#CONTRACT

[mostlysignssomeportents]

It all started with a mouse

For the public domain, time stopped in 1998, when the Sonny Bono Copyright Act froze copyright expirations for 20 years. In 2019, time started again, with a massive crop of works from 1923 returning to the public domain, free for all to use and adapt:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/

No one is better at conveying the power of the public domain than Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, who run the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain. For years leading up to 2019, the pair published an annual roundup of what we would have gotten from the public domain in a universe where the 1998 Act never passed. Since 2019, they've switched to celebrating what we're actually getting each year. Last year's was a banger:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/20/free-for-2023/#oy-canada

But while there's been moderate excitement at the publicdomainification of "Yes, We Have No Bananas," AA Milne's "Now We Are Six," and Sherlock Holmes, the main event that everyone's anticipated arrives on January 1, 2024, when Mickey Mouse enters the public domain.

The first appearance of Mickey Mouse was in 1928's Steamboat Willie. Disney was critical to the lobbying efforts that extended copyright in 1976 and again in 1998, so much so that the 1998 Act is sometimes called the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. Disney and its allies were so effective at securing these regulatory gifts that many people doubted that this day would ever come. Surely Disney would secure another retrospective copyright term extension before Jan 1, 2024. I had long arguments with comrades about this – people like Project Gutenberg founder Michael S Hart (RIP) were fatalistically certain the public domain would never come back.

But they were wrong. The public outrage over copyright term extensions came too late to stave off the slow-motion arson of the 1976 and 1998 Acts, but it was sufficient to keep a third extension away from the USA. Canada wasn't so lucky: Justin Trudeau let Trump bully him into taking 20 years' worth of works out of Canada's public domain in the revised NAFTA agreement, making swathes of works by living Canadian authors illegal at the stroke of a pen, in a gift to the distant descendants of long-dead foreign authors.

Now, with Mickey's liberation bare days away, there's a mounting sense of excitement and unease. Will Mickey actually be free? The answer is a resounding YES! (albeit with a few caveats). In a prelude to this year's public domain roundup, Jennifer Jenkins has published a full and delightful guide to The Mouse and IP from Jan 1 on:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/

Disney loves the public domain. Its best-loved works, from The Sorcerer's Apprentice to Sleeping Beauty, Pinnocchio to The Little Mermaid, are gorgeous, thoughtful, and lively reworkings of material from the public domain. Disney loves the public domain – we just wish it would share.

Disney loves copyright's other flexibilities, too, like fair use. Walt told the papers that he took his inspiration for Steamboat Willie from Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, making fair use of their performances to imbue Mickey with his mischief and derring do. Disney loves fair use – we just wish it would share.

Disney loves copyright's limitations. Steamboat Willie was inspired by Buster Keaton's silent film Steamboat Bill (titles aren't copyrightable). Disney loves copyright's limitations – we just wish it would share.

As Jenkins writes, Disney's relationship to copyright is wildly contradictory. It's the poster child for the public domain's power as a source of inspiration for worthy (and profitable) new works. It's also the chief villain in the impoverishment and near-extinction of the public domain. Truly, every pirate wants to be an admiral.

Disney's reliance on – and sabotage of – the public domain is ironic. Jenkins compares it to "an oil company relying on solar power to run its rigs." Come January 1, Disney will have to share.

Now, if you've heard anything about this, you've probably been told that Mickey isn't really entering the public domain. Between trademark claims and later copyrightable elements of Mickey's design, Mickey's status will be too complex to understand. That's totally wrong.

Jenkins illustrates the relationship between these three elements in (what else) a Mickey-shaped Venn diagram. Topline: you can use all the elements of Mickey that are present in Steamboat Willie, along with some elements that were added later, provided that you make it clear that your work isn't affiliated with Disney.

Let's unpack that. The copyrightable status of a character used to be vague and complex, but several high-profile cases have brought clarity to the question. The big one is Les Klinger's case against the Arthur Conan Doyle estate over Sherlock Holmes. That case established that when a character appears in both public domain and copyrighted works, the character is in the public domain, and you are "free to copy story elements from the public domain works":

https://freesherlock.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/klinger-order-on-motion-for-summary-judgment-c.pdf

This case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, who declined to hear it. It's settled law.

So, which parts of Mickey aren't going into the public domain? Elements that came later: white gloves, color. But that doesn't mean you can't add different gloves, or different colorways. The idea of a eyes with pupils is not copyrightable – only the specific eyes that Disney added.

