gothcactus 
UAW announced today is the strike day across 180k workers. I’ve been following this story since it became news. Even NPR reported it which signifies how big this strike is. The movement started off fairly promising with union president Shawn Fain using aggressive rhetoric that made it clear workers were ready to strike.
However, his rhetoric came to sharp criticism when he announced a new strategy to strike in waves instead of altogether. It seems suspicious when members voted overwhelmingly to strike across all plants. I am cautious about this approach when it doesn’t make sense strategically when striking across all plants would devastate the auto industry, forcing execs to cave. This backpedaling is alarming because the rhetoric has been much more radical before Wednesday.
Waiting to see what happens next as this strike unfolds.
On my own end, organizing has been difficult at my worksite. Even though the climate has gotten better, people still have many misconceptions about unions. They mostly see them as service organizations rather than something that rank-and-file must build through militant ground-level organizing. I’m hoping we can have some kind of interest meeting to dispel some of these myths. I also want to collect some useful data via SIT for issues the building cares about the most to form an organizing vision.
Currently, we need more people from different departments to join an OC so we can get things rolling. Not sure when the state-level guy is coming but I almost hope he doesn’t make it lol. I’m not really into their messaging anyway and I think it won’t really help our cause to bring an outsider all of a sudden. It would be better if we have a team first before that happens. On the other hand, it could be helpful since people like to see “authority” and “experts” because it lends credibility.
But must try all the possibilities to see what would work for our building. Generally, we’ve identified people to talk to and contact for follow-up. I’m not taking on as many commitments so I can devote more time to do organizing tasks.