It Could Happen Here - Trans Day of Solidarity

Episode Date: August 30, 2023

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. https://facebook.com/events/s/trans-day-of-solidarity/1061332838345326/  https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550495667799 https://twitter.com/CIUnions?t=  https://instagram.com/coalitionofindependentunions See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. It could happen here. Yeah, that's the podcast that you're listening to. It's also a thing that is happening. The thing that is happening is it is a kind of rough time to be a trans person in the u.s and also in most other countries and you know we we do we do a lot of episodes on this show about how it's 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, 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 Workers United and also the Coalition of Independent Unions. And Sinead, who is an organizer for the CIU, and also the IWW. And yeah, both you two, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. Good to be on. 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 what is this the event who is doing it and then we can get into why it is being done sure thing um so the trans day of solidarity is an event being put on uh right now by the coalition of independent unions um and it's an event that's basically about both celebrating trans people in the labor movement and the workers movement as a whole highlighting the importance of workplace and 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 current genocide we face. Yeah, that covers most of it. 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 Sinead mentioned,

to kind of like highlight exactly what unions do and can do for trans people while at the same time also giving us a moment to remind unions that they should be doing more even if what they're already 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 you mentioned the world but focusing on the united states um it's really important that the the avenues that are there to protect us are aware of how to protect us so i think this is our opportunity to kind of remind unions to step it up a little bit yeah and i mean i think i think another thing

that's kind of important about this in particular is yeah you know both of you two 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 i guess i guess overrepresented or whatever that's the word you want to use in in you know like among union organizers a lot of actually and this i think is uh you know another thing i'm excited about for this is that like you 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 how how how it's been working it's like that the fact that this is like the one place where there's actually a lot of us and that you know is is is a place where there's enough of us that it actually matters is important and that you know that that that works in a lot of directions at the same at the same time yeah i mean i 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 uh 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 um or to create our own unions out of necessity where like maybe our cis co-workers

don't understand the struggle that we face on the shop floor so by reminding them we're able to make it better you know 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 uh whether they just be uh trans or otherwise uh 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 seeing a lot more recognition and visibility of trans people than ever before. Right. And part of the reason we're so involved is because it's a matter of basic survival, right? The average transmasculine and non-binary person make about 70% of the median U.S. wages, whereas trans feminine people make 60%. And this is below, like, compared to cis people, you know, that's wild, right? The level of homelessness, of discrimination, of job loss, of hours being reduced, punishment, of sexual harassment on the job, it's just – 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.

Yeah, and I mean part of the thing with that right is like that all of that has knock-on effects right you know if if you can't get a job and the jobs 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 trans housing struggles because that's a huge thing. And yeah, the consequences of this is like, yeah, a lot more of us end up dead. And the way that we don't end up dead is by fighting in one of the places that, you know, like one of the places we've gotten good at is fighting in the workplace. 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, 17 years now. Wow. Yeah. It's like, I think about all the major campaigns that I've seen and all of them, all of, like, fast food shops and service sector shops and retail shops, like, every single time there are folks that are trans that are playing key roles. Which is, given that we're, what, probably between 2 and 4% of the population at least according to current estimates probably going to be higher but that shouldn't be possible that makes no sense

except for the fact that well survivability bias motherfuckers it's this or we're dead yeah I'm not going to sugarcoat that no no no i 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 use you know yeah 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 face a lot is like access to health care or really the lack thereof access to health care and especially health care that will actually get us, you know, the medication that we need to be on and surgeries that we need.

Because, again, these are issues that help with dysphoria. And we all know the statistics on how dysphoria affects people of all ages. And that is, again, a matter of life and death. So like, I don't think it's wrong to not sugarcoat that statement. Yeah, right. 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 other, like with cis coworkers and friends, right? This is a point of belonging and togetherness and being able to really be

there for your neighbors and your friends and your coworkers in ways that like, and 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 what 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 be able to actually have something for ourselves. Maybe be able to not have the constant anxiety, but instead spend more time being happy about who we are.

