---
# System prepended metadata

title: Cargo Union
tags: [TGstation, Monkestation]

---

# Cargo Union

This outlines everything that should be added for a functional Cargo Union and have a full role to play on the station.

### Goals

1. Add a new story that will play through a round without it being the same every time.
2. Have some level of leadership battle between QM and HoP
3. Add some situations that could get Security involvement w/o antagonists being directly involved

### Non-goals

1. Ruin lowpop rounds
2. Cause admin headaches

## What is the Union?

The Cargo Worker's Union (CWU) is a Union of all people employed by Cargo. Being part of the union brings with it your own badge and a "raise" in pay. The Quartermaster is the head of this Union, and it is represented by a holographic stand in front of the QM's office. The stand is locked behind "Union" access, which is given by the badge itself- not an access level that can be edited onto an ID.

On roundstart, all Quartermasters, Cargo Technicians, Shaft Miners ~~and Bitrunners~~ (not enabled) are part of the Union.

### Union Membership

Union membership is handled by the Quartermaster, they can add/remove people from the Union if they so wish. This includes non-Cargo personnel, so the Union may try to hire their own grunts.

### Union Console

The QM has a console that allows them to add/remove union members, modify pay, and replace badges. Replacing a badge will require either the user to have a Golden badge, or a regular badge and a QM access ID.

### Union Demands

The Union can demand things from the rest of the station that will favor Cargo, sometimes at the cost of others. This is done by a vote triggered from the Holographic stand by any Union member. There's a 10 minute cooldown between votes to add/remove a demand.

These demands will have a cost to the Cargo/Union budget to implement, then have a reoccuring cost every paycheck out of the Cargo & Command budgets (which will encourage Command to want to push back against these).

Command will be able to shoot down Cargo demands from the Commmunications console in the Bridge, which will freeze the holographic stand from future votes until either side abandons pushing for the change. In the meantime Command and Cargo can negotiate, or strike, which opens the door to Security involvement.

#### List of possible Demands

1. "Vendor Stock Automatic Reporting": The Union has noticed the vending machines on the station have been getting refilled in a very inefficient manner and the Union has been getting the blame for this inefficiency. As part of our new wave of agreements, we’re purchasing new tracking software for vending machines that will automatically report their stock and send it for Cargo’s easy viewing. Did you know vendors pay for refilled stock? (https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/81582)
2. "Access-locked Vendors": The Union has noticed people trying to dress up as Cargo personnel to work under the desk & scab; Cargo vendors have now been locked to Cargo access to curb this issue. (https://github.com/Monkestation/Monkestation2.0/pull/9571)
3. "Access-locked Cargo console": The Union has noticed an uptick in people illegally gaining access to the Cargo console and putting in orders using Cargo's budget without going through the request system. In our recent round of demands, we've put a clause that will lock all cargo consoles to require Cargo access to operate any non-request consoles. (Bypassable via emag)
4. "Better Bounty Payouts": We've noticed that the payouts of bounties have not matched the rate of inflation. As part of our recent rounds of negotiations, we have gotten higher payouts for Cargo bounties.
5. "Automatic mail tokens": Recent Technological advancements have shown that Mail no longer needs Tokens to prove it has been delivered. Although this technology is rather expensive on this large of a scale, we can automatically track when mail has been opened, and instantly send the profits of this to the Budget, or the assigned mailman if there is one. (this could be set as some wall item that lets you punch in/out as a mailman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVWwYrZGh_g))
6. "Mining Sensors": Too many Union Miners have been getting lost due to the lack of suit sensors available on the planet. It may be expensive, but an investment in long-range antennaes, mixed with an agreement with several satellite companies, has given us a newfound accessibility of letting suit sensors planet-side be visible to the station. (Not available on IceBox) (This removes it as a round-start feature)
7. "Boulder payouts": Miners mine, but miners clear boulders. Boulders don't pay out? Why not? Just because you're utilizing modern technology to do the heavy processing of the boulders, does not justify Nanotrasen taking away the pay for boulders being processed! As part of our new demands, boulder processing and refining machines will hold mining points as it processes boulders, allowing miners to get paid for their work. (This removes it as a round-start feature)
8. "Independent Access": The Union has had difficulties with scabs as of recent, so part of our new demands has been the full blacklisting of Cargo from access to non-Union personnel. (Cargo access is replaced with Union access)
9. "Freedom of Association and Trade": The Union feels the company is inefficient and intentionally sabotaging Cargo trades by cutting crucial lines, knowing they are the only source of Cargo. As the only ones able to provide the service to the station, why should we not simply open up our trading outpost to other companies? (Opens Company Imports tab)
10. "Right to bear arms": The Union has been threatened by Corporate Security repeatedly, so in our recent demands we've put a clause that gives us the right to purchase and hold weaponry. (this makes Union badges have weapon permit access on them) -- [This also hopes to prevent surprise cargonia by encouraging players to be more visible when attempting it, giving security a better chance at responding appropriately and w/o admins needing to get involved]

### Leadership votes?

Throwing this idea, though I don't think I'll be implementing it until way later (if at all), the QM can be an elected position, where a "demand" could be a leadership election for the Union, taking all people in the union list at the time of the election being called. Winner has their badge turn gold, giving them access to the QM office, while the existing QM has theirs demoted. This would mean Roundstart "QM" is just a Cargo Tech with a golden badge that gives them access to the office, and there'd have no "Quartermaster" job title. This would require changing things that need QM access (announcement console, ID trimmer, access management console) to use the badge instead of ID card (which may work out a little weird), or have the ID automatically change access w/o player input (which feels a little weird). Cursed idea.

## Budgets

### Cargo

Cargo personnel are put onto the Service budget, and budgets are locked behind the general access of the department. This means Cargo personnel get paychecks from the Service department, but can't spend it on private orders in Cargo (buy them publicly or use your personal funds, technie). All Cargo personnel will additionally only get half the paycheck of normal crew.

Cargo personnel will be made full by the Union, which will have their own paycheck system, and on roundstart will pay the missing half that the Service budget does not. Both the HoP and QM can edit their respective halfs to lower/increase the pay of their employees from the Accounting console ([Needs to be ported from TG, which is being held up by React TGUI](https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/92419)) and the QM's Union app. This adds options to the HoP and QM to attempt to outdo eachother to get favorability over their employees, and options for Cargo employees to go under the nose of one boss via another (which then opens the door to more RP options).

### Command

All Command personnel lose their bank accounts and instead will all share one bank account with the Command budget, using vending machines will see them as "Command" rather than as Individuals. This takes Command out of the paycheck system and elevate them to more bosses that own parts of the station rather than regular employees like everyone else. This also means that paying privately for Cargo crates, or paying for Union demands, comes directly out of their pay (NT is a private corporation and will not allow Union demands to hurt THEIR profits, afterall).

This aims to encourage Command to push back against Union demands, even those that seem like entire upgrades, because it is paid out of their own pockets.

In exchange, Silver IDs will gain DNA-locked bank accounts, so having your ID card stolen no longer means they have the ability to spend/steal your money. The Command members can siphon money from eachother, however the HoP will be able to see this and get the Captain/NT Rep involved.

## Station Trait

I'm thinking maybe a station trait "Busted Union" that would completely turn the system off, turning mining sensors on by default and everything else is gone for the round. Gives a small break from the entire system to help prevent it from becoming stale if all else fails.