August 30, 2023 • 39 mins
Mia talks with Samantha and Sinnead, two organizers with the Coalition of Independent Unions, about their upcoming Trans Day of Solidarity event and trans union organizing.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
It it could happen here. Yeah, that's the podcast that you're
listening to. It's also the thing that is happening. The
thing that is happening is it is a kind of
rough time to be a transperson in the US and
also in most other countries. And you know, we do
a lot of episodes on this show about how it's
(00:26):
rough and why it's rough and the specific things that
are happening. But also sometimes we do we do the
other part of the podcast, which is to put it
back together part of the podcast, or in this one,
I this is more of a bring to birth a
new world from the ashes of the old episode. And
in order to talk about doing that, we're talking to
Samantha Medina, who's an organizer for Donut Workings United and
(00:49):
also the Coalition of Independent Unions and Shineyid who is
an organizer for the CiU and also the IWW. And yeah,
both you two. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Hey, thanks for having us, good to be on.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Great to talk to both of you. And so the
specific thing that Yeah, I wanted to talk about today
is the trans Day of Solidarity that is being organized
in Portland right now. And Yeah, I wanted to I
guess we should start with what is this event, who
is doing it, and then we can get into why
it is being done.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Sure thing, So, the Trans Day of Solidarity is an
event being put on right now by the Coalition of
Independent Unions, and it's an event that's basically about both
celebrating trans people in the labor movement and the worker's
movement as a whole, highlighting the importance of workplace in
(01:44):
union organizing for trans communities as a way for us
both to survive but also to struggle towards our own liberation.
And finally, it's a way of it's a way of
sort of us clarifying how we can start using workplace
struggle as a means of turning the tide against the
(02:07):
current genocide.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
With this, Yeah, that covers most of it.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I think the only thing that I'd like to add
is a lot of what this event is around is
bringing awareness to the trans community and specifically our experience
within the labor movement and on the job. And it
is a way, as Shaneide mentioned, to kind of like
highlight exactly what unions do and can do for trans
(02:34):
people well at the same time also giving us a
moment to remind unions that they should be doing more.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Even if what they're already.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Doing is great, they could always do more. And especially
in a time right now where trans people are facing
the discriminations particular to us across this country right now,
and as she mentioned, the world, but focusing on the
United States, it's really important that the avenues that are
there to protect us are aware.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Of how it to protect us.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
So I think this is our opportunity to kind of
remind unions to step it up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, and I mean I think I think another thing
that's kind of important about this in particular is, yeah,
you know about bunch of YouTube are intimately aware of this.
But I don't know if overrepresented is the right term.
But like trans people, like literally right now in particular,
are effectively the vanguard of new union organizing. They are
you know, enormously like quote unquole, I guess, I guess
(03:35):
overrepresentati or whatever that's the word you want to use
in in you know, like among union organizers a lot
of actually and then this I think is you know,
another thing I'm excited about for this is that like
y'all are kind of like at the forefront I guess
of like what the new sort of union organizing stuff
is and how it's how it's sort of you know,
(03:55):
how how it's been working, and so like that the
fact that this is like the one place where there's
actually a lot of us and that you know, is
a place where there's enough of us that it actually
matters is important and that you know that that works
in a lot of directions at the same At the
same time.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's good to acknowledge that, like, yeah,
there are a lot of trans people that are organizing
their workplaces. There's a lot of trans people taking part
in their unions, and you know, a lot of that
I think comes out of necessity, like if we're not
there to discuss our needs with these unions or to
create our own unions at a necessity where like maybe
(04:34):
our CIS coworkers don't understand the struggle that we face
on the shop floor, so.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
By reminding them, we're able to make it better. You know.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Like all that's great and true and everything, but I
think it's also really good to acknowledge that, like LGBTQ
people in general, whether they just be trands or otherwise
have been organizing and organizing their workplaces for decades now,
So I think a lot of this like, yeah, we're
seeing a lot more trans people involved, but we're also
(05:03):
seeing a lot more recognition and visibility of trans people
than ever bookedore right.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Well, and part of the reason we're so involved is
because it's a matter of basic survival. Right. The average
trans masculine and non binary person make about seventy percent
of the media and US wages, whereas transpendent people make
sixty percent. And this is below like compared to SIS people.
You know, that's that's wild, right. The level of homelessness,
(05:33):
of discrimination of job, loss of hours being reduced, punishment
of sexual harassment on the job is just you know,
it's it's unconscionable, and it always has been, even in
the good days. It was garbage and miserable and honestly
took a lot of us out.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, And I mean, you know, like part of part
of the thing with that rud is like that all
of that has knock on effects, right, you know, if
you can't get a job and the job you can
get pay less, A lot of this forces people, you know,
like the rate of homelessness is unbelievably hot people get
evicted constantly, and this, you know, this, this, this, all
this ties together with sort of like transhousing struggles, because
(06:12):
that's a huge thing. And yeah, the conferences, this is like, yeah,
a lot of a lot more of us end up dead.
And the way that we don't end up dead is
by fight, is by fighting. And one of the places
that you know, like one of the places we've gotten
good at is fighting in the workplace.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Absolutely, And I like, I mean, I'm talking from my
own experiences, you know, as an organizer and as an
IWW member for god seventeen years now, Like wow, yeah,
it's like I think about all the major campaigns that
I've seen, and all of them, all of them have
had trans people at as core organizers for each and
every shop from the Canvasser's strikes to Burgerville to any
(06:53):
number of like fast food shops and service sector shops
and retail shops. Like every single time, there are folks
that are are trends, that are playing key rules. Which
is given that we're what probably between two and four
percent of the population at least, uh, you know, at
(07:14):
least according to current testaments, probably gonna be higher, but
you know that's shouldn't be possible.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, that is shocked.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
It makes no sense except for the fact that well,
survivability bias. Motherfuckers, it's this or we're dead.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, like no, I mean yeah, very well, no, no, no,
it's I.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Mean that is the blatant truth, right, And I mean, like,
even if we're not talking about life and death, I mean,
it's the difference of whether we have access to a
bathroom to you, you know, yeah, like you know, like yes,
of course this is also about life and death. But like,
you know, I think another thing that trans people based
a lot is like access to health care, or really
(07:57):
the lack thereof access to health care, and especially healthcare
that will actually get us, you know, the medication that
we need to be on or the surgeries that we need,
because again, these are issues that help with dysphoria, and
we all know the statistics on how dyspory affects people
of all ages, and that is again a matter of
(08:17):
life and death. So like, I don't think that's wrong
to not sugarcoat that stagey.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
And there's another side to it too, is that like
this is also a point of community. This is a
point of actually like folks from you know, it's meeting
up with other trans folks, but it's also like working
together with others, like with CIS coworkers and friends. Right,
this is a point of belonging and togetherness and of
being able to really be there for your neighbors and
your friends and your coworkers in ways that like and
(08:48):
to be a part of community, which is something that
is often stripped of us. Right. Yes, it's about survival
and it's about what we need to do in order
to keep breathing, but it's also about we need to
do to live, you know, to go beyond survival, to
have joy and to have enough money to make it through,
and you know, maybe people to actually have something for ourselves,
(09:09):
maybe be able to not have the constant anxiety but
instead spend more time being happy about who we are.
