Workers Coming Together

Getting to meet workers and hear their stories has been one of the most rewarding parts of Union Summer for me. This past week I was able to sit in at a meeting with AFSCME organizers and some workers interested unionizing their facility due to the problems they have faced there (see earlier post).

The interesting part was that some of the workers present did not even know each other, and many that did had not heard each others’ stories because they were separated by different shifts. They were isolated. As such, they were not fully aware that their individual experiences were really part of larger trends.

But as they shared their stories of chronic understaffing, workplace injuries left unaddressed, demeaning supervisors, depressed compensation, and even pressure they had received to break the law by lying about billing, they expressed outrage and support for one another. This bonded them together and seemed to rouse them to a place where they could feel that theirs was a shared experience resulting from a shared position. A position without meaningful voice before a management team that is largely dismissive to their concerns.

The organizers helped build the workers’ collective indignation towards a constructive energy, emphasizing the need to “be at the table” with management when key decisions are made, like the recent one to switch health care insurers from one of the best in the state to one that is notorious for denying claims across the nation. Instead of having to work under the fear that speaking out on workplace issues will land them in hot water, the organizers emphasized the alternative that bargaining collectively would provide them: "being able to sit across the table from management as equals.”

Of course, since management has learned about the union drive afoot, its behavior has improved somewhat: they have added a worker to a sorely understaffed shift, and they partially solidified employee pensions after initially gutting them. But “if you want these changes to be permanent,” the organizers stressed, they need to “get them in writing.” They need a contract.

And several months from now, I hope to hear that they have indeed secured it, despite management’s attempts to intimidate them (with captive audience meetings) out of obtaining equality, the power to protect themselves, and lasting prosperity.