just going to take a fuckton of work. I don’t think anyone had any idea (myself included) how much organizing would consume your life when the ball gets rolling. We had a very, very basic understanding of how unions operate and it took a lot of parsing because it seems like a lot of info out there is for big professions like nurses unions and electricians etc. that seem to work way differently than how ours is going to operate.
