We’re going to be running short on quippy commentary because it’s only Tuesday night and I am exhausted!!! But I love you. And I rounded up some interesting reads (even if I’m not being funny tonight) to show you just how much.
Queer as in F*ck You
We have another link about the Olympics in this round up, and I literally just… keep forgetting… the Olympics are happening? Here Are the Out Athletes Competing At the 2022 Winter Olympics (So Far)
Saw This, Thought of You
How Female Scammers Became Accidental Girlboss Icons
In Celebration of Tatyana Ali’s ‘90s Fashion Looks
Plant parents, unite! When My Plants Wither, It Feels Like a Reflection of My Own Setbacks
If You Hate Mitch Mcconnell and Love Queer Ya Fantasy, Read This Book
Olympic Sponsors Have “Entirely Ghosted” Human Rights Activists Ahead of the Beijing Games
Girls Emerge as Leaders of Student Walkouts Over COVID Concerns
Got a note from an A+ member: “REI members can contact their board members to advocate for REI workers unionizing!” (see details in the tweet below)
Fellow REI members: you can email the board your comments. I just wrote them voicing my support of the union: board@rei.com
also https://t.co/oQuEsfdvWD— ColdBrewRaktajino (@CRaktajino) January 23, 2022
Political Snacks
be very interested to follow the rei/union issue. totally believe in labor organization and worker’s having support. i’ve been a union member, proud and grateful. but i also saw union policies and practices at my mom’s job make some things much worse in the interest of keeping membership up. something i witnessed with some of the teacher’s unions i’ve encountered as well.
if it’s the case, i’ll be sorry to learn that rei has bad labor practices for it’s co-op employees, especially since most of the friends i had who worked there liked/loved it.
i would really like it if the 20’s could start to be more roaring and less sucking.
Coming from ignorance, isn’t a co-op supposed to be an alternate solution to the problems a union solves? If the employees own the company, what are the benefits of an organization to negotiate between themselves and themselves? I don’t know exactly what REI’s structure is, but it looks like REI has measures in place so the more the company profits, the more employees get retirement benefits and other perks. Obviously if people are working for a union the current situation can’t be ideal, but it seems a lot better than most other retail jobs.
I think it’s a member co-op, not a worker co-op, so the members control the business rather than the workers, which is a key distinction? But I don’t know enough
Are you not allowed to have a consumer membership if you’re an employee?
Not sure about the answer to this question, but I think in this case it doesn’t really matter if employees can be members. Member co-op (as opposed to employee co-op) essentially means the company is beholden to co-op members rather than shareholders. It has no impact on employee management, so doesn’t fulfill or replace the objectives of a union. Hope this makes sense!
(forawhile actually has a better answer to this below!)
I dunno if you saw this article or not about the lesbian couple that made did nft to save their home. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/24/couple-earned-nearly-120000-dollars-in-6-hours-selling-nfts.html
I really appreciated the heads-up about REI! I didn’t know this was going on. I’ll be emailing the board and letting my friends know. Thanks!
THANK YOUUU ROCK ON!
It’s over for the Democrats, with Manchin and Sinema blocking any possible legislation, there is no way to get progressives to vote in the midterm elections. It’s always difficult to get democrats to come out and vote in the Midterms but this year is going to be especially difficult with the GOP weaponizing trans girls and critical race theory like the bigots they are, it’s going to bring rural America to the voting booth, the senate and the house will go to them because we can’t revitalize our base, not even with abortion being banned soon in half the country.
I’m in a worker-coop (where workers are members, and own and control the organization), and the idea that REI (a consumer co-op, where consumers are members and own and control the organization) would oppose its workers unionizing is incredibly disappointing. I hope rank-and-file members persuade the board to support workers unionizing (or vote out the board members who are opposing it). Here are more resources if people wanna learn more:
https://truthout.org/articles/rei-retail-workers-in-manhattan-file-to-form-companys-first-union/
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2022/01/rei-progressive-company-union-election-nlrb-retail-workers
In the US workers’ rights and unions have been steadily and effectively attacked, from the Supreme Court to news and textbooks, for several decades. Of course unions aren’t perfect but arguing we’re better off without them implies that shareholders(!) will better protect union workers from the potential excesses of elected union leaders. I think that’s preposterous. The pendulum has swung so far against unions and all workers in favor of stockholders that I think it’s essential we support all unionizing attempts. (In my experience police unions are the ones that seem to have the most power and rights, which indicates that the war on unions has been ahem selective).
The plant parent story hit home for me, especially as it relates to the Saga of My Avocado.
My history: I probably first grew an avocado seed . . . well, MANY years ago. But I could never get it from pot, to ground, successfully (even in here in California). So many dead avocadoes, going from pot to ground! After the last one died a few years ago, I resolved “Never Again.”
But then, y’know, ~2017, I started another seed (and it was the last one that I grew after making guacamole for my late father). So, come Spring 2020. Locked down. My avocado in a (big) pot was about 6 feet tall. Once more into the breach! With difficulty, I planted it . . . and, after a tense first week, the roots dug in! All through the summer, it grew well (becoming about 8 feet tall).
But then something happened. By Spring 2021, it wasn’t looking well. Old leaves were falling off, and new buds were sparse. It survived a year in the ground . . . but by the (hot Sacramento) summer, it died. 😭
I cut off to just a few inches above the ground, but no green re-emerged from it. I was even getting to the point where I was contemplating what OTHER plant I might put in the spot . . . when, with the cooler weather in the fall, a couple of sprouts came up near the dead stem. Could it be? They were! New avocadoes sprouting from the old roots! (A month or so later, I actually transplanted one of the sprouts . . . to an old hole, where I’d LAST tried to grow an avocado!)
So now this long-suffering Plant Parent has TWO little avocadoes growing in the ground, instead of one! But eek, in Sacramento, Summer is Coming again….