The Path of the Unarmed

Chapter 15: Join the Union

"My name is SJ, andfor the purposes of your narrator, you can use 'she/her'."

"What do you mean for the purposes of your narrator?" Unarmed asked.

"Because if you were speaking directly to me, you could use the pronoun 'you' or 'SJ', you wouldn't need to say 'she', 'he', or 'they' directly to me, only if you were speaking about me in my absence, or if you were a narrator writing a story in which I was a character."

"Fair enough, but I am sure you didn't come here just to talk about pronouns."

"Of course not. I came here because like you, I'm a bicycle courier for the same online restaurant delivery platform."

"So you work for the same $4.25 plus $1 per kilometre traveled as I do?"

"I sure do. And like you, since I am not considered an employee, I have no access to benefits, paid sick leave, or vacation pay! Does that make you want to take those things away from others?"

"Not really," Unarmed said. "I'm a leftist now, so I kind of want everyone to have the same good things."

"Well, that's wonderful, because I'm here to get you to join the union drive."

"You're a union organizer?"

"I sure am. We are trying to get enough people to sign union cards to get legal recognition as a bargaining agent."

"What happens then?"

"Then we try to get a contract, which would recognize us as employees, at which point we could bargain for better wages, benefits, recognition as employees which would entitle us to the same things that other workers have."

"Well, I'm happy to sign right here and now, but I assume that our employer is going to oppose this."

"You're correct. In fact, we expect they'll use the online app to message all of us to tell us to vote against unionizing. They'll claim that unionizing will ruin their business model. They'll claim they'll go bankrupt."

Unarmed shrugged. "I can't honestly say I care about their profits. They don't really care about anything but making money. It's also not a great job, so I don't have anything to lose really."

"I assume many others will see it that way too," SJ said. "The gig economy is a real racket. They've basically made huge profits by getting people to work at effectively way lower wages: Uber and Lyft drivers who pay for their own cars, get a small percentage of the rides, and don't get recognized as employees. They have to maintain a near 5-star average rating or be fired - so, no job security, no ability to plan your life."

"I'm sure the platforms that employ them would say, nobody owes you the right to plan your life."

"I'm sure they would!" SJ said. "And similarly, they have no right to pretend they aren't employers and they aren't doing immense social damage to cities by changing the transportation model to a gig economy. And they don't have the right to do that."

"I have heard that Uber is losing huge amounts of money every quarter."

"I have heard the same. It remains to be seen whether these gig economy corporations are sustainable, or whether they are just sucking up investors' money and to circumvent labor laws, take advantage of unemployment and insecurity, and cannibalize city infrastructure. But in the meantime, we have no intention of allowing them to create a completely unprotected group of non-employee employees, a trick that unscruplous employers have tried to do for centuries."

"Sign me up," Unarmed said.

"Well, since you're a leftist now, how would you feel about talking to others?"

"You want me to become an organizer too?"

"There are never enough."

"I just learned that part of the way of the leftist is to join things, so I guess I'm in. But I will have to learn something about how to talk to people, how people learn, and how organizations and organizing works."

SJ looked at the Disarmed Warrior, who sat looking serene and satisfied. "Do you want me to help him with that, or do you want to?"

Disarmed smiled. "I think you're up," he said. "And I think it's time our friend started learning by doing."