Workers Rights - Tumblr Posts
I dont get paid enough
for this labor of mine,
Thats why i take my shits
on company time
- me
My wife works for our local hospital, who's now started AUCTIONING OFF THE CLOSER SPOTS. They haven't recieved raises since before COVID, there will be no holiday bonus.
They've cut staffing, and the staff who's left has had their own pay cut while taking on the work of the cut staff. And they're auctioning off closer spots.
The parking garage is a 5 minute walk from the building (on busy days sometimes more). Those with the money to be frivilous and PAY for a close spot will get them, while those who work the hardest, and are the most burnt out will have to continue making that walk.
Because again, this is an AUCTION! My wife and her coworkers in the lab actually running your tests WILL NOT be able to out bid those in upper management who've cut her pay. The nurses interacting with you all day WILL not be able to out bid the doctor who sees you for five minutes and tells you you're imagining your symptoms.
This is it I think, the final stages of capitalism, right? When do we start rioting in the streets?
vice news
ironically i am working right now so i can’t do a full post on this like i would really prefer to do… but these are the most cartoonishly evil people that you could possibly imagine, even in a society as flawed as the one we’ve built for ourselves. these are bedrock groups devoted to protecting the american worker and consumer. massive huge giant waving red flags 🚩
Overlapping Concerns: BMA Union Protest Coincides with ‘Guarding the Art’ Exhibition
March 24, 2022 | Bmore Art | Words: Brandon Soderberg, Maximillian Alvarez
Union organizers accuse BMA Director Chris Bedford of privately stalling election while publicly championing security guards through a new exhibition.
While Baltimore artists, influencers, and reporters shuffled into the Baltimore Museum of Art for a preview of Guarding The Art, an upcoming exhibition that the BMA’s very own security guards curated in collaboration with curatorial staff, workers stood on the steps of the museum demanding their union be recognized.
On Tuesday, March 22, a group of seven workers who are part of the ongoing effort to unionize the Baltimore Museum of Art held signs with slogans such as “1 Voice, 1 Union” and “No More Delays”; one sign had “Guarding the Art” changed to “Guarding the Guards.” They were demanding that the BMA’s director, Christopher Bedford, sign the union’s election agreement. Bedford, the union stressed, has had two months to sign the agreement, which is needed in order to allow a union election organized by the city.
Demonstrating outside of the museum was Security Officer Ben Bjork, one of the 17 members of security who helped curate the 25-piece exhibit. One of the pieces Bjork chose for Guarding The Art was “50 Dozen,” a sculpture by Jeremy Alden made up of 600 pencils glued together to form a chair.
“It’s an exhibit with the goal of highlighting how important security guards are to the institution of the BMA. That they do more than just guard the art, they understand it and appreciate it, and are very valuable to the museum,” Bjork said. But what is even more important to Bjork than the chance to contribute to an exhibition is the opportunity to have more of a say over how the BMA treats its present and future workers.
“A lot of times, it feels like security is working at a different institution than some of the curators or higher-up people,” said Bjork, who has been with the museum for almost four years. “The union campaign has allowed me to actually work with people from other departments in a way that I didn’t necessarily even get to do in the Guarding The Art show because we’re actually organizing—like, collaborating together.”
The Baltimore Museum of Art workers’ demands include “job security, fair and livable wages, staff advancement for all,” as well as more involvement in decision making, more administrative accountability, and “manageable workloads that sustain safe working conditions and a healthy lifestyle.” They also want their union to be a wall-to-wall union that includes all of the museum’s workers, including security.
“It’s really important for us to have a wall-to-wall organizing unit, because that would allow there not to be a divide between different departments,” Bjork said. “One thing that we found is that we all had a lot of the same issues or problems at the museum, because a lot of the issues here are systemic, like at any big institution.”
Security Officer Micah Murphy, who joined the BMA after the union drive began but quickly signed a card, stressed the importance of security being part of the union.
“We want all the employees—all the eligible employees—to be in one bargaining unit,” Murphy said. “I mean, to me, it would be absurd to have a union without the security guards. We’re the largest department, from what I understand, and we are not the most privileged department—let me put it that way.”