It's easy to overlook that, but I don't know. Again, biased sample source, but almost all my fondest memories are from being side-by-side with my fellow workers, right? Absolutely, and I think also time's gone long enough now where trans people being side by side with my fellow workers, right? Absolutely. 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 that's in the best ways or not, we're at least more visible now than we've ever been. And, you know, I think, like, organizing in general, community in general, uh,

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 the people that we want to be, um, 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. I hate to use the word ally, but we need our allies more than ever. And it's about time that they step up too. And that starts, than ever and uh it's about time that they step up too and that starts typically speaking in your community and in your workplace i think it's also really good to address the fact that like

you know when we're talking about trans issues and organizing around them and like organizing your workplace in your community and all that like it's it's also important to acknowledge how intersectional the trans experience is and that's something I really wanted to address when we got talking about, specifically about unions and things like that, 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 they affect uh disabled trans people

and black and brown trans people at much much more devastating rates than they affect white trans people 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. But I think this is something that is so ingrained in unions that unions have been fighting for this sort of 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 unions were established. We talk about wages and working hours a lot, and that is all fine 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 back more than we've ever had before. And so, yeah, I think that's why we discuss unions in relation to this because for you know working class folk that's where a lot of our organizing begins yeah and i think i think it's actually honest it's had an interesting impact on the kind of union organizing that's happening because you know like one one of one of the sort of consequences of transphobic discrimination in workplaces is that you get a lot of trans people

in what is i okay i refuse to call it service sector i'm gonna there's gonna be a whole episode that's me 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 food's been very interesting because that's a that's a sector that like a lot of trade unions just completely ignore 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 right turns out turns out 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 that's lovely. And I appreciate them for that. But on the other hand, they really did turn their back on the service sector industry for the silliest reason possible, which is that high turnover is just too difficult. And we want to talk about people. Yeah, it's just too difficult. You know, who wants 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 the stance that unions will take to not organize the service industry, being a union seems to be exactly why you would target those industries, right? Because those are where workers need it 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 um for any length of time there's oftentimes no upward mobility for trans people in that job and so you face a variety of life issues when you're not making enough money which inevitably lead to you losing your job and adding to the high turnover rates in these companies. This is exactly why, and we can get into 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 unions. 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 this because both on the backbone of years of experience, but like, 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 think back to our friends, our allies, and our especially our trans fellow workers who were the ones who mentored us well before the tipping point in a lot of cases right um because this is why we're here and like thinking about who this affects right i mean like it affects trans people deeply it can cut off our access to the health care that many but not all of us very much need to keep going and the threats above us only increase as the oppressions you face

are increasing if you're a trans person of color, if you're disabled like you were saying shit gets worse, it gets harder the sword over your head dingles a little closer so we work to figure a way to get out

from under it it's also like why the trans day of solidarity like when we talk about this it's an event 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 trans speakers from a number of different shops and unions in town. But it's also then just quickly becomes just a flying picket. 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 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 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 took a minute. And, you know, this is also coming from someone who is organizing primarily in Portland.

So there's a certain bias here. Your locale may vary. But if you 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 you throw, the less likely people are to cross them. And if they are not likely to cross them, that increases their impact. So we're going to be giving our speeches, sure. And we are going to speak to our experiences. That's critical. And then we're also going to ruin some people's day or make their day if you're the workers. Yeah, we'll ruin some bosses' day. Exactly.

Just always the best kind of day. It's rude. 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. How many good days do we have at work?

Yeah, damn straight. At the bare minimum, you get at least one less good day than us. 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. Exactly. It's not that big a deal, right? They 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 tail. Because that sucks. Okay, speaking of things that suck, we need to take an ad break. This is the best ad pivot I've been able to think of in the last like

six minutes. So we're taking it right now. It's never going to get this good again. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows., presented by iHeart and Sonoro. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters

to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Parente. And I'm Jimei Jackson-Gadsden.

We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, the early career podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. One of the most exciting things about having your first real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone. But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like, every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year, but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise.

Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly.

