A Wave of Strikes is taking the Nation by storm
Workers have had enough of low wages and poor working conditions.
This week’s article is on the shorter side, but I wanted to put a spotlight on the most important story of the week, in my view.
In Populist political thinking there are basically 2 schools of thought on how to change things in America. The first option is to work within the system, mostly through electoral politics. In other words, running better candidates to replace corrupt establishment-friendly politicians. The second option is to essentially ignore elections since both parties are beholden to the same special interest groups, and work exclusively outside of the system. The most popular idea that’s come from this group is what’s called a general strike. A general strike means that a large portion of the labor force strikes in a coordinated effort in a certain area. Workers have the power through strikes to cause massive disruptions to corporations, and gives them tremendous leverage to improve their working conditions. These efforts are not undertaken without risk though, as companies have a long list of ways to punish workers for striking, despite retaliation technically being illegal.
It seems as if the pandemic, and in particular, 2 key words that came out of it (essential worker) has invigorated workers across the country to stand up and demand better. Here is a full list of ongoing and potential strikes:
Worth noting that this picture is from over a week ago now, with John Deere workers now officially on strike, and Kaiser healthcare workers set to begin on Monday the 18th. Another one to add to the list is 1,400 Kellogg’s cereal workers, which is enough to shut down plants across 4 states, including the original in Battle Creek, Michigan. For more original reporting on the strikes, I recommend checking out Jonah Furman’s Substack (linked here) and Twitter (linked here).
It has been truly inspiring to watch the solidarity that has been shown across the board with these workers this week. I’m going to post a few of my favorite highlights below:
It’s important to remember why these workers are striking. The John Deere protest in particular is the largest private sector strike in my lifetime, and it isn’t happening by accident, or from a place of selfishness. Often times these workers have been pushed to the brink, working 12 hour shifts with very limited breaks, including on weekends. The vast majority of strikes are coming from high intensity labor jobs, which are the most taxing on your body and physical conditions. The American dream is predicated on this country being (at least somewhat) of a meritocracy, meaning that the harder you work, the better off you will be. And yet, while company profits and CEO salaries expand on a yearly basis for many of these companies, the workers who make those profits possible have experienced harsher working conditions, and often times had their salaries or benefits cut, or at least remained stagnant.
If you live near any of these strikes, go show the workers your support! Bring warm clothes and food, or simply honk your horn in solidarity. And remember, never cross the picket line!
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