Tuesday’s demonstration occurred at the same time as the press preview of Guarding The Art, an exhibition that has already received a great deal of positive national press due to its unique, worker-focused concept and message recognizing the creative contributions of museum staff members that are typically not appreciated.
“For the first time in the Baltimore Museum of Art’s history, the people who protect the art have selected the art,” a BMA press release announced. “The exhibition highlights the unique perspectives of the officers and their reflections on the featured objects are drawn from their many hours in the galleries, their interactions with visitors, and their personal stories and interests.”
Guarding The Art is the latest in a series of grand gestures by the BMA since Christopher Bedford became the director. When he arrived in 2016, he appeared intent on shaking things up and capturing the social justice zeitgeist of the moment—from the Black Lives Matter movement to #MeToo and into the George Floyd Uprising.
He was clearly on a very public mission. The museum showed significantly more exhibitions each year, putting greater demands on the staff, while also keeping the museum in the news, broadcasting an agitated sort of ambition. Black and brown artists were more frequently the focus of exhibitions and, in general, appeared on the museum’s walls more often; there were more nods to communities outside of the museum’s moneyed members—all positive changes broadcast publicly, but not an internal or systemic change.
While many have applauded the director’s initiatives, others have questioned Bedford’s sincerity, viewing this directorship as a resume-builder on the way to a “bigger, better” museum. (When he was originally hired, he said he would stay five years.) In 2020, the BMA announced it would only acquire art made by women so it could “rectify centuries of imbalance”—an impossibility in a collection of nearly 100,000 historic works created mostly by men—which garnered widespread national acclaim in dozens of articles. However, it turned out that in 2020, the museum collected 65 works by 49 female-identifying artists.
Also in 2020, Bedford attempted to sell (or “deaccession”) three pieces of art by white male artists (Andy Warhol, Clyfford Still, and Brice Marden) from the museum collection during temporary, COVID-related changes to normally tight regulations around the practice designated by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) designed to keep struggling museums from closing or laying off staff. Instead, the BMA announced a plan to generate $65 million for “care of the collection,” new acquisitions, diversity and equity programming, and an increase in staff salaries. When some donors threatened to pull their money and past presidents of the AAMD issued a letter requesting the museum cancel the deaccessioning, the paintings were pulled off the market on the day of the sale. The museum still was able to raise security staff salaries that year from $13.50 to $15 an hour after fundraising specifically for that purpose, leaving many asking why the museum’s ability to provide raises had been so closely tied to talking points about the deaccessioning.
When the BMA Union’s organizing committee went public in September 2021, its statement seemed to challenge Bedford and the BMA’s progressive bonafides: “We are proud to carry out our mission of serving the Baltimore public and providing ‘artistic excellence and social equity’ in all facets of our work. To that end, we are channeling this passion and energy to form a union, which will help build a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable institution and change the long-standing cultural canon of privilege at our museum.”
Complicating things is the fact that Bedford is on his way out of the BMA. Last month, he announced he had accepted a new job at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). His last day as BMA director is June 3, 2022. SFMOMA, workers stressed, is already unionized. For some BMA workers, Bedford could recognize their union and finally walk the walk on all the “equity” and “diversity” talk he deployed to define his reign at the BMA.
Earlier this month, the BMA posted a message on its website about the unionization effort, saying that the museum would not agree to an election overseen by the city because of the power they claimed this gives a third-party arbitrator. Namely, this kind of arbitration would enable the wall-to-wall union to exist and has been a common practice in Baltimore City. The BMA suggested instead that the workers’ union election should go through the National Labor Relations Board instead—a nonstarter for the workers because the NLRB’s rules don’t allow a wall-to-wall union that would include the security guards.
A letter to the BMA’s board from the workers questioned the BMA’s concerns about third-party arbitration. “The City is offering to take responsibility for conducting a fair and just union election process. We trust them to facilitate the election even if that means using an accredited third-party arbitrator who specializes in conducting union elections,” the letter read. “To deny us a fair union election process that would allow us to be represented as one unit and one union, guards and non-guards alike, due to a misunderstanding and distrust of standard union election procedures is egregious and offensive.”
