Image by Chris Sansbury.

The following is an abridged excerpt from Fired Up About Unions by Cole Rockarts, Between the Lines, which will be officially published on October 27th. To hear Cole on CounterPunch Radio, tune in here.

In 2022, Kim Kardashian lit the internet aflame when she proclaimed, “It seems like nobody wants to work anymore.” But for some people (particularly young people), it’s not that we don’t want to work, but that we aren’t interested in traditional jobs that offer little more than two weeks of vacation. Most workers today feel that we have been priced out of a decent future. We may be wrestling with student loan debt, and we have little hope of affording a home, supporting a family, or saving for retirement.

Today, as in the past, workers have little say over key decisions that affect our lives. Most of us spend eight or more hours a day under our bosses’ control, accepting limited rights at work. Some workplaces are better than others, but the workplace hierarchy still gives us less freedom on the job than we have in our lives outside of work. At work, we’re most often told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.

For a lot of us, work sucks. Toxic cultures, lack of respect, and high turnover; unsafe conditions, harassment, surveillance, and poor training. Workers are left frustrated, with no control over our work environments. Capitalism affects every part of our lives. We must work for someone else to earn........

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