Workers\' Rights: Your Best Ally Is Probably Sitting Next To You (\'Soul Of A Citizen\')

No matter what our situation is, we need allies to work for change.
We need people to talk together, to brainstorm, to cheer us up when we are depressed, to build strength by acting together.
Many of us are involved in local and national political issues, but what about our workplace?
How can we change these environments and help create a more just and sustainable world?
Unionization is a key approach.
If workers at Deepwater Horizon join the Union, they can challenge the dangerous shortcuts BP is taking without worrying about being fired at will.
On the contrary, many people are likely to delay expressing their concerns for fear of losing their jobs.
But whether or not our workplace has joined the Union or not, we need to find participating allies if we want to make a difference.
When Jorge Rivera was employed by ASI, a small Boston bedding factory with 40 production employees, his salary was only $7.
$50 an hour, but it soon rose to $11 an hour.
Once it started working, Jorge learned how to wrap the internal spring, build the frame, and sew the liner and fabric.
He assembled the display for the trade show and helped sell the company\'s high
High-end mattresses for customers.
Sometimes he works for sixteen hours in a row.
But the salary increase he promised never came true.
Jorge let it last six months.
\"Then after another six months, I asked what happened to the initial offer,\" he said . \".
\"I did my best, but they said I had to wait a bit.
\"When he finally got 50 points
It\'s been over a year.
\"Just like they used me, it was stupid to show me, so I said, \'I want the raise you were talking about when I was recorded.
I stayed at home until one day and told them I was looking for another job.
They called me.
Because they don\'t have anyone else to do the work I\'m doing.
At that time, Jorge realized, \"all the other people in the company didn\'t get a raise for three years.
They won\'t even work overtime unless people go to the office to complain.
I told them, \'You have to do what I do.
Say it out loud.
But most people are afraid.
When Jorge was born in Puerto Rico, New York City, most of his parents
The workers are from Central America and only know Spanish.
\"So I started talking for others because I speak English.
There are other problems with the factory.
\"Just like we are animals, the bathroom of the workers is dirty.
No one cleans.
The drinking water in our fountain is green.
They don\'t give you seat belts when you lift your heavy mattress.
We used hot metal glue on the pump but they didn\'t give us gloves and masks.
\"When Jorge started talking openly about these and other issues, he said,\" the manager told me to pay attention to myself and they would take care of me.
I\'m sad because these are my partners.
In order to make people happy and increase production, I try to improve the conditions.
\"When Jorge heard that workers from another Boston company had won the right to represent the textile union, he and several colleagues
The workers met quietly with union delegates.
\"I also started talking to people in the factory and asked how they felt about getting paid five or six dollars an hour, and at the same time they made three or four pounds
Premium Mattress for $800.
I said, you can\'t buy a house with that money.
\"You can\'t support your family.
Jorge knew there was a risk in his actions.
\"But I have to do it for the people present, even if I\'m out of work.
The managers convened a series of companies. wide meetings.
\"They said the owners would have to close the factory if the Union came in.
This is the first sentence they always say.
But momentum continues.
Jorge spoke to the crowd during lunch break.
\"Management can see us, but they don\'t know what we\'re talking about because we speak Spanish and they don\'t.
\"The Union won when mattress workers finally voted.
But ASI offered to raise basic wages by only 16 cents an hour.
Jorge and other workers felt they had no choice but to strike.
\"Only five workers crossed the line,\" Jorge recalled . \".
\"Even some people who voted against the Union and worked in the company for years were with us.
These old people and women work hard all their lives and get nothing.
I was very happy to see them and almost cried.
\"The workers received external support with the help of solidarity, organizations like justice work and other union members.
Jorge said: \"We told our customers about the strike, so they would call us and put pressure on our delivery.
The company ran out of stock.
\"After five days, the company solved it.
The workers received a dollar immediately. an-
A one-hour pay increase and a guarantee of an additional pay increase per year over the next two years, plus sick leave, health insurance and two-week paid leave.