Ceacy to overlook that, but again biased sample source, But
almost all my fondest memories are from being side by
(09:29):
side with my fellow workers.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right absolutely.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
And I think also, you know, like time's gone long
enough now where you know, trans people are starting to
be something that people are aware of, something people are
talking about, whether.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's in the best ways or not. We're at least
more than we.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And I you know, I think like organizing in general
community in general, whether that's you know, community, uh, within
the city you live in, or within your workplace. You know,
like a lot of our success at being able to
live the lives that we want to have or be
(10:07):
the people that we want to be and be respected
for that really does come down to our family members,
our co workers, our friends, and ultimately complete strangers who
we need to rely on.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I hate to use the word ally, but we need
our allies more than ever, and it's about time that
they step up to and that starts typically speaking in
your community and in your workplace.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think it's also really.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Good to address the fact that, like, you know, when
we're talking about trans issues and organizing around them and
like organizing the workplace in your community and all that, Like,
it's it's also important to acknowledge how intersectional the trans experiences.
And that's something I really wanted to try to We
got talking about specifically about unions and things like that,
(11:00):
because also unions are an incredibly intersectional piece of politics
and life that we need to appreciate. Because when we
talked about these statistics affecting trans people. They affect disabled
trans people and black and brown trans people at much
much more much high rates then they affect white trans people.
(11:25):
And I think that unions being something and not just unions,
I mean every aspect of organizing and community building really
needs to pay attention to this.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
But I think this is something that is so ingrained
in unions that unions have been fighting for this sort of.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Protections that are very intersectional, you know, like whether they're
protecting women in the workplace, whether they're protecting black and
brown people, whether they're protecting disabled people, or whether they're
protecting trans people. That is a large part of why
you unions were established. You know, we talked about wages
and working hours a lot, and that is all fine
(12:04):
and dandy, and it's wonderful, and that's something that is
a base core value of unions. But I don't think
it's celebrated enough how much work unions did in equality
in this country. And I think this is just a
continuation of that tradition. And trans people just happen to
be one of the largest topics right now, and we
tend to have one of the largest targets on our
(12:26):
back more than we've ever had before.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And so yeah, I think that's why.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
We discussed unions in relation to this, because for you know,
working class folk, that's where a lot of our organizing begins.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, and I think I think it's actually honest, it's
had an interesting impacts on the kind of union organizing
as happening because you know, like one of one of
the sort of consequences of transferbent discrimination in workplaces is
that you get a lot of trans people in what
is Okay, I refuse to call it service sector. I'm
(13:07):
gonna there's gonna be a whole episode that's been yelling
about the service sector that's coming to a recording thing
near you, specifically like job jobs and fast food jobs
that are very low wage, like high turnover things, and
particularly fast who's been a very interesting because that's that's
a sector that like a lot of trade unions just
(13:27):
completely ignored, like they just gave up on and you know,
like they've been starting to organize like Starbucks in the
past few years, right, but like you know, like if
you want to look at the people who've actually been
trying to organize fast food workers, it turns out it's
a bunch of trans people because because because who works,
because who actually does this stuff?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Turns out turns out.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, there's a lot to be said about that, like
with larger unions, and larger unions, especially within the trades,
have done a lot of great work, you know, and
that's the lovely and I appreciate them for that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But on the other hand, they really did turn their
back on the service sector industry for the silliest reason possible,
which is that.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
High turnover is just too difficult. And we want to
talk about people, Yeah, it's just too difficult.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
You know, who wants.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
To organize something difficult, right, like that might cost too
much money or not make them enough money, And which
I find highly hypocritical of unions in general. I mean,
like not of all unions, but like, if that is
a stance that unions will take to not organize the
service industry, being a union seems to be exactly why
(14:36):
you would target those industries, right, because those are where
workers needed most. And if we want to talk about
high turnover rates being the reason, who do we think
is affected the most by high turnover rates? You know,
like it is hard to find a job as a
trans person, let alone keep a job for any length
(14:57):
of time, there's oftentimes no upward mobility for trans people
in that job, and so you pace a variety of
life issues when you're not making enough money, which inevitably
leads to you losing your job and adding to the high.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Turnover rates in these companies.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
This is exactly why, and we can get into you know,
what we've been up to and what we're doing later,
but that's exactly why the CiU and the IWW and
other organizations like us do what we do is because
we believe in helping the workers that need it most,
who are underrepresented and not taken care of by the
larger units.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Because we are those workers, right, I mean, that is
the thing we're able to do this and put you know,
I mean, we'll put the fucking hours in because that's us.
We're doing this because it's the only way out, right.
So like when we schedule something like or like create
an event like the trans Day of Solidarity, we're doing
(15:51):
this because both on the backbone of years of experience,
but especially like collectively but also bringing in new organizers
because we knew how we can think back to how
we were brought in, right, we can talk think back
to our friends, our allies, and our especially our transfellow
workers who were the ones who mentored us well before
(16:14):
the tipping point in a lot of cases, right, because
this is why we're here, and like thinking about who
this affects, right, I mean, like it affects trans people deeply,
and it can cut off our access to the healthcare
that many, but not all of us very much need
to keep going. And the threats above us, you know,
only increase as the like you know, the oppressions you
(16:36):
face are are increasing. Right, if you're a transpression of color,
if you're disabled, like you were saying, right, like, shit
gets worse, it gets harder, The sword over your head
dangles a little closer, so we work to figure a
way to get out from under it. But it's also
(16:57):
like why the Trans Day of Solidarity, Like when we
talk about it, it's it's an event that that is
what it is because it's designed to not simply be
us just speaking into the wind, but it's meant to
be a practical thing. Right. The the whole event itself
is is like a rally with you know, trans speakers
from you know, a number of different shops and unions
(17:17):
in town. But it's also then just quickly becomes a
flying picket, right, And this is a tradition that I
think we do miss a little bit in this country.
The flying picket's an old one and it's a it's
a fucking goldie. It's where you get a big old
mob of people and you just start going to places
all over your town and throwing fucking pickets. It's everything
(17:40):
you love about a breakaway march and also a picket.
At the same time, it has direct economic leverage to it.
You can do you know people, it's it took a minute,
but and you know this is also coming from someone
who's organized in premierly in Portland, so there's a certain
bias here. Your locale may have vary. But if you
(18:01):
organize enough pickets in your city, people might cross them
at first, they get a lot less likely to the
more you do them over the years. So the more
pickets to throw, the less likely people are to cross them.
