Organizing student workers/ May 1st day of action

9 posts / 0 new
Login or register to post comments
Last post
#1
Top
tastybrain
Offline
Joined: 11-11-07
Mar 14 2012 05:16
Organizing student workers/ May 1st day of action

Hi Libcommies

So I recently attended an IWW organizer training. It was informative and interesting, and I feel like I learned some new skills that could help me in the future. However, it left me feeling a bit demoralized, because the guy running the training said it would be impossible to organize my workplace! (He suggested I salt into Starbucks). I work at my college as a writing tutor. Does anyone have any experience organizing student workers? Was the guy right? My co-workers really don't seem that dissatisfied (even though they cut our wages this year) and tend to come from the middle class (so do I, depending on how you define it) and probably not too prone to struggle or collective action.

Also, there is a US (or global?) day of action coming up on May Day. I am planning on doing a sick out. What have people's experiences been with organizing for strikes/day of actions? How should I encourage people to skip class/work? I don't have too many contacts with non-students, not being from the area, and I don't know of anyone else organizing for it here (its a smallish town in southern WI). If I wanted to agitate for the strike, what could I do besides just putting propaganda up around school/town and encouraging other tutors to sick out?

#2
Top
tastybrain
Offline
Joined: 11-11-07
Mar 16 2012 16:53

Bump.

Anyone? Any advice?

I might end up just supporting actions going on in one of the bigger nearby cities/

#3
Top
klas batalo's picture
klas batalo
Offline
Joined: 5-07-09
Mar 16 2012 19:07

PM me...

#4
Top
Juan Conatz's picture
Juan Conatz
Offline
Joined: 29-04-08
Mar 16 2012 19:27

Was the training in Madison? The trainer shouldn't have told you that. For one, no trainer should be telling people their workplace is "impossible" to organize and two, there's no such thing as impossible, there's just varying degrees of success and failure.

#5
Top
Joseph Kay's picture
Joseph Kay
Offline
Joined: 14-03-06
Mar 16 2012 19:32

i'm currently temping in a university. all the temps are students or recent graduates. we're not there for long, but still we've had some conversations about controlling the pace of work so as not to work ourselves out of the job (we're employed until a task is finished). not big and sexy, but i'd second Juan's point that 'impossible' is invariably an overstatement.

#6
Top
Chilli Sauce's picture
Chilli Sauce
Offline
Joined: 5-10-07
Mar 16 2012 21:03

Hit me up at training(a)solfed and I'll put you in contact with at least one guys who's got a whole university "triangle of struggle" to conceptualise how to organise student-workers.

Also, horrible advice from your trainer. You North American Wobs need to chase that up.

#7
Top
RedEd's picture
RedEd
Offline
Joined: 27-11-10
Mar 17 2012 00:20

I guess the trainer may have been saying it'd be really hard to get a coherant union branch involving the majority of workers in your workplace. That's probably true, at least in the short-medium term. Where as the Wobs have proven you can unionise a US starbucks in the traditional membership/recognition format. But that's hardly the be all and end all of organising. Organising involves 101 different things, and forming a membership based union branch and getting recognition is not the only way to go about spreading the fight in workplaces.

#8
Top
Chilli Sauce's picture
Chilli Sauce
Offline
Joined: 5-10-07
Mar 17 2012 00:38
Quote:
Where as the Wobs have proven you can unionise a US starbucks in the traditional membership/recognition format.

Have they?

SolFed uses and adapted version of the 101 and maybe we've downplayed the "going public" bit more than I remember, but IIRC the training only gets you up to the point where you've got a functioning committee. Discussion of gaining recognition doesn't play in it at all, does it?

#9
Top
tastybrain
Offline
Joined: 11-11-07
Mar 20 2012 20:57

The training was in Madison. I mean the guy doing the training was great overall, nice guy and I learned a lot. It was just a bit discouraging. I was and am still somewhat pessimistic about my workplace, idk about other workplaces on campus (dining halls, housekeeping, etc).

I would love to hear from other American posters about what they are doing to organize for May Day...maybe I should just post in that thread lol.