Organizing Others

I said he was trying, not succeding, some people come by being nice more honestly than others . I think the point stands though, who are you empowering by doing this?

throwhen@gmail.com

I tried. Now I don't give a shit for liberal do-gooder handwringing. Fact is that in a university setting the student clients are as much exploiters of the workers as the actual bosses are. Everyones had a nice boss or two. didn't mean their position of power over you wasn't wrong.

he posts it all over the place. Plus I hope he gets spammed to death someday.

I can see your point, but there are certain contextual differences between privileged students at some private university and folks at a state school. Plus the logical conclusion of your reasoning would posit that all customers are "bosses" which is sort of problematic, seeing as we're all customers at some point.

This whole thread is real interesting as a student. We have a similar situation where the university workers are unionized under the SEIU. The union comes once a month, collects dues, talks to management and then leaves. Workers talk about needing to “strike right now” but there’s a definite sense of powerlessness. As a student I would like to help, but it’s not my place to tell them to “take militant action”. Its not my livelihood on the line.

Comrade Duke I think you will find by using a sufficiently dialectical perspective that university students are not _equally_ the exploiters of university cafeteria workers in the way that university cafeteria bosses are, though students likely to be part of the problem as a class sector. Please add this deviation to the file marked "for my future autocritique."

Also, Makaira, I agree with Duke and EdWob, writing an article is not as good as getting in touch with an organizer. The organizer will help you work through stuff on how you can be helpful and you should be really up front about your concerns and limits (inexperience w/ organizing, nervousness, whatever). If there's not an IWW branch nearby, then definitely write to Chuck (write to Chuck anyway for advice) because his union may be able to commit to working on the campaign especially if you can get some useful information.

We've been forging the first links to do something like this at my uni in Texas...its a small school and everybody knows each other by name so we have a leg up on things.

My advice would be...like somebody else already said...form a normal human relationship with some of the employees you would like to see organize. You aren't saving them...the best you can do is offer your knowledge of workplace organization when it comes up.

For best results I'd try starting with the people who are closest to your age and of the same gender so that you can have as normal a relationship with them as possible. Remember that these folks probably like getting fucked up after the work day and I'm sure the friends you party with would love the novelty of having the "cafeteria guys" come party. If you are lucky you may get invited to do things with them (one of the employees where I attend was an American Indian Movement activist and frequently invites us to cultural events...in turn he helps us out when we need support in on-campus and off-campus efforts (he's our go-to-guy in our efforts to get the staff involved in an alternative to the student congress--which would include faculty and staff representation--and he even gave us university property to help us with our anti-nazi mobilization).

Even if these folks don't end up organizing, you have lots to gain from forging meaningful human relationships...especially since in this case it involves breaking class and age barriers. If nothing else you can help one another alleviate their alienation.

You said you aren't a worker. You called it your university. You said you see it everyday. If you aren't a student/client then I have no idea what you could be.

cafeteria workers on college campuses are highly unionized in many areas of the country.

where I was trained in connecticut a cook at a college cafeteria made 16.00 an hour with free family health insurance.

food service jobs are no different from factory jobs, just the density of union membership isn't there yet.

Chartwells, which is owned by compass has over 100,000 employees in america alone. roughly 10,000 of them are unionized. That number is growing, but hence there is only so much you can get.

as to "striking right now" on college campuses that's not always the best tactic. the university isn't the employer, the subcontractor is, therefore in many cases putting pressure on the university to step in and act as surrogate ally since their not really paying the bill anyway is the best way to go.

just because workers want to strike doesn't make it right.