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| Workers strike for safer conditions during the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu pandemic - eerily similar to today! |
What is Labor Day?
It's become a day for sales, vacations, barbecues - a fill-in holiday between July 4th and Halloween. The meaning of Labor Day has been obscured, packed away as a historical event, shuffled under the rug as an inconvenience. Most people know Labor Day as a dumb joke: "Isn't it ironic that you don't "labor" on Labor Day?"
But hidden within Labor Day is the long and tortured history of American labor - the workers who, with no rights, near-universal hatred, and in desperate circumstances, literally fought for the right to organize themselves against the all-powerful companies that hired them. Workers faced miniscule pay, long work hours, no benefits, deadly working conditions, harassment and even assault by managers and supervisors, and the fear of being fired or laid off at any time and for any reason. Those who struck - stopped work and prevented others from working - faced being beaten by police and company goons, thrown in jail, and even dying for daring to stop the flow of profits up to their insanely rich bosses.
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| Amazon workers striking. |
Here in the United States, and around the world, Workers won their rights with signs and fists, sit-ins, lock-outs, court battles, and organizing into Unions that became powerful institutions in their own right. This struggle established the 40-hour work week, Overtime pay, benefits like health care and paid time off, and guaranteed safety in the workplace. And workers, Union and non-union, still benefit from these hard-fought rights today.
But as soon as these rights were placed into law, corporations and their government lackeys were conniving to chip away at them, so that companies could regain control and suck up more and more profit. Low-wage jobs like the food industry, transportation, and custodial work are now exploited more than ever. Unionized shops came to rely on contract or "temporary" labor, a sector that - by law - cannot organize. Domestic workers are also barred from unionizing. "Essential workers" like teachers, nurses, and EMTs were praised to the heavens during the worst of the Pandemic - "Appreciation" instead of Compensation! - only to be vilified when they spoke out against insane hours and workloads, low pay, and dangerous conditions.
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| Coal miners strike in Harlan County, KY |
And what about inflation? Corporations throttle production and distribution as an excuse to crank prices up higher and higher, raking in more profits than ever before, then claim "nobody wants to work" or "workers are asking for too much" as the culprit...and we swallow their lies hook, line, and sinker. Even workers parrot this blatant, stupid propaganda, becoming mouthpieces for money-hoarding corporations.
My friends, the Workers are not greedy or lazy: they are the bottom of a pyramid, each sacrificing their time, their bodies, their lives to produce a small bit of value - and all these "bits" of value flow upward and get concentrated at the top, the Owners, who amass gigantic profits. And in return? The workers are given back a tiny fraction of the value they produce. And to make sure they don't complain, the Owners assign "managers" and "supervisors" to watch over them and enforce arbitrary policies, whose true purpose is to keep the Workers in line and deny their rights. Companies can no longer legally chain their workers to their machines, but they can institute policies to keep Workers from leaving the workplace, even for lunch, or penalize them for using the restroom. The onus of Safety is placed on the Workers, excusing the Management from responsibility; basically any problem with equipment or product is passed down to the Workers in the form of extra steps, or "data collection" or paperwork - just more labor heaped onto the Workers. Meanwhile Management works to encourage competition between Workers, making sure they rely on the Management instead of each other.
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| A cartoon protesting the Pullman Co's exploitation of its workers. Pullman produced passenger rail cars during the early 1900's; when its workers struck, they called in federal troops to clear the camps. Many workers and their family members were shot, trampled, and burned out. The resulting furor helped change labor laws in the US and make conditions and pay better for workers. |
What do these Owners and Managers hate and fear most? Workers getting together and organizing. Workers who stop being afraid of, or sucking up to, their so-called "bosses", and realize they only have each other to rely on. Workers who stop trying to negotiate their wages and benefits as individuals - a laughably one-sided negotiation - and unite their powers. We need to stop just bitching about our conditions, and start doing something about them. We need to stop using phrases like, "Oh well, it is what it is" or "At least this job is better than the last one" or quitting one exploitative job to get another; we need to start using phrases like, "It won't change unless we make it change," and "We're going to make this job what we want it to be", and start flexing our muscles at our current job. Stop trusting the Management. Stop laughing at the bosses' jokes. Be polite, but cold when one of these "leaders" tries to buddy up to you. Send the message that their bullshit is no longer welcome. Call them out. Point out their lies. Disrupt their pointless meetings. If we're really in such a "labor shortage", employers should know better than to fuck with us. We are powerful, and we need to recognize our power and strike (pun intended!) while the iron is hot.
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| Starbucks workers |
If you're curious about organizing (it never hurts to look, right?), or wondering which union represents your labor sector, log on to https://aflcio.org/ or https://www.ueunion.org/org_steps.htmlfor more info. If your workplace is majority anti-union and you're looking for more low-key strategies to start organizing, send me a private message and I can give you some ideas - remember, there's no "official" way to organize your coworkers up until you contact a Union rep, and they'll guide you through the rest of the process. The most important first step is to get talking. Educate Workers on their rights - "Each One, Teach One." And be careful who you talk to: Management encourages Workers to snitch on each other, especially where organizing is concerned.
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| The UAW is one of the oldest and most powerful unions in America, organizing all of the biggest auto manufacturers. |
Organizing is not easy; it can take a long, long time, and there's a chance that a Union vote will fail...but even then, we can't give up. Even in the face of insurmountable odds, we are still here, and we are many, and we are powerful, and we will grind down corporations and their Management cronies simply by keeping up the fight and not backing down.
Here's wishing you solidarity with all the Workers of the world, on this Labor Day 2023.
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