Video Essay: What Union Strikes Tell Us About Our Society
"Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world." - Dolores Huerta
The United Auto Workers strike is the latest wave in the powerful resurgence of the labor movement across the United States. The uptick kicked off in 2021 with the Amazon Labor Union led by president and founder Chris Smalls. Every union essentially fights for the same thing: fair compensation, better work conditions, and better benefits. They fight for a better quality of life.
Our current socio-political moment created a perfect recipe for a labor movement across industries. We have seen workers at Starbucks and McDonald's fight, teachers from high school to college walk out of classrooms, truck drivers in public and private sectors refusing to drive, writers in Hollywood to newsrooms refusing to write, and nurses picketing outside hospitals. I identify three main components that I think perfectly coalesced to create this momentum:
Donald Trump's chaotic presidency revealed what was behind the (government) curtain in a whole new way: greed and corporate influence in politics were front and center.
COVID disruption forced the masses to truly see, think about, and experience the various social inequities that have been brewing for decades: inaccessible and expensive healthcare, grueling workplace policies and conditions, police brutality, inequitable distribution of household labor and care work. We collectively realized that our society's standards and basic functions can, should, and need to work better for us.
The wealth gap has been steadily widening, and during COVID, the growth was exponential. "The wealth held by billionaires in the U.S. increased by 70%, with 2020 marking the steepest increase in billionaires' share of wealth on record."
The growing wealth gap continues to push the poor, working class, and middle class (especially Black and non-white Hispanic households) to the edge. In contrast, the wealthy, billionaire, capitalist class continues to prosper. There's only so much people can take, so we are where we are today.
United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain laid out the union's position plainly: "They could double our raises and not raise car prices and still make millions of dollars in profits… We're not the problem. Corporate greed is the problem." Corporate greed is the problem, and it hurts the worker and the consumer, but that is the design of a neoliberal capitalist society. It is based on endless growth and consumption.
The wealthy owners are supposed to become richer at the expense of the non-owners. CEO Tim Gurner went semi-viral for basically saying that out loud. In the video below, I dissect his call for 50% unemployment and compare it to an interview with Shawn Fain. Although they work in different industries, the ideology applies.
Additionally, it is essential to note that specific policy choices led to our current moment. The corporate tax rate was 52.80% in 1968 and is 21% today. Guess which generation benefitted from that?
One of the most insightful and informative courses I took during grad school was Feminist Economics. One of the core principles is to advocate and implement economic policies that contribute to the well-being of society: investments in education, housing, healthcare, and environmental protection. The policy's success is measured by how well it serves society rather than how well the policy serves shareholders.
If there's any takeaway from the resurgence of union strikes, it's that the people are working together to put each other over profit. As Bob Dylan puts it, ~*the times they are a-changin'*~
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
As always, please share Something to Think About with friends…family…enemies…whoever! Have a great Friday.
Adriana <3