And if they are not likely to cross them, that
impact that you know, increases their impact. So you know
we're gonna be given our speech, is sure, and we
(18:21):
are going to speak to our experiences. That's critical and
then we're also going to ruin some people's day or
you know, make their day if you're the.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Workers, Yeah, ruin some bosses day exactly. Just always the
best kind of day.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, it's also part of the reason, listen, should bosses
have good days? I'm going to go on a limb
and say no never ever ever you want to, yeah,
damn straight. At the bare minimum, you get at least
one less good day than us.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
And you know what, you know what if the bosses
don't like having these bad days, then they can just
go find another job.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yes, exactly, it's not that same deal, right, They.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Can actually contribute to their communities, you know, do some
real work for a change, which in this case is
sometimes just working a fucking tailla.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That's okay, speaking speaking of things that suck, we need
to take an ad break. This is the best ad
pivot I've been able I've been able to think of
in the last like six minutes. So we're taking it
right now that we're going to get this good again
(19:51):
and we're back. So one of one of the things
that I also wanted to talk about is about I
guess just talk a bit about what the Coalition of
Independent Unions is and how it sort of formed, and yeah,
I don't know the sort of potentials they're in because
it's a really interesting organization coalition.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
So the CiU, it's got a long history if we
really dig deep into it, I mean, effectively, this idea
started after organizing within Portland for the last gosh, I
think people.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
May people have been organizing here forever.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
But let's say, how long ago did Burgerville Workers Union start, shanaan.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Let's see, there's that's a question. If you want to
talk about the official date we went public shore twenty sixteen.
If you want to talk about the antecedents, you'll find
it in the Industrial Research Organizing Group Precarious Workplace. No,
it is Low Wage Worker Subcommittee the Portland General Membership
(21:02):
Branch of the IWW circa August of twenty thirteen. Incredible,
So you're welcome. Yeah, Oh honey, honey, I'm a whap.
Do you know how many fucking acronyms do we have?
Oh my god, listen the number of things I had
to take the GMB when I was BST, despite not
actually being the TA part of the BST, the only
T part I'm not part of oh, I could tell
(21:22):
you about the GOB and the GEB until the Cow's
come home. But the point is they're antecedents. The CiU
is a relatively new organization with deep roots in Portland.
It kind of came out of the flurry of independent
unions that kind of in fast food service and retail
that flourished in the wake of the Burgerville Workers Union.
(21:47):
Burgville Workers Union itself goes public in God, that was
April of twenty sixteen, because of course it's been that
fucking long. It was in the works a while before that, God.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
All those meetings.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
The earliest antecedents are arguably the Portland General Membership branch
of the IWW's Industrial Organizing Research Group, the Precarious Worker Subgroup,
or maybe it was the Low Wage Workers Subgroup August
of thirteen. But that's anteceedus, right. This kind of goes public.
(22:31):
This itself is built on, you know, the Jimmy Johns
Workers Union, especially around the Twin Cities and earlier in
the two thousands, and then of course before that, the
Starbucks Workers Union that had multiple different campaign flourishings. I
think the earliest in the late nineties early aughts in
New York City on which honestly you'll see some articles
(22:54):
mention this, on which the foundations of the modern Starbucks
Workers United now rests. So what we've seen now in
the wake of all of this shit, right is you
have an incredibly militant working class coming forward and they
start popping off. They're not waiting for permission from any
org to just start fucking organizing their workplace, sometimes filing
(23:17):
for union elections, sometimes not the ones that have been
filing for contracts. There are, i have complicated feelings, but
there are real gains you can make from contracts, right
that it is a lot easier to get certain victories
than you can in others. Now, there's also limitations, right,
But the CIWU comes from a number of different unions
(23:41):
coming together, you know, don't work as united a few
others to basically like actually preserve you know, democracy in
their workplace, to pool resources around you know, trainings around
contract bargaining and elections, as well as to allowing each
other direct for direct action assistance and things like that.
(24:04):
And you know, the IWW has also got a thread
in all of this. But yeah, it's it's essentially a
series of like you know, we're not trying to own everything. Right,
The CiU exists as a platform for all the different
types of independent union activity they're occurring, right, and to
create a base on which we can actually start talking
(24:26):
to each other more, to cooperate and interact with each other. Right.
There is more of a contract focus in the CiU.
So you know, I'm a wob with experience in duel carding.
You know, you have your contract union on the one hand,
and you're fighting union on the other. And this allows
folks to sort of approach union organizing and labor organizing
(24:46):
from any level of experience and any number of backgrounds. Right.
I think that's the real strength of the CiU is
not to instead to constrain the upswell of worker miltoncy,
but instead to give it a place to help put
down some while also allowing even more relateant struggle to
intertwine within those growths.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So I think that's a really great explanation of the
CiU and how the CiU formed, and the purpose that
the CiU provides to workers.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
All.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I mean, so far, the CiU is growing rapidly.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
We've been talking with a lot of workers, and primarily
in Oregon and in Portland, but even workers outside of
that purview. And I have a lot of hope that
the CiU is going to be able to help unionization
in a way that other unions are not willing to
(25:41):
at the moment or having difficulty breaking into. And so far,
so good. I mean, I think we have gosh, I
think there's like at least trying to do the math
right now in my head. I do lose count sometimes,
but I think we got about six different shops involved
in the CiU currently, six including my own, exactly six
(26:05):
weekublic shops including my own.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Fine, yeah, yeah, honey, there's so much more to come.
There's so much to come.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Oh, they're gonna learn why we picked this city, all right, crows.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
But it's going really well, and we have a lot
more campaigns that are going to go public in the future.
But one thing that we really noticed while organizing all
of these campaigns, uh, and you know, whether we ourselves
organize them or whether we had a hand in assisting
them organize themselves throughout the city, one thing that all
of us various organizers started to realize is that we
(26:49):
represent a.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Large amount of trans folks at all these jobs.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
And now some of that could be chalked up to
the fact that we live in Portland and we kind
of live in the trans mecca, So of course you're
going to come across a lot of trans workers. But
here's the deal that we kind of noticed, is that
trans workers regardless of living in Portland, Oregon, or you know,
the fact that we have so many trans people living
here for.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
A lot of reasons. I won't get into that. We
all know, which is why we moved here in the
first place.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Refugees. We're let's be real, let's run away refugees.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah, but we noticed that there's a lot of trans
workers working, as you reluctantly put it earlier, service industry jobs,
and not just service industry jobs, a variety of jobs,
but most of which are you know, minimum wage, poverty wage,
let's be honest, jobs that offer almost zero upward mobility
(27:42):
for trans folks. And so that's the thing that we
started looking at is the ladder. And as you go
up the ladder, you see less and less and less
trans folks. So down here at the bottom working you know,
fast food jobs, working, sweaty donut jobs, working you know,
in I mean, the restaurant industry, as a whole, I
think is a lot of we assist as well as
(28:06):
you know, potentially some grocery store workers and other people
like that.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
We don't have a whole lot.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Of representation in our workplaces that we make up, you know.