Other later elements that don't qualify for copyright: a squeaky mouse voice, being adorable, doing jaunty dances, etc. These are all generic characteristics of cartoon mice, and they're free for you to use. Jenkins is more cautious on whether you can give your Mickey red shorts. She judges that "a single, bright, primary color for an article of clothing does not meet the copyrightability threshold" but without settled law, you might wanna change the colors.

But what about trademark? For years, Disney has included a clip from Steamboat Willie at the start of each of its films. Many observers characterized this as a bid to create a de facto perpetual copyright, by making Steamboat Willie inescapably associated with products from Disney, weaving an impassable web of trademark tripwires around it.

But trademark doesn't prevent you from using Steamboat Willie. It only prevents you from misleading consumers "into thinking your work is produced or sponsored by Disney." Trademarks don't expire so long as they're in use, but uses that don't create confusion are fair game under trademark.

Copyrights and trademarks can overlap. Mickey Mouse is a copyrighted character, but he's also an indicator that a product or service is associated with Disney. While Mickey's copyright expires in a couple weeks, his trademark doesn't. What happens to an out-of-copyright work that is still a trademark?

Luckily for us, this is also a thoroughly settled case. As in, this question was resolved in a unanimous 2000 Supreme Court ruling, Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox. A live trademark does not extend an expired copyright. As the Supremes said:

[This would] create a species of mutant copyright law that limits the public’s federal right to copy and to use expired copyrights.

This elaborates on the Ninth Circuit's 1996 Maljack Prods v Goodtimes Home Video Corp:

[Trademark][ cannot be used to circumvent copyright law. If material covered by copyright law has passed into the public domain, it cannot then be protected by the Lanham Act without rendering the Copyright Act a nullity.

Despite what you might have heard, there is no ambiguity here. Copyrights can't be extended through trademark. Period. Unanimous Supreme Court Decision. Boom. End of story. Done.

But even so, there are trademark considerations in how you use Steamboat Willie after Jan 1, but these considerations are about protecting the public, not Disney shareholders. Your uses can't be misleading. People who buy or view your Steamboat Willie media or products have to be totally clear that your work comes from you, not Disney.

Avoiding confusion will be very hard for some uses, like plush toys, or short idents at the beginning of feature films. For most uses, though, a prominent disclaimer will suffice. The copyright page for my 2003 debut novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom contains this disclaimer:

This novel is a work of fiction, set in an imagined future. All the characters and events portrayed in this book, including the imagined future of the Magic Kingdom, are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. The Walt Disney Company has not authorized or endorsed this novel.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250196385/downandoutinthemagickingdom

Here's the Ninth Circuit again:

When a public domain work is copied, along with its title, there is little likelihood of confusion when even the most minimal steps are taken to distinguish the publisher of the original from that of the copy. The public is receiving just what it believes it is receiving—the work with which the title has become associated. The public is not only unharmed, it is unconfused.

Trademark has many exceptions. The First Amendment protects your right to use trademarks in expressive ways, for example, to recreate famous paintings with Barbie dolls:

https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/summaries/mattel-walkingmountain-9thcir2003.pdf

And then there's "nominative use": it's not a trademark violation to use a trademark to accurately describe a trademarked thing. "We fix iPhones" is not a trademark violation. Neither is 'Works with HP printers.' This goes double for "expressive" uses of trademarks in new works of art:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_v._Grimaldi

What about "dilution"? Trademark protects a small number of superbrands from uses that "impair the distinctiveness or harm the reputation of the famous mark, even when there is no consumer confusion." Jenkins says that the Mickey silhouette and the current Mickey character designs might be entitled to protection from dilution, but Steamboat Willie doesn't make the cut.

Jenkins closes with a celebration of the public domain's ability to inspire new works, like Disney's Three Musketeers, Disney's Christmas Carol, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Disney's Around the World in 80 Days, Disney's Alice in Wonderland, Disney's Snow White, Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Disney's Cinderella, Disney's Little Mermaid, Disney's Pinocchio, Disney's Huck Finn, Disney's Robin Hood, and Disney's Aladdin. These are some of the best-loved films of the past century, and made Disney a leading example of what talented, creative people can do with the public domain.

As of January 1, Disney will start to be an example of what talented, creative people give back to the public domain, joining Dickens, Dumas, Carroll, Verne, de Villeneuve, the Brothers Grimm, Twain, Hugo, Perrault and Collodi.

