The Rise of the Pseudo-Union - Jen Pan

[@aylbdrmadison1051]

Thank you Jen! I'm going to have a lot of fun mentioning to the righties how labor unions are more popular even than hot dogs now. 😋

[@timweinmann]

Great video! One quibble: the power of unions isn't collective bargaining agreements. It's actually the control organized workers have over their own labor, and therefore production. CBAs and all concessions won by workers flow from controlling production.

[@tombodkin5377]

semantics

[@0211brucetube]

@@tombodkin5377 I don't think it is, it's a pretty important distinction that has ramifications for organising strategy and democracy in the workplace union.

[@timweinmann]

@@tombodkin5377 it's more than that. Our power as workers isn't granted to us in a contract, we take it when we organize, whether or not our union is recognized by the state. Negotiating a CBA doesn't guarantee us better pay or conditions, only our control over production gives us leverage to extract what we want and need from the boss.

[@bazookallamaproductions5280]

kinda sounds like a rewording of the same sentiment with little to no meaning

[@kdotmann]

@@bazookallamaproductions5280 kinda?! It looks like possibly the most pristine example of rewording with little to no meaning I’ve ever seen 😂

[@MediaFolkus]

The national union movement does not go far enough. Until businesses that are employee-owned (and, also unionized, at the same time) are the high density, we will not get to where we need to be on -- everything. That's because as long as it's a fight between owners/management and workers -- it's two sides to the same coin. It's not the best for workers, communities, the economy overall and definitely not the environment. That is when we get to actual socialism, as opposed to just social policy. When we own our jobs. Don't get me wrong, (real) unions need to be doing what they are doing and expanding. But, at the same time, policy needs to be rapidly changing. A federal schedule of minimum wages for work performed, with none lower than the living wage (22.50?). Medicare-For-All. More dovetailing of workers rights -- no exclusions of any workers or contracts that create haves and have-nots because you work for the wrong entity in the picture. So, union density is essential -- so is going way beyond the scope of what they do. Unions should be about helping employees take over these businesses and government should do way more to incentivize corporations and individuals giving these businesses to their workers.

[@norman_5623]

Freelancers Union is another "union alternative" which was started in 1995 by Sara Horowitz, a labor lawyer and organizer for SEIU 1199. FU (as they called themselves) was not legally a union. The members didn't elect officers; it was run by Horowitz. Like many of the "union alternatives," the main problem of the members was affordable health insurance. Horowitz raised some money and went through several iterations of "alternative" health insurance programs, which finally devolved into contracting traditional, expensive group policies. But Horowitz rejected single payer, probably because of her connections to the traditional health care industry, and its unions who themselves oppose single payer.

[@planetarysolidarity]

Why stop at a national union? A truly international labor movement would have even more power.

[@shawn8847]

Let's start some new unions.

[@ericpowell705]

How do I unionize my work place, I work through a temp agency but the trucking job im at has very bad wages for the drivers and warehouse workers and they are definitely abusing temp workers so they don’t have to hire workers on through the company and give them raises and benefits

[@shawn8847]

Discretly, subtly, try to find like minded people. Steadily have meetings and propose decisive non violent actions and recruiting. Keep researching too.

[@joseluisaguilaralonzo6374]

MORNING THANKS FOR THE NEWS

[@automatemefirst]

I’m super excited for all the automation coming from service sector. Unintended consequences will make my consumer buyer experience so much better.

[@arfived4]

The Etsy guild has the form of a traditional guild (which were artisans' associations), calls itself a guild, and only claims to aim to be "as close to a union as possible". They're not really claiming to be something they're not.

[@RyanWattersRyanWatters]

Right, but the issue is the use of “as close to a Union as possible,” which is deceptive and has no real meaning. It’s like saying “Union adjacent.” The goal in the messaging is to bring in members who might otherwise help with more legitimate labor organizing. If it’s a guild, continue to just call it as such rather than co-opting unions.

[@arfived4]

​@@RyanWattersRyanWatters I got exactly what the phrase meant from the statement that they made - it's a members organisation that collectively bargins for, and offers services to, its members, in the way that a union does (and which could theoretically be used for collective action), but whose members are self-employed craftspeople and small business owners, not workers, and that they negotiate with a retail website, not employers. This would also contrast it with other forms of business association, such as a professional standards body, where their focus is on ensuring that their members' work is of a suitable standard, for example. You're not really going to be able to conventionally organise Etsy sellers, as they are typically actually self-employed, and not pseudo-self-employed in the manner of, say, Uber drivers or delivery app riders.

[@RyanWattersRyanWatters]

@@arfived4 Being an independent artisan doesn’t prevent one within a specific profession from organizing or unionizing, does it? Even with unions protections not being what they should be? Also, how is this relevant exactly? The assertion of the video is “these are not actually unions, according to the criterion of CBAs, so even though they say they are as close as possible to unions, they aren’t in fact unions.” The explanations of the organizations are gratuitous. “Which could theoretically be used for collective action” So they could be used for “collective action” but are all self-employed, which self-employment would make them unable to conventionally organize, even though they theoretically could? Is collective action the same thing as a CBA? I think we took different things from this video. The accusation isn’t that the guild (which has no real legal or unified definitions) aren’t directly pretending to be unions by acting like unions as much as they are co-opting the messaging. If you got “exactly what the phrase meant,” then hats off to you🤷🏻‍♂️

[@jakubLonghorn]

Love this channel! Going to be a lifelong reader and viewer

[@CrefloHalfDollar]

Im in an established union (ufcw) and they are weak. I work skeleton crew 48 hrs a week and am considered part time. How do I strengthen my union?