I mean, we can look at some of the larger
industries in town that do provide unionization for workers, and
there's many, but you know, I think it's easy to
look at like a lot of the auto industry or
the warehouse industries and things like that, and of course
they have trans workers, but it's an overwhelming amount working
within the service industry. And so as we started organizing
(28:39):
more and more service industry shops, we started realizing that
we are representing a lot of trans people. And what's
really important to us is that if we're going to
be representing trans people in the workplace, then we should
give them a platform and a voice to be able
to speak about their concerns and their issues that they
haven't otherwise had. And that's why the CiU decided to
(29:00):
put on this action, you know, and we chose it
when we chose it for a very particular reason, and
to be honest, we thought about doing it over Pride weekend,
and I think that would have been lovely.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
But on the other hand, you know.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Pride is about a celebration of existence, and there's a
lot of visibility during Pride already, so we kind of
step back.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
We reflected on that for a little bit, and we
decided that Labor Day.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Is not exactly a time of year where you hear
about people talking about LGBTT rights and trans rights.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I mean, of course there's a little bit of that
going on.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I'm not sure and say that there's none, but it
seems like a really great opportunity for us to host
this event over Labor Day week and give trans workers
the working class an actual platform and a voice to
express their concerns issues and give their thanks at the
same time to the unions who represent them. And like
(29:55):
I said before, it could represent them even better. So
this is our way reminding them and all so at
the same time follow up picket reminding Portland that if
you don't take care of your community, and specifically, in
this case, you're trans working class community, then we will
(30:16):
make ourselves heard and you will listen to us one
way or another. And if we have to take to
the streets in order to have our voice heard. We
are more than happy to do that.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Read the promise, black the threat. That's an old slogan,
but again it's when we really need to bring.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Back and city birds. City birds are very important all
this but I know important this episode.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
But listen, listen, We're in Portland. The obligatory crow conversation
is just part of the bargain. The Labor Day weekend
tends to be very important because this has been a
(31:07):
lot of retail and food and entertainment business happens, and frankly,
given you know, the whole genocide, we decided we were
going to help, you know, show the power of organized
labor by throwing a bit of a wrench into that, right,
So why we chose Labor Day Getting into sort of
like what the Trans Day of Solidarity is. We're going
(31:29):
to be having a a speaker and rally at four
pm at Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, September second.
This is a huge, huge weekend for food, service, for entertainment,
and yeah, for retail, and while we're having trans speakers
(31:51):
from a number of different campaigns and you can speak
from four to you know, wrapping up at around five.
We're then going to start moving on a mobile picket line,
a flying picket all over downtown Portland because we need
to bring joy to a lot of workers and ruin
a lot of bosses' days. This is leverage and we'll
(32:13):
use it. We'll just cost them as many, you know,
as much money as we possibly can. We'll be hitting
a number of different stores. It looks like we'll be
hitting well, you'll see it the march, but we'll be
going all over the city. We have everything covered in
terms of needs and amenities. There's going to be chants
(32:34):
and leaflets, they'll be medics a plenty, they'll be all
sorts of safety concerns will be addressed by or organizers
on the ground. So please come one, come all. We
actually should have a marching band that'll be pretty fun
that I didn't expect to land up. But it'll be
(32:54):
a Union marching band.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
No less nice, nice. I love to see it.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
It's gonna be pretty great. So, UH, if you like
trans people and making bosses cry, you should come to this.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
What time if we do?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
This is starting again four pm the UH at Pioneer
Square in downtown Portland.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
UH.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
And then we'll be doing the march throughout the city
from around.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Five o'clock and I do recommend that folks wanting to
come out to the event be ready to chant. Bring
your blocking shoes because we have a bit of a
trek ahead of us, making bosses miserable across town. And uh,
make some signage, bring, bring picket signs, bring you know
(33:45):
in in picket signs and support of both trans people, uh,
working class folks, union workers, or just reminding bosses to
stop being ship heads.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Whatever you want to put on your sign, it's lovely.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I will give you a hint as to one of
the locations that we will be picketing, and I think
it's okay for me to mention this, but you know
we'll make sure to picket the world's worst tourist trap
also one of the absolute difficult, one of the absolute
(34:25):
most difficult. You can even struggle that I've ever been
a part of, only being one so far particularly, but
you know it really irks me. So anyways, if you're
interested in that, come on down and you can see
the world's worst turnus trap on your way.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And for people who are not in Portland, I do
want to remind people it's it's probably not enough time
to do it this year, but you too, you too
can have a transient solidarity. You could also have it
on a different day. We can have one. If we
planned this correctly, we could in fact have three hundred
and sixty five days of transit of transoliarity. We could
(35:09):
take all of the days. I don't know. This is
people can have like the leap Yeer Day or something
like that. We'll get, We'll get the February.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
We already have May Day. It's called you know, there's
no need for a second Labor Day. I really feel
like if we keep doing this every year, we can
just take it.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, we can. We can get rid of Fay Day
and make it based Labor Day again exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I mean it's trans labor Day.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I mean, I don't know. That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
I mean I'm only visible one day of the year,
and I only remember things one day of the year.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I don't know, I know, Okay, okay, okay, there's there's
one day. We got one day of pride. There's like,
isn't there like a bisexual visibility day or something?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
There is one. There is, Yes, bisexuals only appear one
day it's at least three days, and we know a
four might be four.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
There's like two others ones. We we could possibly have
a full five days that we were VISITSLID.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
I'm just gonna put forward that, like, listen if you
also want to, you know, and if you can get
something together for Sunday, September third, we could just make
trans Data solidarity followed by Transdai wrath, you know, because
if the picket line has to go too long, well,
you know, we get mighty ownery.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well and also, okay, like I have been watching you
all make up it's Wrath month. Oh it's enough pride
wrath time jokes for too long and there has been
not enough wrath. So I'm calling for more wrath days.
We need to actually do the day.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
Oh, soze your workplace, Oh absolutely organize your workplace fine,
you know, and if you find out that like the
people that own your company are fascists or helping to
fuel the genocide, organize even harder.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Help get friends involved, have them try and get on
jobs to help take those motherfuckers down. Remember, there's so
much you can do to cost the people that are
trying to kill us. A lot of money well also
making your lives so much better. So do your part.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
Hope to see you all again, well, not again, I
hope to see you all there and again. It's going
to be September two, four pm Pioneer Square, downtown Portland, Oregon,
and be there for the rally. Listen to people's voices.
We are doing this for a reason. It's important that
(37:35):
we give trans folks a platform and support us on
the picket line. We would really appreciate this there. Oh,
you can also find a link to all this on
the Coalition of Independent Union's Facebook page. We also have
an Instagram you can find us on. Just type in
Coalition of Independent Unions or CiU.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
And you can find that in the decripsion Perfect Perfect.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
And if you need any more information, please feel free
to hit up either of those accounts.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm'd be happy to inform you on whatever you need.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, I'm with that. Wishing everyone a happy trans Day solidarity.
If you're a boss, wishing you a bad trans data solidarity. Yeah,
and everyone, go out into the world, make more trans
Day of STASA solidarity, Make more bosses sad, make workers happy.
This is within your power to do. And yeah, go
(38:34):
go into the world and make mischief.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
It could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated
monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Thanks for listening.