Public domain day is 17 days away. Creators of all kinds: start your engines!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/#free-mickey

Image: Doo Lee (modified) https://web.law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/images/centers/cspd/pdd2024/mickey/Steamboat-WIllie-Enters-Public-Domain.jpeg

CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

[heilos]

Just fyi, if you see info coming out about a deal for The Animation Guild, keep in mind it's a "tentative deal" at the moment meaning it's not finalized yet and it still needs to be agreed to and voted on by union members. The terms of the deal are also not public yet so be aware of that when reading headlines and articles. That also means the guild members can 100% say no if the contract is not what they want and then it goes back to negotiating.

[wishbow]

contract - 2023 - pam wishbow

[satoshy12]

"Brides" of Pariah dark and "Mothers" of the heir

The few times the Justice League and similiar needed help, they summoned those beings from the contract they found. Be it to make all of Darkseid's army gone; they couldn't hurt Darkseid, but all of his parademons were gone from earth. The flying eyeballs just wanted them to sign the papers; it has nothing to do with souls or anything similar. Just being the "brides" of a dead and sealed king, nothing else, free will, and all that they would still just stay there. After a few heroes, magical and similar looked over and said a magical vow. Yes, their contract is just on paper, but they have no idea why. The heroes accepted, and a few females signed the papers. +

The Observants were happy, making sure the new young prince, after his metamorphosis phase (think of the JJK Cursed Womb where Danny is inside), would be able to take the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire. And not be turned insane. That means they can finally give someone else the paperwork! What the people didn't know was that the contract changed Danny's DNA again and again, so he could bear the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage easier. So Danny had many extra moms next to Pariah.

+

The people in DC started summoning the observers and others for easy things too, like Villainess used poison ivy for extinct plants, Circe for a Magic Book, and even Talia al Ghul used them. Or important things like Hawgirl used their help against the Gordanians armies; the robots seem to have a huge joy in hunting them that they had sent. The Thanagarians won the war! While they are only on paper "married" to King Pariah Dark, they didn't see many problems with it. Then summoning stopped! They didn't come anymore. +

In the Ghost Zone The young prince had woken up from the metamorphosis, able to take the ring and crown without problems. They no longer needed the mortars. So they kind of forgot and ignored them for the time being. + DC verse After a time, the people who signed the contract saw an invitation to a wedding for their child! They really should have read the full contract!

That was how they learned they had a child, as Danny got married and the Box Ghost sent the papers of invitation to the wedding to the parents of the groom and bride. A/N For marriage Either Danny x Sam and or Val Or A Dc Character danny x Zatanna or Cassie

Good meaning Observants

[thestarlitshade]

Guess what I did. ^u^ I contracted! I'm a real puella magi now.

I use a necklace, but it isn't really my soul gem because my soul gem is in the astral. It's just a visualization for it/way of managing it in the physical realm. I wrote in my journal about the specifics. I'll transcribe it.

Contract day! Day 0. 7/17/2024. I made a contract with Kyubey. He had a black hat that looked like an upside down bowl. This is what happened: I got the necklace for my soul gem and put it in the middle of the circle. I sat on one side and told Kyubey to sit on the other. I put a white ring on my left to represent the hope of magical girls. I put a black ring on my right to represent the despair of magical girls. Lastly, I put a purple ring in front of me to represent myself. When all that was done, I cast a circle and called upon Kyubey. He answered and asked "What is your wish?" I didn't expect him to get there so quickly. I forgot my wish and almost left the circle to grab this journal to remember. Instead, I made myself focus until I remembered. I repeated my wish until the phrasing felt right. I think he could tell I wasn't very comfortable the first few times. When he transferred my soul, it felt like something was touching my insides, but it didn't hurt, it was just uncomfortable. When it was complete, I felt extremely dizzy, and my body felt hollow and lightweight. The Kyubey looked like this:

@meguca-meduka was the one that helped me figure out how to contract without astral projecting, so I am very thankful to you, Rem! ^U^

[tkthrilla-writes]

Oh Way Down We Go

An Alastor x Host!Reader that is set in the early days of their contract making, set while reader is in college

______________________________________________________________

“The fucking audacity! I swear if there is even a God- somewhere! Anywhere!” she shouted and screamed, her hands holding tight onto the bars, “Get me out of here!” she continued to yell out in her jail cell.

“Shut up already!” the police officer just outside her cell barked back, having had enough of her tantrums.

“I don’t even know what the hell happened and why I am here! Just let me go!”

“Not until your papers have been processed missy!”

