Maybe unions should be taking a page from Occupy and the IWW. [View all]

[backscatter712]

What I mean is that the current fights, such as fighting in a particular company to form a union in the company, are losing battles. The psychopathic scumfucks have the laws rigged in their favor, and they want to push unions out.

It's time to adapt.

So in my view, unions may have to organize outside of workplaces, Wobbly style. The IWW doesn't attach itself to specific workplaces, they make themselves available to anyone, employed or not, that wants to be part of the movement.

Unions shouldn't be for particular types of workers at particular workplaces, they should be representing anyone who works for a living or supports workers. Unemployed people should be able to join a union, just by showing up.

Hold the formal organization. A formal organization becomes vulnerable to legal coercion, and leaders can be targeted, which is why the leadership of the ILWU had to constantly cover their asses, declaring they're not supporting strike-actions, while their workers did what was essentially a strike, but had to be lampshaded as a "safety shutdown" in the Port of Oakland.

While a union that is not formally organized might be technically illegal, it opens the door for unlimited direct action, while traditional unions are hamstrung by laws like Taft-Hartley.

Unions should use direct democracy, Occupy style so that their leadership shouldn't be able to be singled out. They could have Occupy Denver's Shelby the Dog as a leader.

And what happens when a company abuses its workers? The beauty of organizing outside, rather than inside the workplace, is that you can bring in far more people. Fire 20 people at a company for union activity? Two thousand union activists, many of them unemployed or working elsewhere, show up at your doorstep and blockade the facility. With a large amount of manpower, dues isn't quite as much of an issue - the organization can subsist on volunteer donations, as Occupy movements continue to do, and the extra people can do blockades and sit-ins, organize rallies, community out-reach, etc.

Am I off-base on this?