It it could happen here. Yeah, that's the podcast that you're
listening to. It's also the thing that is happening. The
thing that is happening is it is a kind of
rough time to be a transperson in the US and
also in most other countries. And you know, we do
a lot of episodes on this show about how it's
(00:26):
rough and why it's rough and the specific things that
are happening. But also sometimes we do we do the
other part of the podcast, which is to put it
back together part of the podcast, or in this one,
I this is more of a bring to birth a
new world from the ashes of the old episode. And
in order to talk about doing that, we're talking to
Samantha Medina, who's an organizer for Donut Workings United and
(00:49):
also the Coalition of Independent Unions and Shineyid who is
an organizer for the CiU and also the IWW. And yeah,
both you two. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Hey, thanks for having us, good to be on.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Great to talk to both of you. And so the
specific thing that Yeah, I wanted to talk about today
is the trans Day of Solidarity that is being organized
in Portland right now. And Yeah, I wanted to I
guess we should start with what is this event, who
is doing it, and then we can get into why
it is being done.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Sure thing, So, the Trans Day of Solidarity is an
event being put on right now by the Coalition of
Independent Unions, and it's an event that's basically about both
celebrating trans people in the labor movement and the worker's
movement as a whole, highlighting the importance of workplace in
(01:44):
union organizing for trans communities as a way for us
both to survive but also to struggle towards our own liberation.
And finally, it's a way of it's a way of
sort of us clarifying how we can start using workplace
struggle as a means of turning the tide against the
(02:07):
current genocide.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
With this, Yeah, that covers most of it.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
I think the only thing that I'd like to add
is a lot of what this event is around is
bringing awareness to the trans community and specifically our experience
within the labor movement and on the job. And it
is a way, as Shaneide mentioned, to kind of like
highlight exactly what unions do and can do for trans
(02:34):
people well at the same time also giving us a
moment to remind unions that they should be doing more.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Even if what they're already.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Doing is great, they could always do more. And especially
in a time right now where trans people are facing
the discriminations particular to us across this country right now,
and as she mentioned, the world, but focusing on the
United States, it's really important that the avenues that are
there to protect us are aware.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Of how it to protect us.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
So I think this is our opportunity to kind of
remind unions to step it up a little bit.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, and I mean I think I think another thing
that's kind of important about this in particular is, yeah,
you know about bunch of YouTube are intimately aware of this.
But I don't know if overrepresented is the right term.
But like trans people, like literally right now in particular,
are effectively the vanguard of new union organizing. They are
you know, enormously like quote unquole, I guess, I guess
(03:35):
overrepresentati or whatever that's the word you want to use
in in you know, like among union organizers a lot
of actually and then this I think is you know,
another thing I'm excited about for this is that like
y'all are kind of like at the forefront I guess
of like what the new sort of union organizing stuff
is and how it's how it's sort of you know,
(03:55):
how how it's been working, and so like that the
fact that this is like the one place where there's
actually a lot of us and that you know, is
a place where there's enough of us that it actually
matters is important and that you know that that works
in a lot of directions at the same At the
same time.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's good to acknowledge that, like, yeah,
there are a lot of trans people that are organizing
their workplaces. There's a lot of trans people taking part
in their unions, and you know, a lot of that
I think comes out of necessity, like if we're not
there to discuss our needs with these unions or to
create our own unions at a necessity where like maybe
(04:34):
our CIS coworkers don't understand the struggle that we face
on the shop floor, so.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
By reminding them, we're able to make it better. You know.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Like all that's great and true and everything, but I
think it's also really good to acknowledge that, like LGBTQ
people in general, whether they just be trands or otherwise
have been organizing and organizing their workplaces for decades now,
So I think a lot of this like, yeah, we're
seeing a lot more trans people involved, but we're also
(05:03):
seeing a lot more recognition and visibility of trans people
than ever bookedore right.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Well, and part of the reason we're so involved is
because it's a matter of basic survival. Right. The average
trans masculine and non binary person make about seventy percent
of the media and US wages, whereas transpendent people make
sixty percent. And this is below like compared to SIS people.
You know, that's that's wild, right. The level of homelessness,
(05:33):
of discrimination of job, loss of hours being reduced, punishment
of sexual harassment on the job is just you know,
it's it's unconscionable, and it always has been, even in
the good days. It was garbage and miserable and honestly
took a lot of us out.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, And I mean, you know, like part of part
of the thing with that rud is like that all
of that has knock on effects, right, you know, if
you can't get a job and the job you can
get pay less, A lot of this forces people, you know,
like the rate of homelessness is unbelievably hot people get
evicted constantly, and this, you know, this, this, this, all
this ties together with sort of like transhousing struggles, because
(06:12):
that's a huge thing. And yeah, the conferences, this is like, yeah,
a lot of a lot more of us end up dead.
And the way that we don't end up dead is
by fight, is by fighting. And one of the places
that you know, like one of the places we've gotten
good at is fighting in the workplace.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Absolutely, And I like, I mean, I'm talking from my
own experiences, you know, as an organizer and as an
IWW member for god seventeen years now, Like wow, yeah,
it's like I think about all the major campaigns that
I've seen, and all of them, all of them have
had trans people at as core organizers for each and
every shop from the Canvasser's strikes to Burgerville to any
(06:53):
number of like fast food shops and service sector shops
and retail shops. Like every single time, there are folks
that are are trends, that are playing key rules. Which
is given that we're what probably between two and four
percent of the population at least, uh, you know, at
(07:14):
least according to current testaments, probably gonna be higher, but
you know that's shouldn't be possible.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yes, that is shocked.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
It makes no sense except for the fact that well,
survivability bias. Motherfuckers, it's this or we're dead.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Yeah, like no, I mean yeah, very well, no, no, no,
it's I.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Mean that is the blatant truth, right, And I mean, like,
even if we're not talking about life and death, I mean,
it's the difference of whether we have access to a
bathroom to you, you know, yeah, like you know, like yes,
of course this is also about life and death. But like,
you know, I think another thing that trans people based
a lot is like access to health care, or really
(07:57):
the lack thereof access to health care, and especially healthcare
that will actually get us, you know, the medication that
we need to be on or the surgeries that we need,
because again, these are issues that help with dysphoria, and
we all know the statistics on how dyspory affects people
of all ages, and that is again a matter of
(08:17):
life and death. So like, I don't think that's wrong
to not sugarcoat that stagey.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
And there's another side to it too, is that like
this is also a point of community. This is a
point of actually like folks from you know, it's meeting
up with other trans folks, but it's also like working
together with others, like with CIS coworkers and friends. Right,
this is a point of belonging and togetherness and of
being able to really be there for your neighbors and
your friends and your coworkers in ways that like and
(08:48):
to be a part of community, which is something that
is often stripped of us. Right. Yes, it's about survival
and it's about what we need to do in order
to keep breathing, but it's also about we need to
do to live, you know, to go beyond survival, to
have joy and to have enough money to make it through,
and you know, maybe people to actually have something for ourselves,
(09:09):
maybe be able to not have the constant anxiety but
instead spend more time being happy about who we are.