I am talking to a felon right now and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect

my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. And we're back. So one of the things that i also wanted to talk about is about i guess just talking 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 there in because it's a really interesting organization coalition yeah absolutely um so the the ciu uh it's got a long history if we really dig deep into it i mean effectively this idea started uh after organizing within portland for the last gosh i think people might people been organizing here, but let's say, how long ago did

Burgerville Workers Union start, Sinead? Let's see, that's a question. If you want to talk about the official date we went public, sure, 2016. If you want to talk about the antecedents, you'll find it in the Industrial Research Organizing Group, Precarious Workplace Low-Wage Worker Subcommittee in the Portland General Membership Branch of the IWW circa August of 2013. Incredible names, by the way. Oh, you're welcome. Yeah.

Oh, honey. Honey, I'm a WAP. Do you know how many fucking acronyms do we have? Oh, you're welcome. Yeah. Oh, honey, honey, I'm a WAP. 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 T part of BST, only T part I'm not part of. Oh, I could tell you about the GOB and the GEB until the cows come home. 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. Burgerville Workers Union itself goes public in, god, that was was April of 2016 because of course it's been that fucking long. It was in the works a while before that. Uh, God,

Oh, all those meetings. Um, the earliest antecedents are arguably, um, the Portland general membership branch of the IWWs, uh, industrial organizing research group, the Portland General Membership Branch of the IWW's, uh, Industrial Organizing Research Group, the Precarious Worker, uh, Subgroup, or maybe it was the Low-Wage Workers Subgroup, circa August of 13. But that's antecedents, right? This kind of goes public. This itself is built on the Jimmy Johns Workers' Union,

especially around the Twin Cities and earlier in the 2000s. And then, of course, before that, the Starbucks Workers' Union that had multiple different campaign flourishings, I think the earliest in the late 90s, early aughts in New York City, on which, honestly, you'll see some articles 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 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 CIU comes from a number of different unions coming together, you know, Don't Workers 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 rely on each other for direct action assistance and things like that. And, you know, the IWW has also got a thread in all of this. But, yeah, 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 that are occurring, right? And to create a basis on which we can actually start talking 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 dual 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 from any level of experience and any number of backgrounds, right? And I think that's the real strength of the CIU, is not to instead to constrain the upswell

of worker militancy, but instead to give it a place to help put down some roots while also allowing even more militant struggle to intertwine within those growths. 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. Um, all, I mean, so far the CIU is growing rapidly. Uh, we've been talking with a lot of workers, um, and, 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 at the moment or are 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 public shops. Including my own. Exactly. Six public shops, including my own. No, no, that's fine.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, honey, there's so much more to come There's so much more to come Oh, they're gonna learn Why we picked a city For the TIU logo, alright Crows, baby, crows But it's going really well

And we have a lot more campaigns That are gonna go public in the future But one thing that we really noticed while organizing all of these campaigns and, you know, whether we ourselves organized 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 represent a large amount of trans folks at all these jobs and now some of that can 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 a lot of reasons

I won't get into that we all know, which is why we moved here in the first place. Refugees. Let's be real. It's runaways. We are refugees. 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 minimum wage, poverty wage, let's be honest, jobs that offer almost zero upward mobility 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, 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 uh i mean the restaurant industry as a whole i think is is a lot of who we assist um as well as you know potentially some grocery store workers and other people like that. We don't have a whole lot 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 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 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. But on the other hand, you know, Pride is about a celebration of existence. And there's a lot of visibility during Pride already. So we kind of stepped back, we reflected on that for a little bit. And we decided that Labor Day is not exactly a time of year where you hear about people talking about LGBTQ rights and trans rights. I mean, of course, there's a little bit of that going on. I'm not trying to say that there's none, but it seemed like a really great

opportunity for us to host this event over Labor Day weekend 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 I said before, it can represent them even better. So this is our way of reminding them. And also at the same time, the follow-up picket, reminding Portland that if you don't take care of your community, and specifically in this case your trans working class community then we will 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 Red the promise Black the threat. It's an old slogan, but again, it's one we really need to bring back. And city birds. City birds are very important in all this.

Nothing is more important than that on this episode. Listen, we're in Portland. The obligatory crow conversation is just part of the bargain. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters. To bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

I know you. natural creatures. I know it. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti. And I'm Jimei Jackson-Gadsden.

