‘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.
McCarthyism and the decades of fear mongering and misinformation about communism and red scare tricked generations of Americans into thinking that the most patriotic thing you could do is die in your work boots for minimum wage.
Good luck to them.
If they were up against a competent c-suite, this would be a failed effort from the start.
“cybertruck” is going to be a massive flop and and an embarassment and that is a perfect opportunity to “downsize” and have a semi-legit reason to fire anyone who doesn’t spit with enough vigor at any calls for unionizing.
But acknowledging that glorified SUV is a flop is a step too far and it will be marketed as a success. Which gets rid of the cover.
I have no idea if UAW will succeed. But I think we are looking at a LOT of wrongful termination lawsuits (speaking of, did the twitter ones go anywhere?) and a massive poorly executed social media campaign on a single dying site.
Fine, don’t work here then. Fuck you.
Workers will kill Tesla and the whole world will see it. They’ll judge
Musk in a year.
Really love Shawn Fain’s attitude of fighting with the corporations. More victories unions to start win, the easier it will be grow unions across of sorts of different industries.
We had Starbucks stores unionize, an Amazon warehouse unionize, and UAW winning major concessions.
Starbucks organizing still blows my mind. Young people working in restaurants have traditionally been the most difficult nut to crack, as they mostly see it as a short term thing. I guess times change and perception of economies with it!
People are getting tired of watching the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else. The fact that are people who the drive and skill to organize is something we should be celebrating.
Man is gonna fuck around and get ass-assinated.
EDIT: That means he is doing a bang up job for those not paying attention
Do you work at Tesla? Do you know more about this union drive? We’d love to hear from you. From a non-work device, you can contact Jules Roscoe at jules.roscoe@vice.com or on Signal at (415) 763-7705 for more security.
On Signal? Wow, I like that.
Fuck the GAAFM.
GAAFM ?
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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
Repealing that act should be one of the largest priorities of leftists in the United States. I wish people talked about it more.
When you make your next union contract, get the expiry date the contract to be May Day. If everybody’s contracts expire on the same day, it’s easier to have a general strike day in the future.
Fuck em. How much illegal shit have megacorps gotten away with?
Everything they could, every moment of their existence.
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?
Oh this should be good.
Elon: “Fuck off”
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!
More blackmail!?
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It’s not, that’s the joke, based on Elon’s rant about losing advertisers the other day.
Tesla will allow a union the same time mcdonalds or starbucks allows a union.
We can pretend unions will solve the problems but the reality is regardless of what any worker wants their jobs are going to be automated so it needs to be a group effort to force the allowance of free re-education/re-training into a different profession (i.e. UBI with stipulations that you must retrain into a new job until all jobs are automated).
There are no other options and you can’t expect a company to keep a position open for a human that needs breaks, sleep and to eat when their competition is automating fully and saving more money than they are because they were forced to or chose to keep humans on staff.
This is not the age where unions have any effective impact, especially when almost every job available today will be eliminated in the next decade through direct mechanical automation or AI automation.
The only thing unions can do is push protectionism and that will kill the economy by killing companies and then we lose the companies, the tax revenue AND the jobs.
Right, because there famously aren’t any Starbucks unions…
Fuck off bot.
You should go complete some elementary school literature tests.
It’s clear you didn’t understand what was written.
Thanks for the laugh though.
This is not the age where unions have any effective impact
I don’t know, the UAW looks like it’s having plenty of impact to me. As a matter of fact, unions are looking pretty strong at the moment. But to be honest, you weren’t here to argue in good faith, you made that especially clear with your last sentence.
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.
Favorable terms with no means of legal leverage are just wisps of air. They can and will be rescinded at the earliest convenience of the corporation, which is literally why we’re in the current situation we are today. The strongest middle class in the US existed when unions were at their peak. That is not a coincidence.
A formal, legal union gives employees power and leverage to enforce the favorable terms that they negotiate with an employer. You can argue that unions as organizations can be subject to similar corruption as any other organization, but contrary to popular propaganda, there is nothing inherent in the existence of a union that requires or lends itself to corruption any more than any other power structure.
Employees are legally permitted to organize a formal, legal union of their own outside the existing union organizations, but then they’re starting from scratch. Existing unions have been through negotiations, have experienced lawyers, know the process and all of its pitfalls. The vast majority of workers are better off joining an existing union because of this.
You’re correct but my issue is with the corruption part. Look at Hollywood and that fiasco of a boycott and how it affected the people at the bottom of the union. Or the teachers union where is the damn near impossible to fire bad teachers and how the school system is suffering for that. Where as private schools pay more in return your job is dependent on how well your students preform.
Corruption exists in corporate structures, too. Perhaps even especially in corporate structures.
Unions provide a counterbalance to the leverage a company has over its employees, plain and simple.
Neither structure (unions or corporations) is meant to eliminate corruption, but having both means the power differential is balanced, and one can’t steamroll the other.
Correct again, but is a union needed in every situation and how do a corporation counter balance a union
A union that abuses their power risks the company becoming unprofitable and forcing layoffs. A company that abuses the union risks the union going on strike. They hold each other accountable. They have a mutual interest in the continuation of the company, and they negotiate within the bounds of that reality.
Beyond this, the law places strict limits on the right to strike, and will make the union liable if they break those limits.
Unions are an essential part of a healthy labor market, even if you yourself are not a part of one.
Yep. All tesla has to do is pay better than a union, provide decent benefits, treat people like humans, and fire the garbage employees.