When reached for comment, the BMA provided an email written by Bedford that reiterates the museum’s stances on third-party arbitration and instead, suggested instead going through the NLRB (which will not include security guards), but also stated that the third-party arbitrator option is not completely off the table: “Given that we are open to a single union at the BMA and to trying to find a path forward that would allow for this possibility, we will meet again with legal counsel to explore further the third-party arbitrator route,” the email said, referencing a March 22 board meeting where Michael Huber, the Chief of Staff from the Mayor’s Office, expressed the city’s desire to discuss the options for a non-NLRB-run secret ballot election.
One union member, who requested anonymity, said Bedford seems to be trying to run out the clock instead of making a decision. “Bedford’s using distraction. So whether he wants the union or not, he’s saying, ‘Oh, it’s the board.’ And then he’s like, ‘Oh, it’s the city,’” the worker said. “And he leaves in June. So, we can also just see his own delaying tactics.”
As BmoreArt reported last year, BMA “workers find it hard to reconcile the fact that their director is paid an annual salary of more than $400,000 (according to the latest tax filings) while hourly workers’ pay just recently went up to $15 an hour. From fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2020, Bedford’s salary increased from $403,936 to $438,297—the difference is more than what one (full-time, $15 an hour) security guard makes annually.”
Low wages and poor worker conditions have long been an issue at the BMA and at most museums across the country. Some readers may recall back in 2016 when a local news segment at the BMA was briefly interrupted by Ian, a BMA security officer. When Ian appeared on camera and was asked what he did at the museum, he said, “I work 40 hours a week and I live below the poverty line. And I advocate for living wages and workers’ rights.”
In September 2021, the BMA union campaign went public but it had been in the works since summer 2020. The pandemic made the need for a union even more apparent, Bjork explained.
“We were really grateful—or at least I was—that when the museum closed down, they kept security on the payroll. They didn’t lay us off or anything, which I was really grateful for—to have a job throughout the pandemic,” Bjork said. “But then when [the BMA] reopened, it was really clear that all of the decisions that were made at the museum were not made by people who had to come into work anymore; they were all made by people who worked from home. And a lot of times, they were really slow to shut the museum down or to respond to COVID-19 on the day-to-day.”
Capacity restrictions and other responses to COVID-19 by the museum were, Bjork explained, “impossible to enforce as a security guard” yet fell on the guards to enforce. The logistics and planning for reducing capacity did not involve security guards’ input.
“The divide between the leadership and the actual workers who had to come in? It’s really stark. And that’s definitely how this organizing started,” he said. “With the timing of the Guarding The Art show, it just reminds me, again, how excluded from the conversation we are still.”
Security officer Murphy stressed that the union benefits the BMA too.
“I think because of that pandemic, and ‘the great resignation’ and everything, they should be concerned about staff retention,” Murphy said. “And the union would be one way to improve that. Certainly from the museum’s perspective, it makes sense to have a union I think because they want to keep staff on, right?”
Bjork said that some of the security officers who worked on Guarding The Art (which was two years in the making) have since left the BMA: “A third of the guards who are part of Guarding The Art don’t work at the museum anymore.”
The significance of Guarding The Art is not lost on Bjork, but organizing with your fellow workers beats co-curating with the institution that won’t recognize your union.
“I’m proud of the show and I’m proud of the work that a lot of my colleagues did in it and I think it’s pretty cool that we finally got to have a creative impact on the museum,” Bjork said. “But I also think that the only way that our job would meaningfully improve is if we were able to organize and if Bedford wants to show how important we are to the institution, that’s the only real way that he can do it: By allowing us to go forward with unionization.”
This story was originally published by The Real News Network on March 24, 2022, and is published in partnership with BmoreArt.
https://bmoreart.com/2022/03/overlapping-concerns-bma-union-protest-coincides-with-guarding-the-art-exhibition.html
summer of strike!
Worker solidarity is the future.
Unfortunately for me, my parents buy into it. Just today my mom was quoting some Indian billionaire who said 'Indians should work 90 hours a week' and I was horrified.
I know I don't shut up about this but frankly not enough people are angry about the 5-day/40 hour workweek (and I am AWARE a lot of people work even more than that). I feel like a lot more people should be absolutely furious that we only really have two days a week and some occasional hours in the evening to socialise, run errands, do chores, or relax.
