The War on the Working Class (Part I Can't Fucking Remember)

So one year ago today I put up my first ever blog post about then recent strikes by the UAW and the Writers Guild of America -- said post agonized over, by the way, and replete with epigramatic Homer quote (clearly I knew nothing about blogging).  A year later, the UAW is, in the words of one of my clients, "on the balls of its ass," the once mighty vanguard of working class liberalism caught in a struggle for mere survival.  

The plight of the UAW, coupled with the actions of the embattled workers engaging in a pale imitation of a sit-down strike at Republic Doors and Windows, just depresses me.  At Republic Doors and Windows, desperate workers who have been screwed out of vacation and lay-off related pay under the WARN Act have occupied the plant in which they labored.  In so doing, they offer at least a glimpse of dignity in militancy, an all too rarely heard "no" to the insults heaped upon workers by a rapacious yet (literally) bankrupt capitalism.  I am afraid, however, that rather than a new beginning, the drama at Republic is merely a more interesting exit, a leaving with a bang not a whimper approach to a story we all know too well.

It was not always thus.  In 1937, in Flint Michigan, the UAW pioneered the use of the sit-down strike to compel General Motors to recognize it.  No one worried about legalisms or secret ballot votes -- the workers seized the motherfucking means of production, as it were, stood down the police and company goons and brought GM to its knees.  Within a year, the UAW went from 30,000 members to 500,000 members,  A similar sit down strike at Ford's River Rouge Plant in 1941 brought all of the Big Three auto makers within the Union's orbit.  Unprecedented growth and prosperity for working Americans followed, as the UAW elevated the standard of living for ordinary Americans while outproducing any other workers on the planet.  

Somewhere along the line all of this changed for reasons both complex and simple.  Working class Americans increasingly got the shaft as we became a nation obsessed with shareholder value and "business porn," a world of glossy magazines celebrating the likes of former GE CEO Jack Welch, whose major life accomplishment seems to have been sending 100,000+ good jobs overseas.  The ulitmate wet dream of a company in this world was Wal-Mart, which combined the anti-union thuggery of the 1930s, with the wage payment philosophy of late nineteenth century capitalism, added a smiley face, and won the hearts of small town Americans everywhere, determined as they were to destroy their way of life and standard of living to buy cheap shit from China. 

I am rooting for the folks at Republic to win at least a moral victory and to get the money to which they are entitled.  I am praying for a more audacious working class to emerge from this current debacle.  It is time to say no to employers who steal the labor of working people -- and sometimes "no" means actions outside of the acceptable norm -- it means a brick through a window, a fist to the nose, a mysterious fire here, a sugared gas tank there.  It means standing the fuck up and saying that I've taken all that I can take and I ain't taking no more. It means making the Waltons and the Welches of the world a little less comfortable, a little less safe, so that they might think twice about those who work for them and so that "shareholder value" is not their only concern. 

Comments

[Delicious Pundit]

Or this piece, which made me think "heads on pikes" (Sam Zell's, specifically).

[janinsanfran]

We saw some of that "more audacious working class" a couple of years ago when undocumented immigrants marched in protest of being labeled criminals for coming here to work. That's the population among who we may see that militancy become a force.

[drip]

I am so glad you pointed out the Republic action. I heard that Bank of America (with a push from a certain Illinois governor and Dick Durbin) is helping, or at least not continuing to help crush the workers. I look forward to Obama completing his economic team by appointing Richard Trumka as his Secretary of Labor, replacing Bush's worst Cabinet member, Mrs. Mitch McConnell.

And since you so kindly brought up the UAW, when will someone point out that the dastardly union supported the car makers at every turn, urging buy american, fighting cafe standards, dropping wage demands and supporting plant closings. My complaint is not so much that the UAW did these things, but that they are excoriated as anti business when they spent the last thirty years supporting their employers.

[Sir Charles]

DP,

Jesus that story makes my blood boil. I'm glad I didn't read that last night, when I had had several glasses of wine.

janis,

The problem is that the Latino work force is extremely frightened and vulnerable as a result of how many undocumented workers there are. I have a suit pending right now against an employer for all kinds of gross wage and hour violations and my lead plaintiff (who is I'm pretty sure undocumented) changed his mind the other day. I am guessing that someone got to him with threats. The Supreme Court in its infinite wisdom has declined to allow protection under the National Labor Relations Act to employees who are not in the country legally. I am hoping that Obama may find a way to package immigration reform and labor law reform in a way that is palatable to all sides. A combination of the two could really change the equation here.

drip,

I meant to make exactly that point about the UAW -- that they have been good soldiers and have tried to work with the companies to make them profitable. The notion that UAW is the problem here is infuriating.

[drip]

I tried to post this morning with a link about BoA's behavior and ended up in your spam filter so I'm trying without the link. Its all one piece of cloth. BoA is going to lend enough to get the workers their back pay. Its not much considering they're sitting on 25 million million of our money in the Bush/Paulson privatization of the US Treasury scheme. As soon as Congress figures out how to kill the unions without killing the dealers, there will be a 3 month loan to the automakers. BoA could fund 25 billion on its own, but chooses not to. And where is Congress in all this? Taking money from an energy efficiency plan while the automakers are plaintiffs in the litigation against stricter state pollution standards. I hope the folks at Republic become heroes across the country.

[drip]

Thanks Steven, I don't mean to cause trouble but I think hyper-linkinking is here to stay.

As an update to my now double post, I notice that the House 3-month bailout bill requires compliance with all applicable fuel efficiency and environmental standards while the Senate 3-month bailout bill limits it to only federal standards. I guess they've figured out how to get the dealerships some money before they try to flush the UAW down the drain.

[marsfarmer]

It's important to remember, especially during the last weeks of Bushworld, that this anti-union sentiment is very much orchestrated by the right. I don't think American Labor is in it's last throes; I might have thought so 5 years ago.
When was the last time we've seen mainstream politicians, including a president-elect, publicly voicing support for an illegal building occupation? (Okay, besides the Iraq war.)
In Bushworld at it's peak, these workers would have been ignored or denounced until riot police turned the situation into a "standoff". Then it would be all over the news until something ugly happened and then all the talking heads would mumble about respecting "the rule of law" and "we are all victims" while workers are dragged from the building in front of TV cameras. Anti-labor talking points would be seamlessly worked into any major story but mainly the media would focus on the spectacle.
From my perspective, things seem to be changing. Nobody would have mentioned B of A five years ago. Nobody would have doubted the good faith of the employer five years ago. Nobody would have occupied that building five years ago.
The Anti-Union bullhorn is still blaring. You can hear the goons and ginks and company finks calling in to talk radio and yelling on Fox News. They are repeating their talking points ad nauseum. They are actually saying things like "these unions have broken the back of the American auto industry!" But these mantras are not based in reality, and unlike the run-up to the Iraq war, I think most people see the truth. The trick is to be vigilant and remember that the Right is wounded: they will howl louder and bite more viciously but this is not 2003.

[Sir Charles]

marsfarmer,

You're right -- I don't mean to sound unduly bleak but rather outraged. I am preparing to do a post on some of the hopeful things that I see happening right now around the transition. I hope you will weigh in when I do.