Hello, MoJo readers!
When I graduated college, I was super worried about what my first full-time job was going to look like. Would I be able to afford rent without having nine or 10 side hustles? Would I get health benefits? Would I have a decent enough work-life balance so I’d be able to catch a weekend movie once in a while?
However, the question that didn’t cross my mind (but honestly should have) was whether or not that job was unionized. Little did I know that if I had spent more time thinking about my future workplace’s union status, I probably wouldn’t have had to worry as much about the other stuff. But, as a naive college grad who came from a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” immigrant family, I didn’t think too much about it. I thought that because I was smart and hardworking, that was enough for me. Plus, in this job market, I would’ve been happy with any job.
I was wrong. I was incredibly wrong. I was about as wrong as a person could be about anything. It turns out, capitalism doesn’t care how hard you work. It doesn’t care what grades you got on your report card. It will eat you up and spit you out, regardless of how smart you think you are. Not every job is a good job, and unions can help protect you from a toxic work environment.
And that’s a sentiment that I’m glad to see is growing in popularity. Approval ratings for unions are at an eye popping 71 percent, the highest they’ve been since 1965! And while the fight for workers' rights has certainly been a bumpy ride, there have been a few high-profile victories that are rapidly changing people’s opinions about the importance of organized labor.
Take a look at California. The Golden State is on the cusp of making labor history, passing a first-of-its-kind bill that will create a council to set minimum wages and working conditions for the state’s more than 500,000 non-unionized fast food employees. Anyways, unions rule. Capitalism sucks.
—Arianna Coghill