this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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Work Reform

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From time to time I will see a post that is like “don’t buy THING because COMPANY is screwing their employees”. In most cases, I am willing to believe that the company is screwing there employees, I work for a company, I know how business leaders think. But here is the thing, if you want me to help you, I need you to help your self first, and that means unionizing.

When the writers strike happened over the residuals on streaming services, I canceled my subscriptions. I don’t by Coffee from non-unionized Starbucks. I canceled my Prime account when Amazon was doing all their union busting. When my truck delivery was delayed by Ford because auto workers were striking, I called Ford customer service every day saying “pay them so I can get my truck or I will buy something else”. I am a member of the working class and I will support my fellow working class members.

But if you are going to agree to bad employment contracts and let the business people screw you because you don’t think you need to unionize. Sorry buddy, I am not going to help you when shit hits the fan.

I am looking at you Software Developers, I am looking at you IT Professionals, I am looking at you every employee in every fucking industry. Help yourself now before it is too late.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago

As I noted, there is also a lot more money involved in movie production compared to retail. On the actor/writer side, you have more individuals involved who don't risk starving when they form a union, and on the studio side, they can less afford to delay or trash shows and movies. Compare that to, for example, walmart workers who likely have little in the way of savings, nonetheless funding to establish a union, and work for a company that could close down a dozen stores to kill a union an not even notice it in their balance sheet.

Again, I'm not saying they shouldn't unionize, but given the enviroment, the system is stacked against them. Blaming vulnerable workers for not unionizing is like saying the poor don't have money because they didn't work hard enough, or didn't invest in the right things. Instead of blaming them, we need to be looking at ways to support them. This might be pushing legislators to improve workers rights and social safety nets, it might be helping them to join larger unions (such as how a lot of IT workers end up covered by other unions), or it might be providing more tools and education on how to organize into unions, ultimately, the important thing is recognizing that these are people who need help and trying to offer it to them rather than jist telling them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.