It's no wonder so many people are profoundly lonely and disconnected from their communities when maintaining a social life in what little free time we have is incredibly difficult. If you have kids, a second job, a very long commute, or other responsibilities, it's nearly impossible.
We literally aren't meant to live like this and I'll never stop being shocked how many people just take it as the natural state of things and don't want to throw a brick through a billionaire's window every time they think of it.
Artist credit:
Speaking as a former, nearly lifelong "Good Worker" (the capitals are potently felt), I wish I had been cognizant of what I was contributing to. Namely, not only increasingly awful and inhumane standards for all employees, but also my own incredibly painful and inevitable burnout. I have left every job I ever worked before now in a state of total exhaustion, both physically and mentally, often with long-term health problems and accident-proneness (and their related costs) to boot.
Because I was always this person at work, I have known many people who were the same. We were that first wave self-enforcing. We valued the same things about ourselves (work ethic, high standards, non-complaining, no breaks, etc). We shared the same fears with regard to upsetting management, namely losing our jobs, reduced hours, pay cuts. And I can say everyone I've known like this suffered for it.
I wish we (I) had known who to blame. I wish I had been better at saying 'no' to authority figures. I wish I had developed enough self-esteem that I could value myself outside of my work performance. I wish I had enough sense of self-worth to withstand the disapproval of an authority figure. I wish I trusted myself to fight back if punished passive-aggressively for refusal to do more than I was being paid for (a very common tactic). But I didn't.
I'm working on all of that now, but it was 2 decades of miserable work experience where I know for a fact I made work life harder for others. I genuinely regret that, but the point I want to make is that without fail, in every job, I was targeted by management. And pretty much immediately. Singled out, praised by comparisons to my coworkers, treated like a favorite, and then worked like a dog.
And the thing is, I knew it. I knew the praise was disingenuous and manipulative but it didn't matter. I didn't have what it took to withstand dislike or disapproval from a boss, and any positivity in my self-image was too (read: entirely) dependant on my work performance. Others who were the "Good Worker" had identical or similar reasons. Certainly none of us could afford the financial risk of a boss being displeased with us. It's a state of fear, stress, isolation and constant tension. And the expectations ALWAYS escalate. Dramatically. Quickly. And burnout is inevitable, often so severe that you have to leave the job because of health problems/injuries it gave you. Stomach ulcers, chronic back pain, knee injuries, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel, stress migraines--the list goes on.
I could write a whole dissertation about the vulnerabilities of being autistic or on the spectrum and discovering competency and self-esteem for the first time in a professional environment. I feel like that's another later to this fairly common story too. The added layers of vulnerability to manipulation, newness to praise, and the inability to stand up for yourself, speak quickly and smoothly in a loaded social exchange ("but I know I can count on you for...", etc) certainly exacerbates this situation tenfold. It also, far more than I probably realized, put a target on my head. But my coworkers who were on green cards, supporting families, trying to bring family members into the country, had babies on the way, etc. all had targets too. It's anyone they can get to give more than has been agreed upon.
This is a violent and common system. Your boss is being encouraged subtly to do this by their boss, and on and on to the top. Stand your ground. Do it for yourself and for all your coworkers who can't. Stand your ground, hold your boundaries, work harder at loving yourself than you do for any company. They'll take everything from you and leave you with nothing, and face no consequences. But the power to let them or not is yours.
There is a distinct technique used by capitalists to bypass the legal and contractual rights of workers which to my knowledge has no name currently - so I’m giving it one - Lunch Grinding.
Lunch Grinding is a manipulative erosion of worker rights both in and out of the workplace. It bypasses legal and contractual standards through informal social pressures which the bosses cannot be held directly accountable for.
Lunch Grinding is named after one of the most common examples. It begins by asking a few employees to skip lunch in order to finish a project. Workers who are already insecure about their position due to economic anxiety will see this as an opportunity to prove they are a good employee. Those who refuse to do so may receive blame for failing to finish the project on time.
