Striking for More
It’s been a week.
One of the highlights, so far: firing of NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb (I wrote about that last week), appointing McFarren NLRB Chair, and the Biden administration’s halt on issuing final rules to The Federal Register.
By firing Robb, Biden gave at least some sign that he is willing to take aggressive action to support labor’s agenda. Coupled with appointing McFarren the NLRB Chair, the actions together had tangible outcomes: halting more bad decisions coming from an NLRB that has been at war with unions for the past four years.
By coupling those two actions with the additional Executive Order halting new final rules — a standard step for incoming administrations — it also killed multiple proposed rules, including the final rule overturning the Columbia decision (which brought private university graduate assistants under the NLRB) and the decision banning Scabby the Rat.
It was a good day for labor.
How many more good days there’ll be — that remains to be seen. There are inklings of a sign that the Biden administration will, when lobbied, take action in labor’s interest. Our fate may be in our own hands, and in the ability of the movement to work together across unions rather than prioritizing narrow self-interest. If the next four years become a free-for-all, with unions prioritizing their own gain rather than the gain of the movement — well, we’ll end the Biden presidency with little to show for it.
Why We Strike
I wrote a piece for Protean Magazine that I’m pretty proud of, and which explored the point of striking.
The resurgence of striking on the Left hasn’t led to much discussion about why we strike. It’s easy to say wages and benefits, and those things are true — but to cast strikes as solely a piece of leverage in negotiating bread-and-butter issues narrows the horizons of what it can be, and what it has historically been.
My argument: that although short term gains have to be part of the discussion, we should always strike with a clear eye toward long term shifts in the balance of power between labor and capital. Unions like the Chicago Teachers’ Union have done this masterfully; their decade of militancy led, in part, to the recent repeal of a law that restricted the scope of their bargaining rights. They refused to accept the narrow scope of issues offered to them, and they deliberately pushed — and broke — the law in challenging managerial rights and the idea of constraining their right to bargain.
Historically, this is what public sector unions did. Pennsylvania teachers struck en masse in the 1960s for wage increases, and for a collective bargaining law, and won both. Postal workers struck for wages and a bargaining law, and won both. They didn’t just prioritize what was in front of them: they prioritized the future, too, and ensuring they would deal with management on more equal footing.
Now, unions with secure bargaining rights are challenging the idea of “management rights” — one of the key, unchallenged spheres of the labor-management relationship, and a concept that (while it goes unchallenged) permanently puts labor on the defensive.
The strike is key to all of this, and if we’re not striking with shifting the terrain in mind, we’re not striking well. When the pickets are done and the contract is signed, we want to be in a better position — not just in wages and benefits, but in the power dynamic with management — than we were before, with an eye toward the next battle.
Reading
I’m also going to be on a podcast called The Magnificast talking about Catholicism and unions. I may or may not accuse union busters of mortal sins, and I may or may not challenge Cardinals to deny union busting attorneys communion. Listen and find out. It should come out soon.
I’m reading two interesting books that are going to be put on pause (more on why in a second): a book on 1199’s history of healthcare organizing, and a book on the French Front Populaire during the 1930s. Both great reads; the latter feels all too timely right now. It’s also interesting to read about how revolutionary the Matignon Agreements were. For the first time ever, French workers had paid time to spend on holiday, leading tens of thousands of them to flock to the beaches of Southern France (when many had never even left the cities in which they lived).
The reason they’re getting put on hold: I just received my copy of Brendan O’Connor’s book on nativism, Blood Red Lines, and I’m starting it tonight. Brendan is a fellow Strikewave editor and a great journalist, and I highly recommend reading his book. It’s (unfortunately) incredibly timely.
After that, I should receive Sarah Jaffe’s book Work Won’t Love You Back, which I’m incredibly excited to read. Sarah is one of the best labor journalists out there and a great writer, and you should pick up a copy of her book — also very timely given the added demands that work places on us during a global pandemic.
Maybe more writing coming soon. Until then.
In solidarity,
Connor
We've both been very brave
Walk around with both legs
Fight the scary day
We both pull the tricks out of our sleeves
But I'll believe in anything
And you'll believe in anything
— Wolf Parade, “I’ll Believe In Anything”