A while back I was looking for new conspiracies to add to my collection and was going through a podcast by a right wing survivalist. He stated something very spot on that focused my thinking: "If you want more of something, support it. If you want less of something, don't support it."
So I gave it a lot of thought and could not find anything wrong with this. (Now he was talking about a show about preppers for doomsday and how you should not support it by watching, but that is something else, survivalist don't like preppers)
So for the last month i've been looking for ways I can support the things I want more of. I want more unions. So how do I support that?
More after the squiggle.
One way is to be a union member. Too easy for me, done. I can't do much more than that for myself, there is only one of me and i'm a union member. But there is more than just being a member to supporting more unions. A key way is to participate in union activities. Even simple things like showing up at the bi-montly meeting for the local.
Or voting in the steward's election. Adding a sticker to your window of your car with the logo or local number. Or taking part in a union activity.
But how can I help with other unions? Remember I want more unions. Not just a union for me.
The best way is to help make union stores profitable. After all, the reason many places are not union is because of the "you can't make money if you have union employees" idea. Or people won't shop at union stores because they cost more.
But by buying union made and union serviced goods and stores, you help make the store profitable, which lets union members do better. Consider the thinking of a store owner if her union stores turn a 5% profit with more customers than her competition that is scrapping a 2% profit and the only difference is her stores are union and the others are not. Is that owner going to try to bust the union? or is she going to want to keep these good workers and make them happy? Is the owners of the other stores going to fight union organizing when the union stores have higher profit rates than non-union?
So how do you find union stores? it is not easy.
Supermarkets are a 'hot bed' of union organizing. But without asking the employees of each store if they are union or not, how can you know? the UFCW has several locals and some even list who are union stores for you. (such as UFCW21's "Shop Union" page here: http://www.ufcw21.org/...)
I know that my Kroger supermarket stores are union, but my Save-a-lot is not. (nor is Walmart of course) I know because of a mailing from my local. So I try to shop at Kroger more than Sav-a-lot. Which means going a little bit out of the way.
What the unions need to do is set up an app or web pages that let you know what brands or stores are union. This way we can choose between the "union label" and non-union.
Will this turn every store into a union shop? no. But at least one little part will be going towards what we need more of. It makes no sense to call for more unions then give your hard earned money to non-union store owners.