Egregoros

@sun The people invested in unions and that are under the age of 40 are by and large Starbucks socialists that are interested in being involved in the union out of an ideological bend rather than a commitment to their coworkers. They view unions and the labor movement as an extension of Western socialism, including third worldism, feminism, and various racial and LGBT movements. Most of them are very active on Reddit and use it to network and outreach. They don't have an ounce of fire in them or willingness to fight, and they're way more interested in the idea of being part of a union, and therefore checking off leftist/Reddit bona fides, than standing side by side with their coworkers. Management knows this and both them and the inevitable consulting group the business hires to bust any union organization efforts know how to divide and conquer expertly, particularly along ethnic lines, but instead of making it strictly about kitchen table issues, the unions feel the need to shoehorn in a bunch of identity politics crap because, again, Reddit leftism.

Unions have always had identity politics stuff woven into the fabric of what they are, don't get me wrong, but when something becomes a structural weakness and you start driving people away because of it, you need to adjust. Redditors view unions as an extension of their Twitch streamer ideology and will refuse to cave on this issue. All they have to do is bring it back to the kitchen table and where your check goes to get people on board. Not happening, though.

I just read a flyer at work that listed off three issues that were a problem. The top one was pay. The third one was the employer's illegal handling of accommodation requests. Both valid. The second? That they can't work from home, and they listed off that 40 hours in an office stresses out their pets and makes them buy junk food to cope as more important issues than the company breaking the law when people ask for disability accommodations.

The consequence of this is they're largely losing Gen Z. Gen Z tradesmen are largely very conservative and embracing woke politics will get them to turn against you. I'm in an office, and I highly doubt office workers with actual important stuff going on in their lives, such as actual families, will want to hear about how the union organizers are loading up on Chips Ahoy because Rascal only gets 2 full days a week with his owner at home.