We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, the early career podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. One of the most exciting things about having your first real job is that first real paycheck. You're probably thinking, yay, I can finally buy a new phone. But you also have a lot of questions like, how should I be investing this money? I mean, how much do I save? And what about my 401k? Well, we're talking with finance expert Vivian Toot, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it all down. I always get roasted on the internet when I say this out loud, but I'm like every single year you need to be asking for a raise of somewhere between 10 to 15%. I'm not saying you're going to get 15% every single year, but if you ask for 10 to 15 and you

end up getting eight, that is actually a true raise. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide if I like

him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found

his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. The Labor Day weekend tends to be very important because this is when a 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 to be having a speaker and a rally at 4 p.m. at Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, September 2nd. This is a huge, huge weekend for food service, for entertainment, and yeah, for retail. And while we're having trans speakers from a number of different campaigns and unions 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 use it. We'll just cost them 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 at 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 and leaflets. There'll be medics aplenty. There'll be all sorts of safety concerns will be addressed by our organizers on the ground. so please come one come all um we actually should have a marching band uh that'll be pretty fun that i didn't expect to land up it'll be a union marching band no less nice nice we love to see it it's gonna be pretty great so uh if you like uh trans people and making bosses cry uh you should come to this. What time is it starting? Again, 4pm

at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland. And then we'll be doing the march throughout the city from around 5 o'clock. And I do recommend to folks wanting to come out to the event,

be ready to chant. Bring your walking shoes because we have a bit of a trek ahead of us making bosses miserable across town. And make some signage. Bring picket signs.

And picket signs in support of both trans people, working class folks, union workers, or just reminding bosses to stop being shitheads. Whatever you want to put on your sign, it's lovely. 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. 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 most difficult... One of the absolute most difficult union struggles 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 tourist trap on your way.

And for people who are not in Portland, I do want to remind people, it's probably not enough time to do it this year. But you too, you too can have a trans day of solidarity. You could also have it on a different day. We can have one. If we plan this correctly, we could in fact have 365 days of trans solidarity. We could take all of the days. I don't know. The cis people can have the leap year day or something

like that. We'll get the February 29th. We already have May Day. 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. Yeah, we can get rid of fake Labor Day and make it

based Labor Day again. Exactly. It's trans Labor Day. I mean, I don't know. That's a lot. I mean, I'm only visible one day of the year and I only remember things one day of the year. I don't know.

I don't know. There's one day. We got one day of pride. There's like, isn't there like a bisexual visibility day or something? There is one day We got one day of pride Isn't there like a bisexual visibility day Or something There is one Bisexuals only appear for one day a year It's at least three days

There's like two other trans ones We could possibly have A full five days That we're visible in I'm just going to put forward That like listen if you also want to You know and if you can get something together for Sunday, September 3rd, we could just make Trans Day of Solidarity followed by Trans Day of Wrath. You know, because if the picket line has to go too long, well, you know, we get mighty ornery. Well, and also, OK, like I have been watching you all make.

Oh, it's Wrath Month. Oh, it's an enough pride. It's Wrath Time, it's wrath month. Oh, it's enough pride. It's wrath time jokes for too long. And there has been not enough wrath. So I'm calling you for more wrath days. We need to actually do the day. Absolutely. Oh, so we're going to bring workplace.

Oh, absolutely. Organize your workplace. Fine. And if you find out that, out that the people that own your company are fascists or helping to fuel the genocide organize even harder 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 while also making your lives so much better so do your part. Hope to see you all again. Well, not again. I hope to see you all there.

And again, it's going to be September 2nd, 4 p.m., 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 we give trans folks a platform and support us on the picket line. We would really appreciate this. Oh,

you can also find a link to all this on the coalition of independent unions, Facebook page. We also have an Instagram you can find us on. Just type in Coalition of Independent Unions or CIU. We'll put links to that in the description. Perfect.

If you need any more information, please feel free to hit up either of those accounts. We'd be happy to inform you on whatever you need. Yeah. And with that, wishing everyone a happy trans day of solidarity. If you're a boss wishing you a bad trans day of solidarity.

Yeah. And I, everyone go, go out into the world and make more trans day of stays in solidarity, make more bosses sad, make workers happy. This is, this is within your power to do. And yeah, go, make more trans days of solidarity, make more bosses sad, make workers happy. This is within your power to do.

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