Ceacy to overlook that, but again biased sample source, But
almost all my fondest memories are from being side by
(09:29):
side with my fellow workers.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right absolutely.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
And I think also, you know, like time's gone long
enough now where you know, trans people are starting to
be something that people are aware of, something people are
talking about, whether.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
That's in the best ways or not. We're at least
more than we.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
And I you know, I think like organizing in general
community in general, whether that's you know, community, uh, within
the city you live in, or within your workplace. You know,
like a lot of our success at being able to
live the lives that we want to have or be
(10:07):
the people that we want to be and be respected
for that really does come down to our family members,
our co workers, our friends, and ultimately complete strangers who
we need to rely on.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
I hate to use the word ally, but we need
our allies more than ever, and it's about time that
they step up to and that starts typically speaking in
your community and in your workplace.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think it's also really.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Good to address the fact that, like, you know, when
we're talking about trans issues and organizing around them and
like organizing the workplace in your community and all that, Like,
it's it's also important to acknowledge how intersectional the trans experiences.
And that's something I really wanted to try to We
got talking about specifically about unions and things like that,
(11:00):
because also unions are an incredibly intersectional piece of politics
and life that we need to appreciate. Because when we
talked about these statistics affecting trans people. They affect disabled
trans people and black and brown trans people at much
much more much high rates then they affect white trans people.
(11:25):
And I think that unions being something and not just unions,
I mean every aspect of organizing and community building really
needs to pay attention to this.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
But I think this is something that is so ingrained
in unions that unions have been fighting for this sort of.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Protections that are very intersectional, you know, like whether they're
protecting women in the workplace, whether they're protecting black and
brown people, whether they're protecting disabled people, or whether they're
protecting trans people. That is a large part of why
you unions were established. You know, we talked about wages
and working hours a lot, and that is all fine
(12:04):
and dandy, and it's wonderful, and that's something that is
a base core value of unions. But I don't think
it's celebrated enough how much work unions did in equality
in this country. And I think this is just a
continuation of that tradition. And trans people just happen to
be one of the largest topics right now, and we
tend to have one of the largest targets on our
(12:26):
back more than we've ever had before.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And so yeah, I think that's why.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
We discussed unions in relation to this, because for you know,
working class folk, that's where a lot of our organizing begins.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Yeah, and I think I think it's actually honest, it's
had an interesting impacts on the kind of union organizing
as happening because you know, like one of one of
the sort of consequences of transferbent discrimination in workplaces is
that you get a lot of trans people in what
is Okay, I refuse to call it service sector. I'm
(13:07):
gonna there's gonna be a whole episode that's been yelling
about the service sector that's coming to a recording thing
near you, specifically like job jobs and fast food jobs
that are very low wage, like high turnover things, and
particularly fast who's been a very interesting because that's that's
a sector that like a lot of trade unions just
(13:27):
completely ignored, like they just gave up on and you know,
like they've been starting to organize like Starbucks in the
past few years, right, but like you know, like if
you want to look at the people who've actually been
trying to organize fast food workers, it turns out it's
a bunch of trans people because because because who works,
because who actually does this stuff?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Right?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Turns out turns out.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Yeah, there's a lot to be said about that, like
with larger unions, and larger unions, especially within the trades,
have done a lot of great work, you know, and
that's the lovely and I appreciate them for that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But on the other hand, they really did turn their
back on the service sector industry for the silliest reason possible,
which is that.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
High turnover is just too difficult. And we want to
talk about people, Yeah, it's just too difficult.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
You know, who wants.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
To organize something difficult, right, like that might cost too
much money or not make them enough money, And which
I find highly hypocritical of unions in general. I mean,
like not of all unions, but like, if that is
a stance that unions will take to not organize the
service industry, being a union seems to be exactly why
(14:36):
you would target those industries, right, because those are where
workers needed most. And if we want to talk about
high turnover rates being the reason, who do we think
is affected the most by high turnover rates? You know,
like it is hard to find a job as a
trans person, let alone keep a job for any length
(14:57):
of time, there's oftentimes no upward mobility for trans people
in that job, and so you pace a variety of
life issues when you're not making enough money, which inevitably
leads to you losing your job and adding to the high.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Turnover rates in these companies.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
This is exactly why, and we can get into you know,
what we've been up to and what we're doing later,
but that's exactly why the CiU and the IWW and
other organizations like us do what we do is because
we believe in helping the workers that need it most,
who are underrepresented and not taken care of by the
larger units.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Because we are those workers, right, I mean, that is
the thing we're able to do this and put you know,
I mean, we'll put the fucking hours in because that's us.
We're doing this because it's the only way out, right.
So like when we schedule something like or like create
an event like the trans Day of Solidarity, we're doing
(15:51):
this because both on the backbone of years of experience,
but especially like collectively but also bringing in new organizers
because we knew how we can think back to how
we were brought in, right, we can talk think back
to our friends, our allies, and our especially our transfellow
workers who were the ones who mentored us well before
(16:14):
the tipping point in a lot of cases, right, because
this is why we're here, and like thinking about who
this affects, right, I mean, like it affects trans people deeply,
and it can cut off our access to the healthcare
that many, but not all of us very much need
to keep going. And the threats above us, you know,
only increase as the like you know, the oppressions you
(16:36):
face are are increasing. Right, if you're a transpression of color,
if you're disabled, like you were saying, right, like, shit
gets worse, it gets harder, The sword over your head
dangles a little closer, so we work to figure a
way to get out from under it. But it's also
(16:57):
like why the Trans Day of Solidarity, Like when we
talk about it, it's it's an event that that is
what it is because it's designed to not simply be
us just speaking into the wind, but it's meant to
be a practical thing. Right. The the whole event itself
is is like a rally with you know, trans speakers
from you know, a number of different shops and unions
(17:17):
in town. But it's also then just quickly becomes a
flying picket, right, And this is a tradition that I
think we do miss a little bit in this country.
The flying picket's an old one and it's a it's
a fucking goldie. It's where you get a big old
mob of people and you just start going to places
all over your town and throwing fucking pickets. It's everything
(17:40):
you love about a breakaway march and also a picket.
At the same time, it has direct economic leverage to it.
You can do you know people, it's it took a minute,
but and you know this is also coming from someone
who's organized in premierly in Portland, so there's a certain
bias here. Your locale may have vary. But if you
(18:01):
organize enough pickets in your city, people might cross them
at first, they get a lot less likely to the
more you do them over the years. So the more
pickets to throw, the less likely people are to cross them.