And with a sigh of exasperation, she hit her head against the bars, “great,” she wallowed out, “now my future is ruined.”

“It’s your own fault for being at the crime scene and not cooperating!”

“But I didn’t do anything! I don’t remember anything,” she continued to bang her head on the bars a couple more times before giving up and heading over to the semi clean corner of the jail cell that did not smell or stink of piss. Leaning her back against the wall, and sliding down to sit on the floor in exasperation.

She wasn’t sure how long she had stayed there, could’ve been minutes or hours, people passing by giving her smug looks as if she was the guilty one and she wasn’t getting away with it. All she knew is that this situation revolved around a murder, while she did have an idea as to who committed the murder, she was telling the truth on not know what happened.  It’s not like she was awake or anything during the whole thing, and quite frankly, when Alastor takes over their body, he really takes over! While she does get an inkling as to what is happening, unlike Alastor who is there in the back of her head while she is in control, it’s as if she is in a deep sleep.

So you can imagine her ‘waking up’ in the middle of the street to police cars surrounding her, and cops pointing their guns at her while two people tried to drag her away and stuff her into the car! Her head was probably bruised because she was sure one of them knocked her head into the car door! And don’t get started on how they treated her in the interrogation room, literally only screaming and shouting right at her face for a murder that had just happened, five blocks away. She wasn’t anywhere near the scene of the crime! But no, she was the only one closest to the crime scene! It had to be her!

To top it all off, it was supposed to be her day today, and all she wanted to do was stay in and study! But nooooo, Alastor had to be a smartass and take over for the day, despite him know they have an exam in a couple weeks!

Why was she surrounded by idiots and assholes? All this demon was doing was making her life miserable, more so than it already was. With how badly he treats her, like a toy! Did she sell her soul to him? Sure she did. But he was supposed to help make her life better, not ruin it by sending her to prison!

At this point it started to feel like an eternity with how long and how board she had started to get. Till finally a cop showed up and actually started to open the cell, “Come on! You’re being bailed out!”

“Uh ok,” she said, pretty sure she looked dumb and stupid at the notion of her scrambling to get up from the floor, till she questioned, “by who?”

“By me,” a tall and tanned figure appeared in a white dress shirt and brown trousers to match. He wore only what she could describe as a very annoyed smile, his eyes showing no interest whatsoever, as if he would rather be doing anything else and be elsewhere rather than here. Which the feeling was mutual. “Come along… darling…” he held his smile, although that sounded a lot like a sneer. Ok now this guy was about to get on her nerves, but she wasn’t about to push her luck and miss a chance of freedom.

Dashing behind the tall gentleman while being sure to stick her tongue out at the cop, out of pettiness and extreme annoyance. Something the cop visibly reacted to what only could be described as the Beifong look of insult – you know the one.

The two kept silent as they both walked past the office booths full of police personnel, till they reached the reception area full of either visitors or people waiting to be transferred to a different department, more cops filtering in and out of the crowd while they we just two normal people walking out a building… well, almost normal.

The moment they had pasted the main door to go outside, down a couple of stairs, the ever so kind gentleman started to spazz for a second or two, “Uh you ok?” the human who had just got out what could be a prison sentence spoke up.

“Never better!” the gentleman replied annoyance becoming more evident the more his head started to twitch and bend to what should not have been humanly possible.

“Great! Now who are you and why’d you bail me out?! As far as I know I never made a call!” and so the tirade began, the frustration of today and what essentially could ruin an entire life still weighing down heavily.

“Must you be so dense darling?” darling having the main emphasis sounded quite condescending and quite frankly insulting, as the strangers smile started to grow even more annoyed.

“OI nobody calls me darling you creep, now come on answer my question!”

“Really? Nobody!” the man how just fizzled out into thin air, leaving the “darling” in question heavily confused, only finally clicking in a second later when a wave of immense exhaustion came crashing in, nearly knocking her down the stairs as her knees started to buckle. Luckily she caught herself just in time before taking a nasty fall to the head. Great! First jail time with a record and now a whopping hospital bill, what a great way to end the day!

“Al….” she sneered. 

“Darling….” He sneered back.

“Since when could you come out of my body and look human you demon?”

“Since those of are the rules of contracts with mortal denizens who are ALIVE,” he placed great emphasis on the word alive, “only able to do so for a few minutes at a time and takes great energy to make it work.”

“And now we are both exhausted and have a don’t know how long walk back home! Something that could’ve been avoided if you didn’t take over today!” Starting to walk down the stairs and struggling to march over to the bus stop that was thankfully conveniently placed infront of the police station.