[@rattylol]

They own the means of production therefore are not workers.

[@emmy8526]

Thank you for this!

[@bazookallamaproductions5280]

first comment on the channel: dont forget about the concept of "petit bourgeois" and labor aristocracy" this refers to capital owners who employ small numbers of people, and people who work for a living, but make large sums of money. a small business owner still fundamentally relies on the same exploitation to make his money as jeff bezos, even if that money is small. and a wealthy surgeon working at a hospital is still an employee, and still represents the proletariat like the rest of us. dialectic materialism is about the RELATION of a person to the means of production, not the amount of money they make. (i hope this is a worthy comment)

[@seankelly819]

Good points

[@bengrimm622]

Tops Grocery has a fake union. Its a branch of the HR department that takes back some wages. I actually make less than minimum wage with a union.

[@aylbdrmadison1051]

Yea, that's the exact opposite of a union.

[@stefanremund8596]

That's a company union and those are supposed to be illegal

[@bmos02]

Restaurant Industry United has been fighting our minimum wage increase + ending subminimum wage referendum in Portland Maine.

[@Arjava.]

Draper is very class conscious 😂

[@janosmarothy5409]

The Etsy thing describes itself as a guild... which is what it is -- an association of artisanal petty producers. No doubt they're piggybacking off of recent labor organizing drives, but the point stands. A guild isn't a "pseudo-union," it's a guild. Petty bourgeois artisanal labor and the wage-earning proletariat both create associations that will defend their narrow sectoral interests, and sticking to unions, worth remembering that the historical track record of unions as "schools for socialism" isn't a particularly great one. Not that boosting union density isn't a strategic sine qua non, but it won't ever take the working class the distance if socialism is the goal.

[@proledad3802]

I think it's bizarre to say that a union's power comes from collective bargaining agreements instead from their ability to use direct action to disrupt employers ability to make money. It's also crazy for an ostensible socialist to promote America's mainstream unions over independent unions (although the examples in the video certainly suck) when America's mainstream unions are affiliated with cops, the DNC, are pro-capitalist and often directly invested in capitalist industry, and very often have no internal democracy. Those unions have led the US working class into the situation we find ourselves in now. Those unions are also dying and socialists have a tremendous opportunity to build a genuine labor movement to replace them so why jump right back in to repeating past mistakes?

[@LiquidDemocracyNH]

Why all the emphasis on the Etsy workers guild not being a union?, The OWNERS of the platform extract RENTS from the people whose work allows the platform to function. Just because the platform economy looks different from a traditional workplace doesn't mean we should be diminishing groups like this. They are doing the same exact things that workers have done with their employers and that tenants have done with their landlords for decades, demanding that the people who OWN PROPERTY not skim off the top.

[@Arjava.]

It's only a clarification, guilds can provide better returns for members much like a union but a union may have more political potential

[@arfived4]

The Etsy guild functions like, well, a traditional guild, which fought for the interests of craftsmen in the same trade, who were traditionally non-proletarianised labour, and who could also be employers.

[@middle_pickup]

That etsy story is fucked up. Wow.

[@culturedboor]

Dilution.

[@shawn8847]

Unit is solvent, and forming totally different unions, avoiding lethargic old garbage unions? Awesome!! Go Unit go! "YOU HAVE TO USE AN EXISTING GIANT UNION!!!" Total myth. Anyone can organize anyone. Billions of dollars have been made from businesses started in garages. People can form new unions. Jacobin you lost points.

[@DEWwords]

Pseudo-gender identities... pseudo-unions... nice going Ruling Crass--- you're really getting the most out of your PMC!

[@aylbdrmadison1051]

Read more. Bigot less. That's the key to learning. All you're doing is stunting your own evolution. Humanity as a whole will simply continue to evolve without you, as is already painfully apparent in just this one comment of yours. You deserve better.

[@DEWwords]

@@aylbdrmadison1051 , I forget--- which sex is it that produces small gametes and which one produces large gametes--- and which one of the 107 gender identities ( or their many "allies") (or is it 150 now?) --- which one is it --- that stands back like a screamer extra in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and calls everyone a name --- like that was proof of something--- or a substitute for materialist reasoning and objective scientific biological fact? --- Too leftist for you? Not enough empty consumerist posing? --- Or is it the veiled sexism and homophobia you support? --- Or maybe the sadistic surgeon, big pharma, child exploiting quack therapists turn you on?--- Too bad about the Tavistock. And too bad--- sooner or later sanity will be coming here cause the bottom 2/3rds of the country aren't as stupid as the gender-manager wannabes. LOL.

[@DEWwords]

Trans- Lesbians ( straight men in dresses campaigning for (trans)woo)men's rights)--- forever! Yes, (gotta agree with you) ... and afterwards a little alien abduction Satanic Panic recovered memory hypnosis from a "reliable" professional. --- Remember--- affirm every whim all you scientific materialists!...uh, huh, yep... feelings are Authoritative! in the new-next empty content consumerist epic... all you need is an itch and a brand and a slogan.