The issue becomes compounded when the bosses begin to purposefully schedule less time to complete the same projects. A distinct class begins to appear ignoring their contractual right to a lunch break - who become hostile to those who refuse to work during lunch for being “lazy” or “the reason we didn’t finish on time.”
At this point the management no longer needs to influence anyone directly to work through lunch break, simply by keeping up the sense of constantly being a little late for the project they have ensured the lunch-grinders will apply pressure to their peers who aren’t working through breaks.
As workplace hostility increases towards the “unproductive” members who are expressing their formal right to a break - they will be replaced with new individuals who may not even realize they have the right to a lunch break because working through the hour has become normalized by their peers.
Thus formal written standards from contracts and legal code become functionally non-existent. After which a new standard will be identified by management for erosion some examples include:
+Accepting uncertain hours. +Working off-the-clock. +Staying “On-Call” at all times. +Finishing projects / responding to emails at home. +Never using time off or sick leave.
All of which are socially conditioned in the same format - starting with “The Good Worker” who does a little favor for their boss - and ending as a peer enforced pressure and a perpetual hostility from management claiming productivity isn’t as high as expected.
Speaking as a former, nearly lifelong "Good Worker" (the capitals are potently felt), I wish I had been cognizant of what I was contributing to. Namely, not only increasingly awful and inhumane standards for all employees, but also my own incredibly painful and inevitable burnout. I have left every job I ever worked before now in a state of total exhaustion, both physically and mentally, often with long-term health problems and accident-proneness (and their related costs) to boot.
Because I was always this person at work, I have known many people who were the same. We were that first wave self-enforcing. We valued the same things about ourselves (work ethic, high standards, non-complaining, no breaks, etc). We shared the same fears with regard to upsetting management, namely losing our jobs, reduced hours, pay cuts. And I can say everyone I've known like this suffered for it.
I wish we (I) had known who to blame. I wish I had been better at saying 'no' to authority figures. I wish I had developed enough self-esteem that I could value myself outside of my work performance. I wish I had enough sense of self-worth to withstand the disapproval of an authority figure. I wish I trusted myself to fight back if punished passive-aggressively for refusal to do more than I was being paid for (a very common tactic). But I didn't.
I'm working on all of that now, but it was 2 decades of miserable work experience where I know for a fact I made work life harder for others. I genuinely regret that, but the point I want to make is that without fail, in every job, I was targeted by management. And pretty much immediately. Singled out, praised by comparisons to my coworkers, treated like a favorite, and then worked like a dog.
And the thing is, I knew it. I knew the praise was disingenuous and manipulative but it didn't matter. I didn't have what it took to withstand dislike or disapproval from a boss, and any positivity in my self-image was too (read: entirely) dependant on my work performance. Others who were the "Good Worker" had identical or similar reasons. Certainly none of us could afford the financial risk of a boss being displeased with us. It's a state of fear, stress, isolation and constant tension. And the expectations ALWAYS escalate. Dramatically. Quickly. And burnout is inevitable, often so severe that you have to leave the job because of health problems/injuries it gave you. Stomach ulcers, chronic back pain, knee injuries, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel, stress migraines--the list goes on.
I could write a whole dissertation about the vulnerabilities of being autistic or on the spectrum and discovering competency and self-esteem for the first time in a professional environment. I feel like that's another later to this fairly common story too. The added layers of vulnerability to manipulation, newness to praise, and the inability to stand up for yourself, speak quickly and smoothly in a loaded social exchange ("but I know I can count on you for...", etc) certainly exacerbates this situation tenfold. It also, far more than I probably realized, put a target on my head. But my coworkers who were on green cards, supporting families, trying to bring family members into the country, had babies on the way, etc. all had targets too. It's anyone they can get to give more than has been agreed upon.
This is a violent and common system. Your boss is being encouraged subtly to do this by their boss, and on and on to the top. Stand your ground. Do it for yourself and for all your coworkers who can't. Stand your ground, hold your boundaries, work harder at loving yourself than you do for any company. They'll take everything from you and leave you with nothing, and face no consequences. But the power to let them or not is yours.
There is a distinct technique used by capitalists to bypass the legal and contractual rights of workers which to my knowledge has no name currently - so I’m giving it one - Lunch Grinding.
