‘Your Turn’: United Auto Workers Launches Campaign to Unionize Tesla::After the UAW won contracts with the Big Three, it’s seeking to unionize 150,000 workers across a dozen companies including Tesla.
This is a very exciting time. I’ve been a union guy for 25 years and I will go to my grave not understanding the fierce resistance to unions by my X gen and the boomers. When they would say unions were bad, I’d say let’s make ours amazing and… they just refused.
I never thought I would see the resurgence of American labor unions. This is an absolute joy to see.
Depending on where you lived you were plied with anti-union rhetoric. I remember back in the '80s and working at a department store and they had us watch “training” videos about how we were a big family and how unions broke up that family and made us adversaries. I thought it was a bunch of bull, but I’m sure there were plenty of folks that bought into it.
I think the most common explanation for anti union sentiment is this:
Most of the time, our justifications for doing anything are post-hoc: we decide based on gut reasoning, then invent a justification after we’ve already made up our minds in order to convince ourselves that we’re creatures of logic.
When companies show those videos, it does two things: it intimidates, and it provides ready-made arguments for post-hoc justification.
They intimidate workers from organizing, but no one’s ego can accept that. If someone says “let’s unionize”, most people think (subconsciously) ‘Fuck!!! That’s scary! We’re not strong enough, and I’m gonna get totally beaten down if I stick my neck out!!’
And then their brain does it’s thing and translates that into justifications, and when it needs words to form justifications, it draws then from the handy dandy premade justifications they were given during their intimation session. It’s like, ‘You’re a bug, and if you fight us we’ll step on you! Now here’s a balm to soothe this massive wound to your pride. You’re welcome. Now get back to work.’
True. I remember thinking it was a load of crap, but it certainly got the message across that I’d be alone and out of a job if I tried to form a union.
And I also remember lessons in class where the textbook weren’t l went into great detail about the corruption and mob ties of some unions, but very little about anything positive. There has definitely been an effort on the part of powerful folks to denigrate unions.
I remember reading The Jungle in college and getting a much different perspective of labor laws and union value
They don’t understand or see themselves as workers because of things like this, they see themselves as individuals who will succeed if they just try their best and be their most “authentic” selves or whatever BS they use. Most important message they try to send is your position in the economic system is about you as an individual and not because of your class or relation to capital.
I’ve been in one union and it was a corrupt joke. That said, it was still the best unskilled job I’ve had by a large margin.
I’ve been a union guy for 25 years and I will go to my grave not understanding the fierce resistance to unions by my X gen and the boomers.
Certain specific professions like IT, and its mercenary culture, don’t fit well with the collective bargaining model. For many other professions/careers, a union can be a great tool for workers.
I’ve never been in a union, but there was an era where individuality and meritocratic means seemed like the pathway to unlimited success but this doesn’t really map over to blue collar work. Unions were not likely to help because they batch outstanding workers at the same level as the lowest performers on the team.
But unions work a bit like an alternative to minimum wage. All the boats rise with the tide, so if the UAW scores big with some mfgrs, other auto workers are going to want a piece of that too or they’ll switch.
This can backfire though because a lot of jobs can still be automated if they aren’t economically feasible.
Good luck to them.
I can’t believe this. You will ruin the company and make it go away. Earth will remember this! Fuck off!
Muskrat— probably.
Now if only they had the same support that unions do in Sweden
Solodarity strikes are illegal in the US, the UK, Australia, and the Netherlands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft–Hartley_Act
Truman vetoed it and railed against it hard, but of course a corrupt and fiercly communist-paranoid congress overrode his veto.
Never knew it was illegal in the UK. Didn’t surprise me though to learn it was Margaret Thatcher who outlawed it again in the 80s.
Man fuck Taft. All my homies hate Taft.
This might be a stupid question, but how does this law apply to non-union laborers looking to unionize, but aren’t technically union yet?
In a right to work state, you’d get shit canned.
Fuck em. How much illegal shit have megacorps gotten away with?
Now if only they had the same support that unions do in Sweden
More people believe in unions than you may realize.
Don’t just focus in on the shills/bots and what they’re saying.
Oh this should be good.
Can’t wait.
Go go you! Most people in Sweden expect those that drive Tesla want a union to! It should be the default on all bigger companies!
Elon: “Fuck off”
“Son of slavery-driven diamond mine owner refuses union talks!”, “how to eat dogshit”, and much more, coming up after the break.
I’m sure Elon Musk believes that dog shit is very nutritious and all of us at the bottom should be glad to have some
Elon: more robots on order
That’ll go about as well as the full self-driving capability of tesla vehicles.
They originally over-relied on automation in their factories, to Elon’s own admission. There’s just some tasks that humans will always be better at, until we see a fundamental change in robotics. And no, the current AI fad is not enough.
They’ve been working to solve those problems as well so they are more robot friendly. One of the problems was the wiring harness being limp/flexible so they started using a more rigid wiring system.
Probably not good enough to have a robot replace it yet, but I bet a change like that also reduces the people hours required reducing head counts
Edit: I was just thinking about this more, and with the cybertruck now using ethernet in its 48v system, I wonder if this will be as relevant given there’s less cabling. I guess even then it’d still be easier to have something rigid around it, but maybe it’s not even worth it now.
Unions aren’t always a good thing especially when the workers are able to come to favorable terms on their own. A lot of the time it’s just union heads looking for a cut of the deal.
Yep. All tesla has to do is pay better than a union, provide decent benefits, treat people like humans, and fire the garbage employees.
