LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Best news I've heard all year! A general strike is probably one of our best ways to radicalize the masses. I'm fuckin pumped
Let's fucking go. They've worked hard to gut the strength unions used to wield with the POWER of the general strike. Time to bring it back baaaby.
Yay for more strikes!
Obligatory merchandising here, but you can support our union's effort during the strike by buying some swags in the link below.
sagaftra.org/official-sag-aftra-strike-swag-available
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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.
At this rate though, the federal government is about to result in the fall of the federal government.
I would blame the people who have stated publicly that they want the federal government to fall.
What does secondary action mean, in this context?
After primary action and just before tertiary action.
(Im sorry, I also dont know and Im just saving this spot for when someone actually explains it)
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FINALLY
... in 5 years.
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.
5 years too late, we need action today. Let's get it rolling sooner than that.
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... 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.
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.
Nah I think it's a good move. Gives unions time to decide on demands and get big enough to really scare those in power.
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.
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Solidarity and action requires communication. There's NO way to coordinate that type of collective action and keep it secret.
Much better to say it loud and often to build support.
Do you know how long union agreements usually last? 3-5 years.
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.
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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.
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.
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Would be interesting. A peaceful general strike would lead to military intervention in about 45-60 days I think.
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.
This is the third time this book has come up in my life recently. I'm going to have to read it
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.
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And what is the military going to do? Force everyone back to work under the threat of death? Sounds like the catalyst to a revolution to me
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That long? Ain't no way the shareholders would let the government stay on its leash long enough to tank an entire fiscal quarter
Will somebody think of the economy?!
A peaceful general strike would lead to military intervention in about 45-60 days I think.
But at the end of the day, how do you task society to forcibly work?
Everyone can just start taking sick days, what's the Army going to do, go to door?
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This is awesome, but idk if they're even printing 2028 calendars yet lol
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.
That's the point. If all the contracts expire at the same time, it's a coincidence, not a general strike in the eyes of the law
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What are they going to do, throw the entire working population in jail?
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All the effective strikes are illegal.
Fucking exactly. We're only allowed to have small relief valves to prevent riots, we aren't allowed to actually fight for a better future.
Interesting that it was a Republican sponsored bill, and voted in by a Republican Senate and House.
Also interesting that the President Truman had vetoed it.
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.
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