So a lot of journalism shops, public media, newspapers and magazines are new to the unionization. So are universities. And there's an uptick in things like hotels union, hotel unions. We found that Donald Trump was a gift to the union movement. And I'm wondering, given things like COVID dei, sexual harassment, work life balance hours, all of those things, where do you think unions make a difference and do they still play a role?
nina gregory
@ninaberries · 2:07
So, yeah, let's see if we can bring some others into the conversation to hear about other industries or other journalists who have covered other industries. I know Sonari, you've covered labor. I've covered labor. I covered the writer strike here in La the last time they went on. So I've covered a lot of strikes. And, yeah, it looks like Hollywood labor might be gearing up for some more action
Dustin Dwyer
@dustin · 2:19
And I think the one thing that's happening now is as more places organize, more places will organize because that knowledge just comes out more and that more people are talking about it. So I'm really eager to hear what other people have to say about, like, what's the discussion been, where you work, why are people considering it or not considering it? And if people aren't going that way, why not? I'm very excited to hear this
Sonari Glinton
@Sonari · 0:59
You well, quickly I wanted to add a little bit of information or context, which is that when a shop is organized, the pay gap between men and women falls. Also, we find that during tumultuous times or during times of war, there's more organizing. It is interesting thing. It says something interesting about the state of our society that there's been an upswing in union organizing since Donald Trump became president
souzan snores
@souzanalavi · 0:22
Um you know, I think it'd be really interesting to talk about how the last time there was a strike and leading up to a strike for the Writer's Guild, there was an incredible increase in production of reality TV and how that's really changed the landscape of entertainment
phil spade
@Phil · 4:46
They can be done by machine. The machine can spit out the prescription and they can be done there. They are making the claim that this is because it's such a remote area. Don't think for 1 second that that remote area starts encroaching into everywhere else. All this could have been alleviated if they had formed a union and said okay stop. This is not right for our workers. It's not safe for clients to get pills from somebody who may not be qualified
Sudha Varadarajan
@sudha · 1:22
Unions come with the same issues that you see with autocracies, in my point of view, too much power residing with too few people. In today's day and age, where there has been so much improvement in HR, I do believe that there are alternative solutions. We need to start looking at unions as the solution of the 18 hundreds, in my humble opinion. Instead, we need to start looking at better HR solutions. I do understand there needs to be some sort of mechanism
The second that HR went from being the buffer between labor and the company to being the ones responsible for handing out disciplinary action for the company. Nothing there's, nothing for the worker there. Not to mention the fact is how many times I've gone into the HR office and asked for I need some information on my four hundred and one K or whatever. All they have is links to websites. There's nothing that's handled, there nothing that's handled there
souzan snores
@souzanalavi · 1:23
But I'm curious to see what your knowledge is in the history of what it means when you live in a right to work state and how that affects skilled labor. Thanks a lot
And then when they're getting down to the end and stop spending money, people sit, they go on unemployment or whatever the case may be. It's like, if stocks is down, start looking for gold, and then if gold is down, then check your mutual funds or however you want to do it. I believe it's doing fine because there's two types of union. There's in house and there's local union
Then they go back, then they take that money, they go back home, you know what I mean? That dollar is leaving our local economy. And not only that, if you work long enough in the state of New Jersey, you can file for unemployment. Unemployment is, like, almost $800 a week. No. Yeah. A week. Seven $800 a week in Mississippi and Alabama. I know. It's like 350
souzan snores
@souzanalavi · 0:54
You. Thanks for responding. That was really informative. You know, what I wanted to ask you is you mentioned the issue of safety training or collective protections that are in place when you go into a situation with the union. Could you give us a couple of examples? Or should I say, could you give me a couple of examples? Amples
And also it kind of evolved into machining of Mike steel and making bolts, nuts and bolts and stuff like that. And it took a third turn into an industrial mechanic, basically. I come I see the problem there's. Maybe the company I'm working for. You got any good guys in the area? Yeah, we'll send them right down. Just get in there and do what you got to do to keep the lights on
But when it comes to the work and say we have a confined space, we have to use live air because we're in the atmosphere, that would kill us, and we got six bottles stacked up, it's like, pretty much foolproof where it's providing the crew with air. And when one goes down, you turn on another one, then go get the you know, take that one out and put it in the full one
It's okay. So the first one was the the marriage. It's a high divorce rate. You know, couples get along great because you can bring home, you know, with 712, you know, and it's time and a half on Saturday, double time on Sunday. You can bring home a nice check. You just got to budget it right, because you're not going to work all year round unless you do luck upon a job like that