A coworker of mine always likes to say: "We spend more time with each other in a day than our own families. We have to be there for each other and stay on the same side. It doesn't matter if I like you. I am on your side. I have nothing if I give up on that. We have to be family."
And I think that breathing that state of mind is a really strong first step for anyone in any workplace. Even if you aren't an Essential Worker like me and you don't actually see your coworkers in-person for 8.5 hours a day. Take the basic stance that, no matter how different they are from you, and whether you like them or not, you are on the same side as your coworkers (who don't have hire/fire authority). Decide that you will show up for them. Start by having solidarity with your coworkers.
You can do this whether you are union or not. I have coworkers who are not in the same union as me, so I am not, under the terms of the contract, allowed to be their union advocates. This other union is notoriously disorganized and unresponsive compared to mine. Management forces us to have two separate unions in order to make our unions weaker. The "blue collar" workers are in one union and the "white collar" workers are in another. I don't let this stop me from fighting for my "blue collar" coworkers.
There was a COVID outbreak at my worksite. Because of the CDC's deadly new "5 day quarantine, return to work even if symptomatic" policy, our HR department wanted to force COVID-positive and symptomatic coworkers back on-site. We had two new staff members who were on probation, and in the other union, and therefore not yet eligible for sick leave and not covered by my contract. The first person to test positive for COVID was our site supervisor (also in my union), so when he was out that made me acting supervisor. The new workers were young and anxious because having to quarantine on probation would mean losing wages they desperately needed. Here is what I did for them:
- I made the executive decision to close the work-site to the public. I did not ask for permission from management before putting up signs and locking the doors.
- I provided them with N95 masks from my stash
- I bought them COVID rapid tests, using my own salary, because as the librarian I earn substantially more than them. My aforementioned coworker who I quoted above also chipped in. I provided information on when to test to ensure an accurate result.
- Because these coworkers were technically my subordinates in the moment, I contacted our boss and told him I would be assigning work-from-home duties to anyone who had to quarantine, so that they wouldn't lose hours. I made up a bunch of busywork. This successfully got them approved for WFH which meant their quarantine would be paid.
- When our site supervisor didn't want to involve his local to advocate against him returning to work sick, I contacted one of his stewards myself via personal emails "just to vent, personally, about this stressful situation" to prompt her to reach out to him and convince him to initiate getting his union involved, for the sake of protecting the lower wage workers on probation whose union still wasn't responding to us. This convinced him to get involved. This allowed us to advocate "for his sake" to prevent him from returning to work while infectious.
- I got my own local involved to "advocate for my health and safety" to further push against making COVID-positive workers return to work. They could, under the contract, only advocate for me. But we focused on things that would help every worker at the site like keeping the site closed to the public and preventing sick coworkers from returning on-site. "For the sake of Shel."
- Eventually the other union also got involved, seemingly only because we hurt their dignity by going through my union when they didn't respond first.
Here's the thing, everyone at my work-site knows I'm autistic and knows I'm not a very friendly or social person. I mostly keep to myself and speedrun social interactions that aren't work related. But because I do stuff like the above, they also know I am someone they can turn to when they need something, and that I will fight for them and stand up for them. Because of that, they do the same thing for me. I even have a coworker who solidly does not like me, but he knows I'm on his side when it comes to stuff like this. He doesn't like me but he respects me. I also don't really like him, but I respect him. He stands up for me when the public gives me shit. I stand up for him. That's solidarity. When management tried to divide us and make it against the contract to have solidarity, I found loopholes to do it anyway.
The major difference between a union workplace and an non-union workplace is at-will employment versus just-cause employment. When you have just-cause employment, you can't be fired for being yourself. You can only be fired after being given multiple warnings about your job performance and management must prove your behavior actually impacts your job. Nobody can fire me for not making eye contact, etc. The ripple effect of this is that workers are more real with each other. There isn't this constant thick veil of professionalism and fear between everyone. I have coworkers who know I have two partners. I have coworkers who know I'm a furry. It doesn't affect my job security so it doesn't matter. I'm not paranoid. This allows me to show up fully and not be held back by putting work into pretending to be someone else. This allows me to openly talk about workplace issues with coworkers.
The thing is, replacing workers is actually a huge pain. You have to do interviews, you have to do training, and you have to do paperwork. If management finds someone who can competently do their job, they actually really do not want to fire someone, even if you're at-will employed. They just want you to think they'd fire you over anything small at a moment's notice. So even if you aren't union, you can still be an advocate for your coworkers and it will probably take a lot more than you think to get fired. You can still breach the veil of professionalism and fear between you and people who don't have hire/fire power.
Even if you aren't friendly or social, make it clear to coworkers through your actions that you are on their side 100%. How that looks is going to depend on your workplace. But establishing solidarity at work is the first step to everything. Make it your problem how your coworkers are treated. Make their safety your responsibility too. In a workplace that isn't unionized yet, this might look more secretive. It just might be, in the back room, telling a coworker "It's total bullshit how the boss is treating you. You're the best barista in this joint." Break the veil. Be a person with them. That is the seed of solidarity.
I think that's the easiest place to start. The more you build solidarity at work, the more that solidarity grows and grows.
Outside of your own workplace, you can also keep a finger on local strikes and labor actions. Strikes are exhausting. Picketing often involve standing outdoors holding signs above your head and shouting at the top of your lungs for twelve hours straight. It also involves over and over again trying to make personal face to face pleas to customers/patients/patrons/whatever not to cross your picket line and it's demoralizing when they do so anyway. You know what's an amazing way to show solidarity? Show up to the picket line and help! Librarians in my city are kinda famous for showing up to every single picket line and being the loudest people there. It gives the striking workers a chance to rest their voices. You can even be the one to lead the chants they've been using.
You can also bring pallets of bottled water and snacks to the picket line. This is real material support that makes a huge difference in giving the union the stamina to fight for their contract long enough for management to concede.
Be bold. Be loud. Take actions. Cross the boundaries drawn between us by the bosses. Be there for each other.
