Rom organizes Quark's underpaid employees into a union and leads them on strike, defying Ferengi law and the Ferengi Commerce Authority.
Rom collapses at work from an ear infection, and Bashir, appalled that Quark gives no sick leave, suggests a union, which Ferengi law forbids. When Quark then cuts wages during a Bajoran period of abstinence, Rom organizes the bar's workers, takes inspiration from O'Brien's stories of a union-leading ancestor, and calls a strike after Quark laughs at their demands. The station's residents back the strikers and the bar empties.
Liquidator Brunt of the Ferengi Commerce Authority arrives to break the strike and has Quark beaten as a warning. Quark finally agrees to meet the demands in secret while Rom pretends the union lost. Rom then leaves the bar to work as a station repair technician. In a subplot, Worf, unsettled by station life and a break-in, moves into quarters on the Defiant. The episode introduces Brunt and sets Rom on his path to engineer.