cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13303130
Meanwhile, one of the 3 guys at work is working nights and weekends for free. He’s salary. I keep telling him to go outside and live life. Stop giving everything away to the owners. He doesn’t listen. He thinks he’s going to save the company. I’m like buddy if those extra hours are all that’s between success and failure, the company’s fucked. That’s flu away from disaster. He doesn’t listen.
Company-wide email: “We had our best year EVER and it’s all thanks to YOU!”
Me: “Great. Can I have a raise?”
“Oh, we can’t afford THAT.”
I once worked in a division of ~3500 employees, every year the division produced two profit forecasts one called “pessimistic” and another called “optimistic”. My first year the division made $335 million MORE than the optimistic forecast so the division CEO approved every employee a $335 bonus.
The next year it happened again but only $285 million, so $285 bonuses that year.
Both times I scoffed and quietly pointed out to the delighted Boomers I trusted that it was less than one third of a percent of the total money.
The next year apparently the corporate office found out, fired said CEO and quashed the bonuses forever. Apparently the distribution of the crumbs was more than they could handle.
Don’t just form the union, make it work for you. You don’t just form a union and magically everything gets better with no more effort on your part. You have to be active and determined otherwise the union just becomes another bureaucratic mess looking to use you for their own gain.
Humiliation and cruelty aren’t by-products, they are the point, for those who can’t enjoy lunch unless the other guy gets none.
At this point, skip asking for a raise and go straight to forming a union. It saves time. It implies they should have been taking care of the workforce in the first place. And your colleagues likely need raises too.
Then over demand, because they’ll try to offer less. If they try any technical or procedual shenanigans, show they’ve been caught and double your demands.
Remind them that unions and strikes are the peaceful alternative to violent retribution, and by trying to block unionization they are admitting they’d rather a class war.
If law enforcement gets involved, tell the state that siding with the owners will only escalate thr conflict, and extend the precarity out to the rest of the economy. Stock values will totally tank, and legislators and gubernators will be held personally responsible by their shareholding plutocratic masters.