And if they are not likely to cross them, that
impact that you know, increases their impact. So you know
we're gonna be given our speech, is sure, and we
(18:21):
are going to speak to our experiences. That's critical and
then we're also going to ruin some people's day or
you know, make their day if you're the.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Workers, Yeah, ruin some bosses day exactly. Just always the
best kind of day.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Well, it's also part of the reason, listen, should bosses
have good days? I'm going to go on a limb
and say no never ever ever you want to, yeah,
damn straight. At the bare minimum, you get at least
one less good day than us.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
And you know what, you know what if the bosses
don't like having these bad days, then they can just
go find another job.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yes, exactly, it's not that same deal, right, They.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Can actually contribute to their communities, you know, do some
real work for a change, which in this case is
sometimes just working a fucking tailla.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
That's okay, speaking speaking of things that suck, we need
to take an ad break. This is the best ad
pivot I've been able I've been able to think of
in the last like six minutes. So we're taking it
right now that we're going to get this good again
(19:51):
and we're back. So one of one of the things
that I also wanted to talk about is about I
guess just talk a bit about what the Coalition of
Independent Unions is and how it sort of formed, and yeah,
I don't know the sort of potentials they're in because
it's a really interesting organization coalition.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
So the CiU, it's got a long history if we
really dig deep into it, I mean, effectively, this idea
started after organizing within Portland for the last gosh, I
think people.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
May people have been organizing here forever.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
But let's say, how long ago did Burgerville Workers Union start, shanaan.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Let's see, there's that's a question. If you want to
talk about the official date we went public shore twenty sixteen.
If you want to talk about the antecedents, you'll find
it in the Industrial Research Organizing Group Precarious Workplace. No,
it is Low Wage Worker Subcommittee the Portland General Membership
(21:02):
Branch of the IWW circa August of twenty thirteen. Incredible,
So you're welcome. Yeah, Oh honey, honey, I'm a whap.
Do you know how many fucking acronyms do we have?
Oh my god, listen the number of things I had
to take the GMB when I was BST, despite not
actually being the TA part of the BST, the only
T part I'm not part of oh, I could tell
(21:22):
you about the GOB and the GEB until the Cow's
come home. But the point is they're antecedents. The CiU
is a relatively new organization with deep roots in Portland.
It kind of came out of the flurry of independent
unions that kind of in fast food service and retail
that flourished in the wake of the Burgerville Workers Union.
(21:47):
Burgville Workers Union itself goes public in God, that was
April of twenty sixteen, because of course it's been that
fucking long. It was in the works a while before that, God.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
All those meetings.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
The earliest antecedents are arguably the Portland General Membership branch
of the IWW's Industrial Organizing Research Group, the Precarious Worker Subgroup,
or maybe it was the Low Wage Workers Subgroup August
of thirteen. But that's anteceedus, right. This kind of goes public.
(22:31):
This itself is built on, you know, the Jimmy Johns
Workers Union, especially around the Twin Cities and earlier in
the two thousands, and then of course before that, the
Starbucks Workers Union that had multiple different campaign flourishings. I
think the earliest in the late nineties early aughts in
New York City on which honestly you'll see some articles
(22:54):
mention this, on which the foundations of the modern Starbucks
Workers United now rests. So what we've seen now in
the wake of all of this shit, right is you
have an incredibly militant working class coming forward and they
start popping off. They're not waiting for permission from any
org to just start fucking organizing their workplace, sometimes filing
(23:17):
for union elections, sometimes not the ones that have been
filing for contracts. There are, i have complicated feelings, but
there are real gains you can make from contracts, right
that it is a lot easier to get certain victories
than you can in others. Now, there's also limitations, right,
But the CIWU comes from a number of different unions
(23:41):
coming together, you know, don't work as united a few
others to basically like actually preserve you know, democracy in
their workplace, to pool resources around you know, trainings around
contract bargaining and elections, as well as to allowing each
other direct for direct action assistance and things like that.
(24:04):
And you know, the IWW has also got a thread
in all of this. But yeah, it's it's essentially a
series of like you know, we're not trying to own everything. Right,
The CiU exists as a platform for all the different
types of independent union activity they're occurring, right, and to
create a base on which we can actually start talking
(24:26):
to each other more, to cooperate and interact with each other. Right.
There is more of a contract focus in the CiU.
So you know, I'm a wob with experience in duel carding.
You know, you have your contract union on the one hand,
and you're fighting union on the other. And this allows
folks to sort of approach union organizing and labor organizing
(24:46):
from any level of experience and any number of backgrounds. Right.
I think that's the real strength of the CiU is
not to instead to constrain the upswell of worker miltoncy,
but instead to give it a place to help put
down some while also allowing even more relateant struggle to
intertwine within those growths.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So I think that's a really great explanation of the
CiU and how the CiU formed, and the purpose that
the CiU provides to workers.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
All.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I mean, so far, the CiU is growing rapidly.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
We've been talking with a lot of workers, and primarily
in Oregon and in Portland, but even workers outside of
that purview. And I have a lot of hope that
the CiU is going to be able to help unionization
in a way that other unions are not willing to
(25:41):
at the moment or having difficulty breaking into. And so far,
so good. I mean, I think we have gosh, I
think there's like at least trying to do the math
right now in my head. I do lose count sometimes,
but I think we got about six different shops involved
in the CiU currently, six including my own, exactly six
(26:05):
weekublic shops including my own.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
Fine, yeah, yeah, honey, there's so much more to come.
There's so much to come.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Oh, they're gonna learn why we picked this city, all right, crows.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
But it's going really well, and we have a lot
more campaigns that are going to go public in the future.
But one thing that we really noticed while organizing all
of these campaigns, uh, and you know, whether we ourselves
organize them or whether we had a hand in assisting
them organize themselves throughout the city, one thing that all
of us various organizers started to realize is that we
(26:49):
represent a.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Large amount of trans folks at all these jobs.
Speaker 4 (26:54):
And now some of that could be chalked up to
the fact that we live in Portland and we kind
of live in the trans mecca, So of course you're
going to come across a lot of trans workers. But
here's the deal that we kind of noticed, is that
trans workers regardless of living in Portland, Oregon, or you know,
the fact that we have so many trans people living
here for.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
A lot of reasons. I won't get into that. We
all know, which is why we moved here in the
first place.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
Refugees. We're let's be real, let's run away refugees.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah, but we noticed that there's a lot of trans
workers working, as you reluctantly put it earlier, service industry jobs,
and not just service industry jobs, a variety of jobs,
but most of which are you know, minimum wage, poverty wage,
let's be honest, jobs that offer almost zero upward mobility
(27:42):
for trans folks. And so that's the thing that we
started looking at is the ladder. And as you go
up the ladder, you see less and less and less
trans folks. So down here at the bottom working you know,
fast food jobs, working, sweaty donut jobs, working you know,
in I mean, the restaurant industry, as a whole, I
think is a lot of we assist as well as
(28:06):
you know, potentially some grocery store workers and other people
like that.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
We don't have a whole lot.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Of representation in our workplaces that we make up, you know.