The bathroom was clean and rumors about the cafeteria.
\"Now people dare to talk to the boss and tell him how they feel,\" Jorge explained . \".
\"They went to the office with their own questions.
They learned to stand up for themselves.
\"Even in an environment that has not yet joined the Union, employees who work together can make an amazing shift, although there are far fewer protections.
At Chicago Inland Steel, four African-American employees began to worry about how minority employees were treated.
\"Paper policy is good but not implemented,\" said salesman Scharlene Hurston . \".
When you attend a meeting, you always feel that you are not part of the team.
You feel invisible.
While you will speak out and have reasonable opinions, your thoughts will be ignored or discarded.
Then a white man came up with an almost identical proposal that everyone would gladly accept.
40% of the workers in our factory are ethnic minorities and they have a common voice through the Union.
But it stops when you get to the upper level.
Out of 200 sales and marketing managers, we have three African-Americans.
We feel completely isolated.
\"Scharlene, tired of the lack of progress, began an informal meeting with three other African-American colleagues who discussed promotion practices with management alone, but found their complaint rejected.
They agreed with Scharlene\'s judgment that \"this is a violation of the principle that I value very much, that is, doing the right, true and honest things.
\"After a few months of brainstorming, they finally decided to approach Steven Bowsher, their respected white general manager.
They invited him to dinner and told him about racist jokes, derogatory comments, and open and hidden obstacles they and others faced in the interior.
Although he has compassion, he finds that these examples are abstract and far from his experience.
But he\'s interested enough.
The day race relations seminar, led by a long-time civil rights activist, unexpectedly looked at his company with a new look.
\"All of a sudden, we were not talking to each other, and we started talking to each other.
\"Bob Hill brought his entire team of managers to the workshop and then worked out a positive action plan.
The ministry began to systematically promote ethnic minorities based on their overall experience and the overall strength of their skills, even if they had been stuck at a lower level at the corporate level for many years.
At some urging from Bowser, the Inland President attended the same seminar, held a meeting of senior officials dealing with racial issues, and carefully solicited the opinions of women and employees of ethnic minorities.
Of course, the team at Scharlene encountered resistance.
\"You get shot when you face something controversial,\" she said . \".
\"We all have colleagues who explain to us how bright our future is ---
If we divorce those who are in trouble
Most of our opponents are not bad guys.
They are just ignorant and afraid of controversy and change.
But that did not stop the reformists.
\"We inspire each other,\" says Scharlene . \".
\"When one of us is tired, everyone else is there to pick them up.
\"Besides, it\'s not just four of them.
There is now a group in each of the major departments and manufacturing plants to deal with racial and gender inclusion issues.
When Bob Hill became the head of the Interior
Independent Ryerson coil division, who appointed the company\'s first African-American general manager and first Latino and female factory manager, carried out a major campaign against sexual harassment and withdrew
Long term policy of closing office areas
Restrictions on ordinary workers
After years of losing money, when the department finally made a profit, he attributed his success to the release of the energy and creativity of the workers, who finally felt that they were respected and supported by management.
\"Corporate culture needs to be created forever and changed forever,\" says Scharlene . \".
But these problems have been legalized.
We learned the art of negotiation and the power of unity.
In the past, few people questioned these issues or denied that they did exist.
People are not so scared now.
They prefer to say it.
Adapted from a new version of Paul Rogart Loeb, the soul of citizens: Living with faith in a challenging era (
Saint Martin Press, $1699 paperback).
With over 100,000 prints, soul has become a classic guide to social change.
Howard Zinn called it \"great \". . .
Rich concrete experience.
Alice Walker said: \"The voice that Loeb finds shows that courage can be another name for love.
Bill McKibben called it \"a strong encouragement to citizens who act for environmental health \".
Loeb also wrote: \"The Impossible takes a while: in times of fear, a guide to hope for citizens, the History Channel, and the third political book by the American Book Association in 2004.
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