this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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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.
Depending on where you lived you were plied with anti-union rhetoric. I remember back in the '80s and working at a department store and they had us watch "training" videos about how we were a big family and how unions broke up that family and made us adversaries. I thought it was a bunch of bull, but I'm sure there were plenty of folks that bought into it.
I think the most common explanation for anti union sentiment is this:
Most of the time, our justifications for doing anything are post-hoc: we decide based on gut reasoning, then invent a justification after we've already made up our minds in order to convince ourselves that we're creatures of logic.
When companies show those videos, it does two things: it intimidates, and it provides ready-made arguments for post-hoc justification.
They intimidate workers from organizing, but no one's ego can accept that. If someone says "let's unionize", most people think (subconsciously) 'Fuck!!! That's scary! We're not strong enough, and I'm gonna get totally beaten down if I stick my neck out!!'
And then their brain does it's thing and translates that into justifications, and when it needs words to form justifications, it draws then from the handy dandy premade justifications they were given during their intimation session. It's like, 'You're a bug, and if you fight us we'll step on you! Now here's a balm to soothe this massive wound to your pride. You're welcome. Now get back to work.'
True. I remember thinking it was a load of crap, but it certainly got the message across that I'd be alone and out of a job if I tried to form a union.
And I also remember lessons in class where the textbook weren't l went into great detail about the corruption and mob ties of some unions, but very little about anything positive. There has definitely been an effort on the part of powerful folks to denigrate unions.
I remember reading The Jungle in college and getting a much different perspective of labor laws and union value