How To Start A Union: Step By Step | The Class Room ft. Sohla & Ham

Over the last couple of years, record numbers of American workers have walked off the job. That makes it sound easy, but as anyone who has done it knows, that’s a big decision. A recent survey found that 63 percent of workers who quit their jobs or left for a new job in 2021 did so because their pay was simply too low, and 57 percent said it was because they “felt disrespected at work.”

Does this sound familiar? Is there something happening in your workplace now, or in your workplace in the future, that you want to change?

Maybe you feel like you’re ready to take action to solve some of these problems in your workplace. More Perfect Union has covered many union drives and labor actions. But the statistical odds are, if you’re watching this from the United States, you probably aren’t in a union, or haven’t had the opportunity to join one. So where do you even start? How do you actually form a union?

We created this video to help provide a simplified guide to the basics of the process. While no short video or guide could give you all the organizing or legal advice you might need throughout the process, we hope this can be a good jumping-off point for you to learn the basics!

Resources:
Get in touch with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
Research examples of unions at jobs similar to yours or explore Cornell’s list of labor unions in the U.S.
Visit AFLCIO.org to search directories of local labor councils and AFL-CIO-affiliated unions
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[johndrocky]

UNITED WE BARGAIN, DIVIDED WE BEG 🥊🔥🥊🔥🥊🔥🥊

[querube]

I was thinking, "hmmm my wage is pretty high...do I really need to?" Then I remembered were working almost all national holidays a coworker died in the sote I was going to be sent to, another broke his had on my site, I've personally been hurt at work with a machine defect, and I haven't had a national holiday since Christmas and will be working the 4th of July after working memorial day. If the benefits and training are okay now I can only imagine how great they will be with a union. Fortunately I talk to a lot of people at work and train one on one so I'll have plenty of opportunity to get the know and interact with workers who are staying for the long run. Wish me luck guys, I'm playing the long game!. I've already gotten many to voice me their grievances including racial discrimination and having to take another job. Let's do this!

[AwsmNix]

I’m about to start down this path. We’re a popular party/adult store in nearly every mall and we would be the first location to unionize. Thank you for posting this and fighting for all unions

[noobkin]

Love seeing Sohla! Bon Appetit really messed up by treating their employees like garbage. They had such a good thing going but I'm glad Sohla and the others stood up for themselves and gave BA what they deserve. Imagine how much more successful they would be right now had they just treated their employees right.

[ron]

Getting a union at my factory is my mission in life. Its insane we dony already have one. Its a huge diesel engine plant. With 1, 500 workers. We are stepped on in everyway there is.

[leelindsay]

Unions are a group of workers - if you want your union to be more effective - get involved. Become a steward, learn your contract if you have one, encourage other employees to join, pay attention to who you vote for within your union leadership. Vote for pro-union congressional candidates. Shop pro-union companies and union-made products.

[wildwildwes]

How I joined a union, works at Italian restaurant 7.5 years, harassed and verbally abused by store owner, fired for messing up a catering order lol, fired from Amazon unfairly after 5 years, singled out and targeted at Target. Goes to UPS, meets shop stewards, becomes one, Teamsters local 63.

[modemmark]

As a small business owner, *I* *LOVE* *UNIONS!*
I Love Unions because I need what EVERY small business owner needs...
I need *Customers;* aka Consumers with Money. Union Workers organize and demand proper wages = Money. Union Workers have Money and therefore, can become my valuable *Customers.*
Non-union Workers are too timid and/or ignorant to organize and are therefore, weaker and poorer. They choose to be poor slave and they are NOT going to become My (or Your) customers, they are a drag upon our entire economy.
I LOVE UNIONS BECAUSE UNIONS CREATE MIDDLE CLASS!
... and because I want Our country to have a Big and Strong Middle Class, thanks to Unions.
SHARE!!!
PLEASE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE SHARE THIS MESSAGE!!!!

[feefawfern]

I feel alienated at my place of work due to verbal abuse from a boss and then management supporting the boss. It makes me trust no one, sadly including my coworkers. I would like to form a union, but the alienation has made me mostly want to leave my job.

[kylezo]

I have a job driving passengers all day as a tour guide and I had an awkward exchange with a coworker today (another driver).

We are "required" (illegally - the company would say it's not a requirement) to work off the clock from home setting up itineraries for our tours on our days off. I made a joke about unionizing, and my coworker proclaimed loud and proud that she is very ANTI-union. I said well, you can thank unions for 40 hour work weeks, overtime pay, benefits, vacation pay (every driver clocks about 10 hours of OT per week since we usually work 9-10 hour shifts on an hourly wage of $16/hr). And she said "what kind of propaganda are you watching, unions are useless, this isn't the early 1900's paperboys." I was gobsmacked, I really didn't know what to say. Comparing illegal working conditions to disney fantasies about liberating child laborers was not something I was prepared to address. Our job is generally actually pretty cushy, it was just a joke, but it made me think a lot more seriously about how little we're paid and some of the labor law violations we're expected to voluntarily undertake.

I think you should put together a resource for people like me to get more deeply educated about the history and need for unions and how to interact with anti-union sentiment in the workplace from peers. I understand some of the long history of labor exploitation in America and the right to unionize being critical to protecting worker's rights, but I don't really have a way to formulate cohesive, concise arguments to help get others onboard who may have been buying into the concept of unions as organized bullies for a quarter century or more.

This overview was nice, but it sort of skipped the entire process and went straight to "okay, you successfully formed a union! now what?" without covering the entire battlefield that is hearts and minds of coworkers.

[docsumo]

The nurse, “All this is fun!!” That’s it. Jobs can get boring but being part of making work better is fun.

[PabloYourself]

Any chance you could add Spanish subtitles?

[GamerKru]

This channel deserves 10 million subscribers

[Social_Pugatory]

I love Sohla! ❤ This is a great collab!

[mrperfectrell]

So The BiG Question Is what if you do get fired for unionizing? What do you do next bc I know the company I work for is definitely gonna fire me.

[cameranmanner]

You should discuss within this video as what might happen to you if the union is not formed. will the union try and help the organizers from retaliation after a failed vote? or did i miss that.

[kelvinnkat]

Remember, if you're in Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New York, or Oregon, captive audience meetings, you cannot be required to attend a captive audience meeting. You can simply not go and your employer cannot treat you any differently.

[northuniverse]

Solidarity is our only way to wield our power.

[danishaffer]

If you want more details about how to organize Socialism 4 All has a number of IWW organizing guides in audiobook format over on their YouTube channel.

[julialerner]

Is there a viable exit strategy for folks who don't feel represented by their giant union so we can form our own? The massive union that takes a huge chunk out of each of our paychecks has not negotiated a new contract for us and dismisses our complaints. Our last contract expired nearly a year ago and we've had no news of a new one. We're obligatory members of HEU as a job requirement and feel stuck.