“Excuse you! Where is my ‘thank you?! I’m the one who got you out!”

“Right after you murdered someone and put me in there in the first place!”

“First of all I unfortunately take no credit in that, although the circumstances were quite humorous! Second, you should be thanking me for erasing records of your involvement and getting you out!”

“Wait you did what?”

“I will not repeat myself dear,” the hmpf in his speech could be heard at the end, making the dear host of the demon just be startled in confusion, climbing up the bus that had arrived and would take them hopefully close to home, paying for the ticket fare.

“Why?” she finally asked after a couple of seconds of silence hung in the air, having finally sat down on something relatively padded and resting for a bit. The exhaustion of Alastor entering her body after he took his human form was weighing more than heavy on her nearly making her pass out on her seat. Only thing that kept her awake was the conversation they were semi-having and the fact that this part of town was not familiar to her so she needed to be aware and pay attention to her surroundings outside of the bus.

“Well I did maul it over after the lad insulted the way we dressed, however there were witnesses and it was broad daylight. Oh the irony of someone else getting to murder him!”

“No I mean, why? As in why erase my records and get me out?”

“Well it would do me no good in having my host behind bars where we would be unable to roam free and cause chaos and madness.”

The pause was evident between the two, leaving them hung in silence. The sun shining bright creating shadows to pass by on the humans face, the tiredness kicking in and making her lean on the bus window. The vibrations from that were making the emerging headache bearable.

“Doesn’t change the fact that it was supposed to be my turn today. Why’d you take over I thought you said you had more important business to take over than make sure a human is peak condition and fit for hurting others,” the sadness hung heavy in what they said, especially after they thought this whole taking over randomly fiasco was over and they finally settled on a schedule.

“I was but business finished early, thought I’d drop by and take over after you mauled at those books of yours for hours. A nice stroll would’ve done you some good!”

“Stroll or hunt for victims?”

“…. Failure,” Alastor retorted, feeling both insulted and called out on his other agendas.

“Dead,” she countered, making a face as she realised she said that out loud of the mental conversation that they were having.

“How dare you?!” he cried in offence.

“I dare,” she retorted, removing her head from the window, the vibrations becoming too much and starting to make said headache get worse.

 Alasator let out a Tsk at the sweet and daring audacity his darling host had.

“Thank you.”

“For what exactly?”

“I aint saying anything else! If anything you still owe me!” continuing on with their back and forth banter and shenanigans till they arrived home.

“Speaking of which,” his host started as soon as they returned back into the cramped-up dorm, it was just a small room with a bed, desk and bathroom, but it was cosy enough for one person – well… one person and their radio demon, who turned on the radio amidst the messy pile of books on the desk to fill the background with classic 1920’s music, “I thought you agreed on that schedule, thought I was finally going to have today, or do we need to fight again before we settle it,” the curtain on the window closed as clothes started to be flung all over the place, the human now more than ready to take a long shower to get rid of the smell of rotting hopes, crushed dreams and prison sweat.

“Honestly my dear how lowly do you think of me in this arrangement?”

“Just answer the question Al,” the exasperation could be heard with every word, now entering the bathroom and stopping to look into the mirror to see the dishevelled hair, bloodshot eyes, and dark circles getting darker if that was possible. Plus it was easier to talk to someone who is in your head when you can at least see another person.

“I do not know what to tell you or what it is you wisht o hear, this is my body after all, and you do not do a very good job at taking care of it –“

“You mean my body!”

“My contract, my host, my rules. Therefore, my body! You take these humanly affairs and books too seriously! It is good to pursue knowledge, I do encourage that! But what I do not encourage is this body of MINE to be in poor shape when it gets down to hell!” he continued, wispy and shadowed antlers starting to appear in the mirror, perfectly placed up on the head nearly like a thorny crown, radio static starting to fill the air and drown out the music playing in the background.

“Charming,” she says breaking eye contact with the person in the mirror in favour of getting in the shower. At least she can somewhat count on him to take care of her and get her out of prison before going straight to hell.

[red-dead-sakharine]

Loopholes

I saw the tags in @changeling-fae 's reblog, so...

"I swear" does not necessarily mean he put it in the contract. He might have, but we don't know. He gives us his word, not a magically bound contract for this. Though I personally think he will not break his word, considering that Korilla says he's always fair and honest, it still is something to be aware of.

