Tuesday, July 25: Union-Busting Scum
The story of "union avoidance" consultants (human detritus)
Turns out there’s a lot of money to be made in convincing your co-workers not to unionize. And all it costs is approximately the price of your soul! This Huffington Post article provides a detailed description of how a pair of “union avoidance” consultants using fake names managed to upset a small Midwestern workplace.
Only about 6% of private-sector workers in the US belong to a union today, down from a high of around 33% back in the 1950’s. There are plenty of reasons for the long and steady decline, including the loss of many union-represented manufacturing jobs and weak labor laws that make unionizing more difficult.
But these scummy “persuaders” undoubtedly play a role in suppressing union membership. They help employers formulate a playbook against the union by figuring out who supports the union, who opposes it and who sits on the fence. They hold group and one-on-one meetings that sow doubt about what a union can accomplish. They often push the boundaries of what’s legal and even step over them, according to labor board case files.
Perhaps if I was more of a sellout I might consider becoming one of these bozo “persuaders”, helping my coworkers see the errors in their ways and abandon all hope of establishing better working conditions. Instead, I’m delighted to share this REI Member Union Solidarity survey courtesy of the unionizing workers at REI Lincoln Park. If you’re able to complete the form (it’s 7 very brief questions), it will help the workers illustrate how widespread their support is and why it’s important for REI to acknowledge their efforts.
Side Items
Paying Pigs Overtime: The city of Chicago spent $126.5M on overtime pay for members of the Chicago Police Department during the first six months of 2023. This absurd number is almost 50% more than the amount paid during the same period last year. In case you’re wondering what these officers are doing while “working overtime”, at best they’re sitting in their air-conditioned cars scrolling on their phones, but more likely they’re openly antagonizing poor people across the city. Love to see my tax dollars hard at work
Epstein’s Connections: If you’re like me, you understand that Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself. This article provides insight into some of the lofty connections Mr. Epstein had as well as the interlocking of intellectual and financial elites in our era of bloated capital accumulation. Epstein’s ties to Harvard University have received considerable attention, but a full account shows how this depraved individual without a college degree was able, by using a mix of philanthropy, charm, and personal favors, to captivate the nation’s top institution of higher learning
Interview With a Legend: This interview with the film and TV icon Samuel L. Jackson (the L stands for Leroy) is full of gems, small and large. We’ve previously discussed the radicalism of Mr. Jackson (like the time he held MLK Jr.’s father hostage at Morehouse College), but this conversation illustrates how, even after decades of enormous success, Jackson is still chasing the same things he was when he first started acting. I know we’re never supposed to meet our heroes or whatever, but Sammy L seems like a solid exception to that rule