“Small” conflicts, quick wins with a big impact

When single members ask for back pay or any other ‘normal’ right it usually goes nowhere. You end on some anonymous heap of unsolved administrative fuck-ups and screw-overs. Send from one apathetic online bureaucrat to another. It’s something that grinds the gears of a lot of riders. We’ve been solving many simple (concrete, solveable, individual) conflicts, and we find that when we just let them know and feel our presence that issues are resolved at sometimes astonishing speed. Think of: pay, getting fired unjustly, sickness.

A long-term sick Gorillas rider is illegally put back on the schedule and doesn’t show up (because sick). Loses job. Walks into warehouse with union rep and gets job back.

The small conflicts take up quite the mental space of our union. Every conflict requires some research, communication, coordination, etc. It would be the greatest folly to try and scale these conflicts. Yet these individualized cases are worth it. Because first off all the immediate impact on our own members is very tangible. But also because, if we play our cards right, even individualized cased can be part of our pushing back on the ‘broad front’ against the delivery companies. It all comes down on how we talk about it.

Flink rider complaints for weeks about pay. Gets in big personal shit. Union sends one pretty sternly worded letter. Flink apologizes and main hr dude gets on it personally.

Example. Massive wage conflicts at Flink, now followed by conflicts over sick pay. The companies ‘get away’ with these fuck-ups because ‘regular’ daily experience teaches riders to just accept their bosses’ incompetence, ignorance of law and arrogance. We shake the shoulders and mumble ‘no way they’ll ever change or listen, anyway’.  Just by having even one example of successfully challenging them upends that whole toxic dance. The crux of the matter is in making those individualized wins examples.

Gorillas managers try to take ­all­ breaks away from people on shifts < 5.5hrs. Union riders say you’ll need our permission to change workconditions, so we got paid breaks now. After days becomes a confrontation. Union demands regular coffee-breaks from managers and gets it.

How is this done? We do that. You do that. People often confuse being a union activist / organizer with being totally out there & being in high conflict mode non-stop. A mythologised version of unionism. It’s in the daily conversations we have with our colleagues, also about the most mundane things, that we play our foremost role. It’s on us all to challenge apathy, to inspire, and make from these individual wins the examples that change the company and corporate culture.