Lunch Grinding is a manipulative erosion of worker rights both in and out of the workplace. It bypasses legal and contractual standards through informal social pressures which the bosses cannot be held directly accountable for.
Lunch Grinding is named after one of the most common examples. It begins by asking a few employees to skip lunch in order to finish a project. Workers who are already insecure about their position due to economic anxiety will see this as an opportunity to prove they are a good employee. Those who refuse to do so may receive blame for failing to finish the project on time.
The issue becomes compounded when the bosses begin to purposefully schedule less time to complete the same projects. A distinct class begins to appear ignoring their contractual right to a lunch break - who become hostile to those who refuse to work during lunch for being “lazy” or “the reason we didn’t finish on time.”
At this point the management no longer needs to influence anyone directly to work through lunch break, simply by keeping up the sense of constantly being a little late for the project they have ensured the lunch-grinders will apply pressure to their peers who aren’t working through breaks.
As workplace hostility increases towards the “unproductive” members who are expressing their formal right to a break - they will be replaced with new individuals who may not even realize they have the right to a lunch break because working through the hour has become normalized by their peers.
Thus formal written standards from contracts and legal code become functionally non-existent. After which a new standard will be identified by management for erosion some examples include:
+Accepting uncertain hours. +Working off-the-clock. +Staying “On-Call” at all times. +Finishing projects / responding to emails at home. +Never using time off or sick leave.
All of which are socially conditioned in the same format - starting with “The Good Worker” who does a little favor for their boss - and ending as a peer enforced pressure and a perpetual hostility from management claiming productivity isn’t as high as expected.
I’m so happy for them
[Image Description: Castiel from Supernatural is saying I love you, underneath is an image of Dean Winchester with the caption: “After four months of striking the WGA has a reached a tentative agreement & finalizing the contract. If all goes well writers will get to return to work with better pay and protections. They did it. Go unions”]
(Source)
Idk who needs to hear this but you should start trying to unionize your workplace asap
If I see ANYONE complain about their fav shows next season being delayed due to WGA and SAG strikes it's kill ON SIGHT. Is this show really good enough it's worth letting writers starve and lose their homes for the next season to come out? Being upset over this is valid. That's the point, to make us upset. But don't take the anger out on the people striking, take it out on the studios leaving them no other choice
Solidarity Summer is well and truly ramping up. AS IT FUCKING SHOULD.
hi guys-
breaking from my normal posting to bring up something really important to me.
have you heard of powell’s city of books? they’re famously the world’s largest independent bookstore, lauded as a family business, tourist landmark, and progressive icon of portland oregon.
i work there.
currently our union is fighting to have the company pay us a living wage.
it’s embarrassing how little powells pays us- we barely make more than minimum wage right now- and most people don’t know that the famous business they’re supporting treats its workers like dirt.
when asked to consider our wage proposal, our lead hr officer stated: “We have all worked jobs where the pay and our personal needs were not in alignment.” this isn’t about personal needs “being in alignment.” my coworkers can hardly afford rent or afford to even feed themselves with our current wages.
what am i asking for?
if you love books, love or know powell’s, or just want to stand in solidarity with fellow workers, i’m asking for you to let powell’s books know how you feel about their insulting wage proposal: email our union and they will pass on the message to corporate-
community@ilwulocal5.com
it can be as short and sweet as you want to make it. we want to show the company that people are paying attention to the example they set and won’t stand for it.
also literally just sharing this post to let everyone know what we are asking for helps too. share it on booktok, tell your friends, tell your book club, spread the word. powell’s skates by on its reputation and in doing so hides its betrayal of the workers that dedicate their lives to make it the special place it is.
thank you for reading ❤️
links to our original union instagram post: here
and read some examples of community member emails: here + here
October 2, 2024 - Over 1,000 Samsung workers in Chennai, India, have been on strike for four weeks, making it India’s biggest strike in recent years. The protests have disrupted production at the factory, which employs 1800 people and contributed a fifth of Samsung’s $12 billion revenue in India last year.
The striking workers are demanding recognition of their union, CITU, and a wage increase. The average salary for the Samsung workers is currently about $300 a month. [video]
