this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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Nothing is more powerful than a union that can shut down a billion dollar company while also scaring the ever loving shit out of its own government.
This is the reason why unions should be everywhere.
Power to the people!
Swede here, one of the best thing about unions here is that sympathy strikes are legal.
When Toys 'R Us tried to establish themselves on the Swedish market, they refused to sign a collective bargaining agreement with the national store workers union.
TRU refused to hire union staff, which is legal, but other unions took notice and sympathy strikes started.
TRU could not get advertisements and marketing material printed as the print media union refused the work.
TRU could not get deliveries as the transport union refused to handle their deliveries.
TRU could not even pay their bills as the financial workers union refused to process their payments.
So TRU gave in and signed a CBA, they hired union staff and the stores could open, however the time in Sweden was relatively short lived for TRU.
These tactics are in use currently against Tesla as they have also refused to sign a CBA.
Sadly they have proven to be less effective in this case.
Last I heard the dockworkers union still refuse to unload Tesla cars in Swedish ports, so Tesla unloads them outside of Sweden and use foreign transportation companies to deliver them.
The postal workers union refuse to deliver registration plates to Tesla, so they have started having the new owners take delivery of the plates and then fit them at Tesla.
The most effective part is that the electricians union refuse to work on Tesla chargers, so new ones are not connected and broken chargers are not repaired. At my local super market there are six new chargers that are just sitting there and have been for the last two years due to this.
This is how working people should be represented overall and everywhere
... and no, I'm not talking about a socialist or communist hellscape where society is governed or managed by an powerful manager class - that crap just reeks of the current system we have now in the capitalist system.
We just need a balance in society ... let all the rich people get their rocks off and try to make as much money as possible but place them in a limited box of wealth, if they make 100 million dollars, they get a plaque that says 'you won capitalism' and they are now forced to retire and go live on their wealth ... meanwhile, every working person is given a decent wage, any excess profit is spent on worker benefits and supports, safety, education, health care, childcare and vacation time.
We can't keep maintaining this insane system of businesses and companies that use the labour of individual people, paying the worker as little as possible while giving away the excess profits of that work to people who have not contributed to any of the work other than to claim some kind of ownership or entitlement to the business or company.
Why?
What about learning what a socialist society would actually be and ignoring capitalist & soviet propoganda that conflated the USSR/CCP with socialism.
How about a society in which workers control their workplaces via unions and cooperatives? That's what a socialist society would actually be.
So.... Socialism then
The problem is that $100 million USD is enough to live off the largesse of the land without doing labor yourself. I think if you want to earn what your land produces you must work it.
Did you read the article? The court pretty much took away their power to strike.
Lol or what? This is what these megacorporations never understand: If I'm already broke, wtf do I give a shit about a fine? We'll just strike harder. And good luck getting scabs.
Every time I see"court orders striking workers to go back to work" I always wonder yo myself why they think that will work.
Of course, I'm even MORE baffled when it works.
You guys had them so terrified that they got courts involved, and you think THEY Hold the power?
Protip: if you hold out long enough, fines will be dropped. If you hold out long enough, their resort is to put you in jail, in which you still won't be working (for that company, anyway)
Also there's a super secret move where you and your coworkers drag your employer out of their home in the middle of the night.
Anyone doubting this should look up what happened with CUPE in Ontario, Canada. The government passed a law that would fine them for striking. They went on strike anyway, and a collective of national unions threatened a general strike. The government repealed the law and wiped out all the fines.
Ronald Reagan fired every single Air Traffic Controller for striking.
It really comes down to political will
And they are still short staffed to this day.
Yep
That's not a win for the workers
Let's hope Koreans are more like the French than American.
Seems like a long shot, they are little satellite empire of us exploitation and capitalist hell
Oops your 2.5B WON state of the art lithograph machine is dismantled, wish we could make chips but nothing we can do right now.
"Oops, you're all going to jail and getting fined a shit load."
So it all depends how they respond to that.
The American way - weekend strike is over let's go home and back to work. We tried.
Or the French way - let's go burn down the government buildings and set police cars on fire.
You think collective punishment of the working class for "accidents"(sabotage) by a few is going to go well for the owning class?
Ok
Do I? And how did you come to this absurd conclusion?
I'm guessing possible jail time? They are the state, they can make it illegal for them to strike and then arrest them.
Only as long as the state has monopoly on violence ( as in physical violence as well as in non physical threats: taxes, fines etc). When the workers take their share of the monopoly, the tables turn in their favour.
Yes, and then the state can be reminded why there is a legal structure to striking at all.
Not because workers wanted it.
Ah, yes, putting all the skilled labor in jail will surely help the factory run better.
Nope, it would cripple it for a time. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but it's not unprecedented
It also becomes a giant red flag to any potential applicants.
"Why is this position open?"
"We had the previous employee imprisoned for complaining too hard about how little we were paying him"
Not that it can't happen, and similar things continue to happen, but most (and certainly the best) candidates will avoid that place for many years, and demand extremely high pay from the beginning.
Yes, and how is the court to enforce that
Courts don't enforce, police do.
You really think you've said something meaningful don't you?
You really think you've asked something profound, twice, don't you?
No, and I wasn't trying to be profound. I meant quite literally that enforcement would be either impossible or hilariously authoritarian
No, your text didn't "mean" anything, unless you think I'm a mind reader. You asked a question and I answered.
So not impossible. And authoritarian is nothing new.
Seems like you had all the answers all along and were trying to be profound
Hilariously authoritarian overreactions to organized labour tend to backfire. Anyway I really don't care what you think, please go away now
You're the one trying to prove something and sound smart without any proof or valid arguments.
FYI, it worked when Ronald Reagan fired every single Air Traffic Controller for striking. They don't have a union to this day.
Which is why I said in another comment that it really now depends on how they respond, the American way or the French way.
Now go educate yourself a bit before you come back to lemmy and shit your pants again, boy.
Wow you found one instance to back your claim, impressive.
I'm not trying to prove anything. There is nothing to prove. But the point of organized labour making very reasonable demands like this and being denied is that the state must make a choice to accept reasonable demands or massively escalate their response against workers.
Either of those outcomes is acceptable, obviously the first is preferable.
Who do you think you are lol "boy", I've literally worked in France with the unions.