I mean, we can look at some of the larger
industries in town that do provide unionization for workers, and
there's many, but you know, I think it's easy to
look at like a lot of the auto industry or
the warehouse industries and things like that, and of course
they have trans workers, but it's an overwhelming amount working
within the service industry. And so as we started organizing
(28:39):
more and more service industry shops, we started realizing that
we are representing a lot of trans people. And what's
really important to us is that if we're going to
be representing trans people in the workplace, then we should
give them a platform and a voice to be able
to speak about their concerns and their issues that they
haven't otherwise had. And that's why the CiU decided to
(29:00):
put on this action, you know, and we chose it
when we chose it for a very particular reason, and
to be honest, we thought about doing it over Pride weekend,
and I think that would have been lovely.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
But on the other hand, you know.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Pride is about a celebration of existence, and there's a
lot of visibility during Pride already, so we kind of
step back.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
We reflected on that for a little bit, and we
decided that Labor Day.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
Is not exactly a time of year where you hear
about people talking about LGBTT rights and trans rights.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I mean, of course there's a little bit of that
going on.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I'm not sure and say that there's none, but it
seems like a really great opportunity for us to host
this event over Labor Day week and give trans workers
the working class an actual platform and a voice to
express their concerns issues and give their thanks at the
same time to the unions who represent them. And like
(29:55):
I said before, it could represent them even better. So
this is our way reminding them and all so at
the same time follow up picket reminding Portland that if
you don't take care of your community, and specifically, in
this case, you're trans working class community, then we will
(30:16):
make ourselves heard and you will listen to us one
way or another. And if we have to take to
the streets in order to have our voice heard. We
are more than happy to do that.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
Read the promise, black the threat. That's an old slogan,
but again it's when we really need to bring.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Back and city birds. City birds are very important all
this but I know important this episode.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
But listen, listen, We're in Portland. The obligatory crow conversation
is just part of the bargain. The Labor Day weekend
tends to be very important because this has been a
(31:07):
lot of retail and food and entertainment business happens, and frankly,
given you know, the whole genocide, we decided we were
going to help, you know, show the power of organized
labor by throwing a bit of a wrench into that, right,
So why we chose Labor Day Getting into sort of
like what the Trans Day of Solidarity is. We're going
(31:29):
to be having a a speaker and rally at four
pm at Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, September second.
This is a huge, huge weekend for food, service, for entertainment,
and yeah, for retail, and while we're having trans speakers
(31:51):
from a number of different campaigns and you can speak
from four to you know, wrapping up at around five.
We're then going to start moving on a mobile picket line,
a flying picket all over downtown Portland because we need
to bring joy to a lot of workers and ruin
a lot of bosses' days. This is leverage and we'll
(32:13):
use it. We'll just cost them as many, you know,
as much money as we possibly can. We'll be hitting
a number of different stores. It looks like we'll be
hitting well, you'll see it the march, but we'll be
going all over the city. We have everything covered in
terms of needs and amenities. There's going to be chants
(32:34):
and leaflets, they'll be medics a plenty, they'll be all
sorts of safety concerns will be addressed by or organizers
on the ground. So please come one, come all. We
actually should have a marching band that'll be pretty fun
that I didn't expect to land up. But it'll be
(32:54):
a Union marching band.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
No less nice, nice. I love to see it.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
It's gonna be pretty great. So, UH, if you like
trans people and making bosses cry, you should come to this.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
What time if we do?
Speaker 3 (33:10):
This is starting again four pm the UH at Pioneer
Square in downtown Portland.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
UH.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
And then we'll be doing the march throughout the city
from around.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
Five o'clock and I do recommend that folks wanting to
come out to the event be ready to chant. Bring
your blocking shoes because we have a bit of a
trek ahead of us, making bosses miserable across town. And uh,
make some signage, bring, bring picket signs, bring you know
(33:45):
in in picket signs and support of both trans people, uh,
working class folks, union workers, or just reminding bosses to
stop being ship heads.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Whatever you want to put on your sign, it's lovely.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
I will give you a hint as to one of
the locations that we will be picketing, and I think
it's okay for me to mention this, but you know
we'll make sure to picket the world's worst tourist trap
also one of the absolute difficult, one of the absolute
(34:25):
most difficult. You can even struggle that I've ever been
a part of, only being one so far particularly, but
you know it really irks me. So anyways, if you're
interested in that, come on down and you can see
the world's worst turnus trap on your way.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
And for people who are not in Portland, I do
want to remind people it's it's probably not enough time
to do it this year, but you too, you too
can have a transient solidarity. You could also have it
on a different day. We can have one. If we
planned this correctly, we could in fact have three hundred
and sixty five days of transit of transoliarity. We could
(35:09):
take all of the days. I don't know. This is
people can have like the leap Yeer Day or something
like that. We'll get, We'll get the February.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
We already have May Day. It's called you know, there's
no need for a second Labor Day. I really feel
like if we keep doing this every year, we can
just take it.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, we can. We can get rid of Fay Day
and make it based Labor Day again exactly.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
I mean it's trans labor Day.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
I mean, I don't know. That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
I mean I'm only visible one day of the year,
and I only remember things one day of the year.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I don't know, I know, Okay, okay, okay, there's there's
one day. We got one day of pride. There's like,
isn't there like a bisexual visibility day or something?
Speaker 3 (35:52):
There is one. There is, Yes, bisexuals only appear one
day it's at least three days, and we know a
four might be four.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
There's like two others ones. We we could possibly have
a full five days that we were VISITSLID.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
I'm just gonna put forward that, like, listen if you
also want to, you know, and if you can get
something together for Sunday, September third, we could just make
trans Data solidarity followed by Transdai wrath, you know, because
if the picket line has to go too long, well,
you know, we get mighty ownery.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well and also, okay, like I have been watching you
all make up it's Wrath month. Oh it's enough pride
wrath time jokes for too long and there has been
not enough wrath. So I'm calling for more wrath days.
We need to actually do the day.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
Oh, soze your workplace, Oh absolutely organize your workplace fine,
you know, and if you find out that like the
people that own your company are fascists or helping to
fuel the genocide, organize even harder.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Help get friends involved, have them try and get on
jobs to help take those motherfuckers down. Remember, there's so
much you can do to cost the people that are
trying to kill us. A lot of money well also
making your lives so much better. So do your part.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
Hope to see you all again, well, not again, I
hope to see you all there and again. It's going
to be September two, four pm Pioneer Square, downtown Portland, Oregon,
and be there for the rally. Listen to people's voices.
We are doing this for a reason. It's important that
(37:35):
we give trans folks a platform and support us on
the picket line. We would really appreciate this there. Oh,
you can also find a link to all this on
the Coalition of Independent Union's Facebook page. We also have
an Instagram you can find us on. Just type in
Coalition of Independent Unions or CiU.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
And you can find that in the decripsion Perfect Perfect.
Speaker 4 (38:02):
And if you need any more information, please feel free
to hit up either of those accounts.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
I'm'd be happy to inform you on whatever you need.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, I'm with that. Wishing everyone a happy trans Day solidarity.
If you're a boss, wishing you a bad trans data solidarity. Yeah,
and everyone, go out into the world, make more trans
Day of STASA solidarity, Make more bosses sad, make workers happy.
This is within your power to do. And yeah, go
(38:34):
go into the world and make mischief.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
It could Happen Here as a production of cool Zone Media.
Speaker 5 (38:44):
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
cool zonemedia dot com or check us out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated
monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Thanks for listening.
It Could Happen Here News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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