I've been posting there more recently, /r/antiwork has been overtaken more-so by the crowd that think work should be better than those who think all work should be abolished. That, and bad actors...
I've been posting there more recently, /r/antiwork has been overtaken more-so by the crowd that think work should be better than those who think all work should be abolished. That, and bad actors who are trying to astroturf it into a right wing/fascist sub.
Don't blame them. A lot of jobs are utterly horrific. Which begs the question, why would you slave away at a dead-end job for 40+ hours a week to be paid a pittance and blow something like 50 to 70 percent of your paycheck on rent alone? Wages have gone down substantially in real terms over the past few decades while compensation to shareholders and overpaid executives has risen exponentially. All of this has been happening while inflation has been going up and up and up.
I live in a country where healthcare is free and paid for by public taxation, where the right to join a trade union is enshrined in employment law, and where student loans, despite being expensive, don't have to be paid off until you're earning decent money. Imagine what it's like for Americans where workers' rights are nonexistent, medical care bankrupts the poor and where students get crippled by $100k+ of loan debt which they get loan sharked for on graduation.
Labour shortages have been one of the few good things about the COVID-19 pandemic and has done more to help workers' rights than a lot of left wing politicians have. It's become a moment of reckoning for companies, teaching them that paying peanuts and treating workers like shit won't get you anywhere once cheap immigrant labour is taken out of the equation.
At the same time, I think the community is more influential than this article lets on. Do you think the Kelloggs strike would have been so successful had millions of Redditors not drummed up negative publicity?
I find it hard to credit /r/antiwork with this. There was negative publicity towards Kellogg's coming from just about every corner of the left. Yes, spamming Kellogg's recruitment portal was...
Do you think the Kelloggs strike would have been so successful had millions of Redditors not drummed up negative publicity?
I find it hard to credit /r/antiwork with this. There was negative publicity towards Kellogg's coming from just about every corner of the left. Yes, spamming Kellogg's recruitment portal was pretty great but I don't think it factored into Kellogg's calculation very much; especially when some folks in the union said that the only reason they accepted the most recent agreement was because of Kellogg's threat to permanently replace workers.
I've avoided the subreddit simply because I avoid populist spaces in general, but I've heard multiple times that it is being co-opted which is to be expected with populist movements. The Kelloggs...
I've avoided the subreddit simply because I avoid populist spaces in general, but I've heard multiple times that it is being co-opted which is to be expected with populist movements.
The Kelloggs Strike response very much reminded me of the Net Neutrality movement way back when. It was another populist movement swept up by corporate interests; in reality net neutrality benefited the platforms that enabled the populist rhetoric. That Kelloggs didn't react as the FCC did with corrupt erasure of outcry and dereliction of duty is simply a matter of the times I think.
If anything the FCC's erosion of net neutrality regulations came as a result of political change, not as a direct response to the net neutrality movement. Obama's tenure was great for net...
That Kelloggs didn't react as the FCC did with corrupt erasure of outcry and dereliction of duty is simply a matter of the times I think.
If anything the FCC's erosion of net neutrality regulations came as a result of political change, not as a direct response to the net neutrality movement.
Obama's tenure was great for net neutrality. What ultimately killed it was Trump getting elected. He was the one who appointed a Verizon exec as their chairman, who proceeded to rip apart the Title II regulations that came under Tom Wheeler's tenure during the Obama Administration.
Kelloggs faced a completely different issue. Workers had successfully unionized and brought their operations to a standstill. Kelloggs then tried to bring in scabs to do their work, to disastrous results. Things got so bad with the boycott that Kelloggs actually removed their branding from many of their products in a last-ditch response.
I don't think something like this would've been possible three years ago, and I think COVID-19 is the main reason for global resourcing issues. As of writing roughly 835,000 have died from COVID-19 on US soil alone. Multitudes more are probably suffering long term complications as a result of COVID infection which impede their ability to work. Not to mention that countless lockdown after lockdown after lockdown has slammed the brakes on immigration.
Is it no surprise therefore that businesses are overwhelmingly struggling to find staff.
Related: Retiring Boomers, not lazy Millennials, are driving the labor shortage
I think COVID-19 is the main reason for global resourcing issues. As of writing roughly 835,000 have died from COVID-19 on US soil alone. Multitudes more are probably suffering long term complications as a result of COVID infection which impede their ability to work.
I have an odd relationship with /r/antiwork, in that I understand that a UBI and Healthcare is a compromise if the end goal is a society that meets the needs of everyone born into it, and it would...
