Hello brothers and sisters. I have a genuine dilemma. I've been wanting to join a union to further supplement my career (draftsman) and to also have some sort of retirement.

My dilemma is that I'll be taking a big pay cut (about 9 dollars) but I'm also supporting a family of 3. On top of that, I've done my research that a lot of the times OT is not mandatory but it does make you look bad since it will get you a layoff.

I love my family, but I also don't want to miss out on having those precious moments with my kids when they're little.

Any information on your personal struggles, triumphs, suggestions or advice is great appreciated. Any shit talking is also appreciated since it's a great motivator 😅

We have elections coming up and bargaining surveys. Our last bargaining vote only had about 40% of members participating. Also would there be a difference if it was 40% of paying members vs 40% of represented positions?

Our union has not historically had a very strong presence, and we've lost a lot of potential members. Maybe due to inaction on union part, maybe due to lack of understanding of members about how unions and contracts work. Prob both.

Anyone know where I could source accurate info regarding this?

Thanks in advance.

Data annotation tech, remotask/otter/appen and some others seem to be doing shady business practices. How would one go about unioninzing AI workers since they are classified as contractors.

I personally think ai is very problematic but these companies prey on the most desperate and if the workers had more power its possible some of their negative businesses practices could be curbed?

Do you take any hard drugs (no judgements), are you prescribed any medications, and are you fairly healthy with your gut? What type of consistency is your shit normally? Sources in comments.

Tl;dr: No, a majority of union members will vote for Harris. But there has been a concerted propaganda campaign to make people think otherwise.

If you've been paying attention on this subreddit for the past month, you'll notice a narrative is being peddled. Apparently union members are voting for Trump! This message comes in various forms.

• Sometimes a user claims they are a union member, and they're voting for Trump because he's going to be better for union workers, union jobs, the economy, etc.
• There have been several posts along the lines of "Every union member at my job is voting for Trump? What's going on?" (The mods have filtered some out since they were becoming rule 5 violations).
• Sometimes a user who appears to liberal is asking why union members are being so stupid and voting against their own interests. They might also decry the apparent racism that leads union members to vote this way.
• There is a big fixation on the Teamsters non-endorsement in the election. What's interesting about this is lots of users will act like they are half-informed about what happened here. They seem to think the Teamsters endorsed Trump. Or some poll showed 60% of all union members support Trump (one poll in the Teamsters app found 60% support for Trump, but other polls the Teamsters conducted had different results).

Whether the user is a liberal or a conservative, apparently everyone agrees union members are voting for Trump. The thing is, this underlying premise, that union members are voting for Trump, just isn't true, polling shows union members still prefer the Democrats. For example, a Pew poll in April showed 59% of union members identified with the Democratic party, compared with 48% of non-union members. According to the 2020 exit poll, union households were 56 D / 40 R compared with 50 D / 49 R for non-union households. CAP has done a detailed breakdown of union voting patterns over the past few years, and union support for Democrats has been growing since 2016. (By the way, union households were 20% of voters, while only 16% of adults live in a union household, so we're punching above our weight as well.)

If Harris wins this election, it'll be because of union members, not in spite of them.

If you think about this for five seconds you'll realize this narrative really benefits Republicans. They'd love to sow division within the Democratic coalition. They'd love to make union members think the crowd is going with Trump. That's why this narrative is being spread. And we have to admit, conservatives have done a great job convincing liberals it is true. Some liberals have done an incredible job spreading this conservative talking point.

Now, any effective narrative must have a grain of truth. Republicans have gained some ground with union members, especially white union members. But even this point has been exaggerated. White union members are more likely to vote for Democrats by 12 points, and union member support for Democrats has only increased since 2016. Remember that racism point above? Again, grain of truth, but who exactly benefits from acting like union members are abandoning Democrats because of racism. What do you think will happen if a Trump-sympathetic union members hears this over and over again instead of the litany of actual reasons Trump would be bad for unions.

Not that what happens on social media sites is actually super important. The election is going to be decided on organizing that is happening in real life. But I'm sick of seeing this nonsense, and I encourage everyone to aggressively push back against this talking point when they see it. It's been flying under the radar because media narratives make it easy to believe. It's the online version of random people pretending to be union members at Trump rallies. It's just as ridiculous and should be treated as such.

I only recently learned about her and her job's role. Basically her role in the federal trade commission is to protect the public's interest from predatory corporate practices

She recently enforced rules that prevents businesses from making their subscriptions complicated to cancel but easy to sign up for. She also investigated some illegal patents that made inhalers more expensive than they should. Dropping their cost from hundreds of dollars to about 35 if I recall correctly. This forced multiple corporations to withdraw their false patents in fear of getting exposed

Basically she's going after harmful practices from big pharma, and is concentrating currently on big tech

She made so many enemies that Apple is now preventing her from appearing on podcasts. I was really shocked to learn all this. The reason why she has such influence is because she managed to get bipartisan support from both the left and right party because corporations harm either side of the aisle

Some news sources are trying their best to slander her as some raging feminazi or as entirely unrealistic. They're pissed because before she came all previous chairs simply accepted the role with passiveness and avoided fighting tough battles for the public. Her being 35 and middle class unlike the usual 70+ wealthy elite who usually took the role made her a different a foe entirely

I'm only touching the tip of the iceberg about her accomplishments during the Biden administration. I really want to see what she can do with Harris's backing. I'm honestly scared for her because of what happened with the Boeing whistleblower, please do your best to support her. Write to your representatives to let them know you want this candidate to stay

THREE polls now show that Independent Dan Osborn is TIED in the Nebraska Senate race with Republican Deb Fischer.

We have a real chance to send a message to Mitch McConnell with a historic victory.

The choice is yours – We can sit on the sidelines, or we can step up and rush a donation to send Dan to the U.S. Senate!

A former member of the Nebraska Army National Guard, Dan rose to the presidency of his union, BCTGM 50G and led the successful 2021 Kellogg strike in Omaha, defeating efforts to slash benefits and guaranteeing the factory remain open through 2026.

**The above is copied from the ActBlue donor page. He's running as an Independent. As you can see above, he cares about unions and the working class. We need more leaders like him and less of those that union bust and pad the wallets of big corporations.

November 2nd: 1909 IWW free speech battle began

On this day in labor history, in 1909 the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) launched the Spokane free-speech fight, challenging an ordinance that banned street speaking. This law was aimed at curbing IWW activities, especially their public critiques of exploitative employment agencies. In protest, IWW members mounted soapboxes to speak atop, only to be swiftly arrested. On that first day, Spokane police jailed 103 activists, a number that swelled to 500 over the month, including notable orator Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. The protest exposed the city’s brutal conditions for prisoners, stirring public sympathy. After months of clashes, on March 4, 1910, the city repealed the ordinance, marking a significant victory for free speech. The event inspired similar protests across the U.S.

Sources in comments.

I knew of a union job here that started laborers around $30/hr but I don’t have much info on any of the higher paying employers here. I am a skilled tradesman and am wondering how much different employers are paying around the state. You can keep it anonymous if you wish. I am a commercial fence foreman at the moment and I make $27/hour. I’ve also been a carpenter but I’m just not seeing many high paying employers. I mean even at $27/hour, I’m barely getting by. List your job and your pay for transparency so we all can get a better picture of the job market here.