Thread by @doctorow

Now that #Striketober has given way to #Strikesgiving, let's pause for a moment and be grateful that labor made 2021 the year that unions wised up to the self-immolating scam that is the two-tier contract. 1/

As Alexandra Bradbury writes for @labornotes, this year's most prominent labor actions fought against two-tier contracts, from the Teamsters to John Deere to Kaiser to Kellogg's to UPS.

labornotes.org/blogs/2021/11/… 2/

What's a two-tier contract? Just what it sounds like: management offers the union concessions on its key demands, but only for current workers. Future workers get a worse deal. 3/

Management's theory is that workers may have solidarity with one another, but not with workers who haven't even been hired yet, and that a two-tier contract will lead to an ever-expanding cohort of workers who pay full union dues but don't get full union benefits. 4/

Thus, over the span of years, the union will get weaker and weaker, and eventually it will be too weak to stand up for any of its workers - even the top-tier workers, who will see all those gains clawed back in future negotiations. 5/

The leaders who backed two-tier are retiring or being forced out, as with this month's historic leadership vote in the Teamsters, which saw a decisive win for reformers who made killing two-tier the centerpiece of their campaign:

pluralistic.net/2021/11/19/hof… 6/

As Bradbury writes, two-tier and even three-tier systems are in place at the Big Three automakers, the USPS, and universities, where they are responsible for the mass immiseration of adjuncts. 7/

Giving in to two-tier made unions weak, poisoning the rank and file and making strikes all but impossible. 8/

But as Eugene Braswell, a Teamsters United activist, notes, fighting against two-tier is a way to bring young workers into union activism, ready to go to the wall for workers' rights. 9/

"I thought it would be hard to get young workers] involved [in the Teamsters United campaign]. But I found when we were talking about the contract and trying to vote these people out, a lot of them said, 'My ballot is already in.'" 10/

While we're being thankful for the union movement's Great Awakening, here's some other things Americans can be thankful for, courtesy of @TheIntercept's Jon @Schwarz:

theintercept.com/2021/11/25/tha… 11/

* We are treated better than the animals that Americans will consume by the millions this year

* Libraries are still a thing

* Antibiotics still work

* We're still having and talking about sex, despite generations of American puritanism 12/

* Your face is covered in minuscule translucent mites that you inherit from the people you have close contact with, meaning your face is covered in your grandparents' symbiotes 13/

* Dean Baker is still tearing it up with lucid explanations of economic injustice:

join.substack.com/p/economics-on…

* Solar power keeps on growing and it's cheaper than ever 14/

* "Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren," Keynes's stirring 1930 article describing a future of short work weeks and material abundance

* We only have to eat cranberries ("dreadful bog fruit") once per year 15/

And while I'm on the subject of Strikesgiving, here's your reminder that the @wirecutterunion is striking this weekend and asking us not to cross their (virtual) picket-line. 16/

Don't click through on any links at the @wirecutter, because their parent company, the @nytimes, is refusing to give Wirecutter workers a dignified wage, denigrating their labor as "not New York Times writing."

Fuck that bullshit. Pay the writers, New York Times. 17/

Shame on you.

wirecutterunion.com/support-us/ 18/

Image:
Cindy Shebley (modified)
flickr.com/photos/cindysh…

CC BY 2.0:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.… 19/

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/11/25/str…