I have an odd relationship with /r/antiwork, in that I understand that a UBI and Healthcare is a compromise if the end goal is a society that meets the needs of everyone born into it, and it would be sure be nice if we lived in a world where money wasn't synonymous with scoreboard. But at the same time, the rich and powerful have the resources, so they have advantage when it comes to cooperation, significant leverage if it doesn't and they're not really interested in getting rid of the systemic issues that feeds them laborers. So if neoliberal compromise isn't cutting it anymore, and throwing off the yolks of the oppressors talk makes it harder for the people you're trying to convince, what do?
I've been posting there more recently, /r/antiwork has been overtaken more-so by the crowd that think work should be better than those who think all work should be abolished. That, and bad actors who are trying to astroturf it into a right wing/fascist sub.
Don't blame them. A lot of jobs are utterly horrific. Which begs the question, why would you slave away at a dead-end job for 40+ hours a week to be paid a pittance and blow something like 50 to 70 percent of your paycheck on rent alone? Wages have gone down substantially in real terms over the past few decades while compensation to shareholders and overpaid executives has risen exponentially. All of this has been happening while inflation has been going up and up and up.
I live in a country where healthcare is free and paid for by public taxation, where the right to join a trade union is enshrined in employment law, and where student loans, despite being expensive, don't have to be paid off until you're earning decent money. Imagine what it's like for Americans where workers' rights are nonexistent, medical care bankrupts the poor and where students get crippled by $100k+ of loan debt which they get loan sharked for on graduation.
Labour shortages have been one of the few good things about the COVID-19 pandemic and has done more to help workers' rights than a lot of left wing politicians have. It's become a moment of reckoning for companies, teaching them that paying peanuts and treating workers like shit won't get you anywhere once cheap immigrant labour is taken out of the equation.
At the same time, I think the community is more influential than this article lets on. Do you think the Kelloggs strike would have been so successful had millions of Redditors not drummed up negative publicity?
I find it hard to credit /r/antiwork with this. There was negative publicity towards Kellogg's coming from just about every corner of the left. Yes, spamming Kellogg's recruitment portal was pretty great but I don't think it factored into Kellogg's calculation very much; especially when some folks in the union said that the only reason they accepted the most recent agreement was because of Kellogg's threat to permanently replace workers.
I've avoided the subreddit simply because I avoid populist spaces in general, but I've heard multiple times that it is being co-opted which is to be expected with populist movements.
The Kelloggs Strike response very much reminded me of the Net Neutrality movement way back when. It was another populist movement swept up by corporate interests; in reality net neutrality benefited the platforms that enabled the populist rhetoric. That Kelloggs didn't react as the FCC did with corrupt erasure of outcry and dereliction of duty is simply a matter of the times I think.
If anything the FCC's erosion of net neutrality regulations came as a result of political change, not as a direct response to the net neutrality movement.
Obama's tenure was great for net neutrality. What ultimately killed it was Trump getting elected. He was the one who appointed a Verizon exec as their chairman, who proceeded to rip apart the Title II regulations that came under Tom Wheeler's tenure during the Obama Administration.
Kelloggs faced a completely different issue. Workers had successfully unionized and brought their operations to a standstill. Kelloggs then tried to bring in scabs to do their work, to disastrous results. Things got so bad with the boycott that Kelloggs actually removed their branding from many of their products in a last-ditch response.
I don't think something like this would've been possible three years ago, and I think COVID-19 is the main reason for global resourcing issues. As of writing roughly 835,000 have died from COVID-19 on US soil alone. Multitudes more are probably suffering long term complications as a result of COVID infection which impede their ability to work. Not to mention that countless lockdown after lockdown after lockdown has slammed the brakes on immigration.
Is it no surprise therefore that businesses are overwhelmingly struggling to find staff.
Related: Retiring Boomers, not lazy Millennials, are driving the labor shortage
I have an odd relationship with /r/antiwork, in that I understand that a UBI and Healthcare is a compromise if the end goal is a society that meets the needs of everyone born into it, and it would be sure be nice if we lived in a world where money wasn't synonymous with scoreboard. But at the same time, the rich and powerful have the resources, so they have advantage when it comes to cooperation, significant leverage if it doesn't and they're not really interested in getting rid of the systemic issues that feeds them laborers. So if neoliberal compromise isn't cutting it anymore, and throwing off the yolks of the oppressors talk makes it harder for the people you're trying to convince, what do?