"never use the crown..." doesn't mean he can't use his innate powers against mortals. Or his army. Or send other lackeys, like Korilla or Yurgir, against mortals. Or use ordinary weapons against mortals. It only refers to the crown's power specifically. And against puny mortals he hardly even needs the crown to snap them out of existence.

"to dominate a mortal" doesn't mean he can't use the crown to kill, maim, torture, teleport, displace, tickle, explode, humiliate, and-so-on a mortal, or conquer the material plane. Dominate is a very narrow, singular action to exclude.

In short, he literally only gives us his word, that he won't use one of his weapons to do one specific thing with mortals. He can still use the rest of his arsenal, to do whatever else he wishes.

It's such an obviously flimsy promise full of loopholes, I was very disappointed, that Tav wasn't able to point it out to him at least with an insight check.

And considering that he states during his post-credit scene, that he'll "come knocking at your door", I'd say he was very deliberate with his wording here, and doesn't intend to spare the material plane. But we'll probably never know for sure. He could just mean to take us out for dinner, after all. Right? RIGHT?

[m00nb04rd5]

Can I have a moodboard for Azul Ashengrotto from Twisted Wonderland?

https://twisted-wonderland.fandom.com/wiki/Azul_Ashengrotto

Azul Ashengrotto (Twisted Wonderland)

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

G.K. Chesterton

[ms-reenee-maddy]

[bluu3berry]

whiteboard doodle

My version of killer, his name is Snap, his story is slightly similar but instead of Chara possessing him the player possesses him!

More info under cut!

Don't repost, reblogs encouraged

@anon-coke @skeletonsboring @scramble-eg @iknkeli @thelunarsystemwrites @the-second-reason

Whenever you see the red target which was changed due to the determination the player held, and the players outside sources affexting his body. That usually means the player isn't in control

His soul is located within his eye, he stutters and has trouble speaking fluently unless under the players control where the player will "experiment" with... other test subjects...

Playing the battle like a game, snap has his friends Crackle (horror) and Pop (dust) sadly he can only meet them when the player is offline and during his breaks, throughout his story he does somehow cut the player off from the game because he battles his own soul ripping it apart making the players influence unstable and destroying their connections forever.

Don't repost, reblogs encouraged!

[kirbyfigure]

‧₊˚🖇️🫧✩ ₊˚🎧⊹♡

[wobblydev]

do you have any advice on what to do when your workplace is unionized, but the union provides inadequate help to the workers?

an important question. the recent drive for unionising in the US is exciting, but many of the unions involved in these campaigns are about as complacent as it gets. organising for power within a union can be just as difficult as organising against the boss.

for the majority of unions, what they're willing to do for their members begins and ends with the contract they have bargained on your behalf. you have a right to see that contract, so request a copy. be persistent. be annoying if they are too slow. you have a right to see it within a timely manner.

the contract itself will be long and boring, but read the entire thing. it is the totality of what the company and the union have agreed to, and it dictates what you are and are not allowed to do within the limits of the contract.

there is nothing stopping you from taking an OT101 and learning how to speak with your coworkers about what they would like to see improved, and then build power from within to push for that towards the next contract negotiation. some unions are more democratic than others. some encourage membership to attend meetings, others aren't as comfortable with that. transparency differs greatly among the unions. regardless, organising is the same.

gather contact information, map your workplace, listen to your fellow workers and learn what they are frustrated about. agitate, educate, inoculate and continue to push. your union is supposed to represent you and the interests of all the workers performing covered work under the contract. get involved and stay involved. get the personal phone number of your steward and talk to them regularly. remind them again and again about what needs to change. don't suffer excuses, the most common of which will be "the contract is the contract." that contract can and will be renegotiated, so make sure everyone up the ladder knows your name, where you work, your local, and what needs to be changed. be a nuisance, and get as many of your fellow workers as possible to be nuisances until it gets fixed.

because if they don't represent you as you want to be represented, you can decertify from them and sign up with a union that will actually fight.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Marriage contract, Groom Isaac Pereira, Bride Rachael, 1648, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

[andrewckeeper]

LIDMF AI "Predator, asistiendo a un acuerdo planetario junto a los representantes del planeta tierra en Flandes, 1412. Este acuerdo implica la libre circulación de Predators en el planeta tierra, así como la obtención de trofeos humanos de cantidad limitada y estipulada en este contrato. Los Predators prometen no destruir el planeta tierra a cambio, con la posibilidad de suministro propio de tecnología alienígena en un futuro"