Work Reform

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

Thanks, esteemed Academy Award nominated character actress Margot Robbie!

(I bought the stickers).

At this rate though, the federal government is about to result in the fall of the federal government.

What does secondary action mean, in this context?

... in 5 years.

5 years too late, we need action today. Let's get it rolling sooner than that.

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!

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.

1. Actual general strikes are illegal under the Taft-Hartley act
2. US unions generally engage in contract negotiations at different times, and set the specific date the contract expires during the negotiation
3. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

What are they going to do, throw the entire working population in jail?

All the effective strikes are illegal.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft%E2%80%93Hartley_Act

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.