If we can avoid massive collective issues that would be appreciated as there is very little agency the individual has to address those and that helpless ess can often extend to the more solvable individual matters we all grapple with but also occasionally rise to conquer.
I work in a very small company in an IT type of field. I fully support unionization in general, but I don’t think it’s relevant to me at the moment. Do you disagree?
I would disagree, and I personally know people who have unionised IT workers. I also personally know people who have unionised workers at small companies. I don’t understand why you would say unionisation is not relevant to you? If you’re a worker then it is relevant.
I’ve got a pretty sweet gig, all of us do at this company, and I think “rocking the boat” could only make my situation worse. We are only like a dozen people and there’s only one person in each “department”. We aren’t being mistreated and we are privileged enough to be able to leave if we were.
Well, fundamentally capitalism involves the deprivation of the means of subsistence and production from one class so that they are forced to sell their labour-power to the capitalist class in order to obtain the means of subsistence. You could define that as “mistreatment” or not I guess, but whether or not you do, personal treatment by your capitalist does not change the form capitalism takes. Workers’ power comes from combining. Capitalists are already combined—they work together to keep wages low and prices high. Unionising only levels the playing field in that regard.
I’m not saying that you should always focus on unionisation in every situation—sometimes there is more important political work to be done. But if you have nothing else to do, it’s often the most accessible starting point.
Think of unionizing as ensuring that the good situation you have now will endure over time, for you and the workers after you. Without unions, the only thing stopping your workplace from going from heaven to hell is your boss’ boss’ mood. Or they moving on with their lives.