Two weeks ago, I received an email from my building’s management company with the subject line “Notice – 32BJ Strike Preparations.” For those who are unfamiliar, 32BJ-SEIU is the union that represents over 185,000 cleaners, property maintenance workers, doormen, security officers, airport workers, window cleaners, building engineers, and more in the Northeast. Apartment maintenance workers in over 3,500 New York City residential buildings are covered under 32BJ contracts, and they had been negotiating a deal for some time with little movement. (sounds familiar, no?) The initial email was informative, alerting us to what services in the building would be unavailable, instructing us to only contact the building manager in absolute emergencies, and asking us to please please make sure we clean the lint out of the dryers in the laundry room so that we don’t start a fire in the basement. It all sounded reasonable.

Then we got a second email asking for “Volunteers for Strike Duty.” Three hour shifts where members of the community would perform tasks such as sweeping the hallways and taking the garbage from the basement to the street. I got a text not too long after from a friend in the building who has done committee and community work with Actor’s Equity and she said, “are they asking us to… scab?”

That’s certainly what it seemed like.

Before I had time to write a strongly worded email in response, the workers got what they needed to come to an agreement and avert a strike, but for some reason I have been unable to get this situation out of my mind.

To the untrained eye, a simple request like the one for volunteers would come off as innocuous or even as friendly. Neighbors coming together — if everyone pitches in a little bit to get the work done, then it’ll almost be like there’s no strike at all. The problem is that actions like these undermine the very fundamental point of why the job isn’t being done in the first place. A strike is supposed to make things inconvenient, even uncomfortable, so that the people affected see the value in coming to a deal, and encourage the employers to do just that.

And here’s the thing–how we all collectively respond to job actions can make a huge difference in the outcome here. Unions’ actions are not limited to the workers who are in that industry, or working under that contract. They rely on greater community support and solidarity in order to convince employers that the fight is going to be more inconvenient and uncomfortable than the changes that are being asked for. Believe it or not, every single one of these fights is our fight.

Some instances are more obvious as to how to make that work in practice, when it’s a way of collaborating to attain mutual gain. When we went into contract negotiations at the same time as Actors’ Equity during the Broadway negotiations last year, we decided to keep each other informed, compare notes, and stand up for one another. When Equity reached their deal just days before us, when they shook hands with the League, they also clarified that their deal didn’t mean anything unless 802 also got what we needed. They would not cross our picket lines. The power in that statement scared the League into finally getting down to business, after months of posturing and threats.

At The New School, there have been announcements made from the top administrators about upcoming restructuring, which will likely affect every department in some way that is yet to reveal itself. We are already in the process of getting together with the other unions that represent full time and part time faculty and the student workers in order to share information and discuss ways to stand together when the time comes.

But what I want to emphasize is that this collaborative spirit shouldn’t be limited to the unions we work with on a day to day basis.  Any union fight is our fight, because it’s pushing back against the principle that the people with the most should be able to keep more and more. Starbucks and Amazon workers fighting to get contracts, auto workers and Teamsters, nurses and teachers and building maintenance and Transit workers and beyond; they all deserve our support too. That support can be shown in small ways and big ways depending on what is necessary, and what the union leadership is asking for. I always keep a lookout on social media–often when a group has a special media presence, they actually have public action items that the greater community can participate in to show public pressure on an employer. The AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations) has a whole tab on their website called “Take Action” where you can engage with different issues, and closer to home, so does the New York City Central Labor Council. Public pressure campaigns are a huge leverage point, and they can ask for anything from a boycott of a company, to contacting representatives, to a show of support at a rally, or just to talking to other community members to make them aware of what is going on.

Collective power is fragile. It relies on many individuals making the choice to opt in to participation, those folks being proactive about getting the information they need, and also having the energy to keep pushing on. It can be a lot, but that’s why the more buy-in we have with calls to action, the quicker the message can be disseminated. We live in a society that is inherently anti-labor. Messaging in the media about workers often skews toward the side of the employer, because the employers have more money and access to these outlets, and more time to tell their stories. The fight that we take on takes time, and is often in conjunction with doing the job itself. It’s exhausting, and that’s intentional. When we are too tired to mount a proper campaign, we lose. Which means that when the time comes, we need as much help as we can get, and the folks around us could use extra hands to lighten the load too.

This is the fundamental principle of union solidarity. We have a responsibility to bring people together, because the more people who can stand together, the better chance we all have of fighting off predatory work practices, unfair treatment, and the general widening of the wealth disparities in our country. It’s bigger than my job, or your job. The more wins anyone in labor can get, the more security all working people have. In a world where more and more employers are spending millions of dollars in union avoidance, and trying to put every worker possible into the Independent Contractor category, we have to be fighting back in every place we can. Together, each of us can do a little, and that can go a long way. Sometimes it will be inconvenient. Sometimes it will be uncomfortable. But in the long run, a little inconvenience and discomfort on the end of many individuals will mean a lot of inconvenience and discomfort to the employer, and this is how we hold the wealthiest to account.

Sarah Haines is Local 802’s recording vice president; contact her at shaines@local802afm.org