How much workers’ resistance is there today?

The overall situation is changing in the United States. The best statistic to track Covid is the rolling seven day positivity rate. The national figure is down to 1.8 percent. 136 million people are fully vaccinated, with 164 million having had their first shot. Large sectors of the economy have reopened or are just about to. The large number of re-openings, the Biden administration’s stimulus programs, and the spending due to pent-up demand have created an economic recovery. The country is not where it was six months ago. The purpose of this article is to see if these new trends have had an impact on the class struggle.

Economic upturn

The best place to begin is by looking at the new economic situation. The US economy today is clearly in a recovery, albeit an uneven one. Here are some of the details of that recovery.

Gross Domestic Product grew by 6.4% during the first quarter of this year.
559,000 new jobs were added in May.
The unemployment rate stands at 5.8%, its lowest level since the start of the pandemic.
The biggest areas for new job creation are reopened restaurants and hospitality.
Re-entry into the labor force has been quicker for women than for men.
All is not rosy. Some negative features have to be taken into account. There are about 7.5 million jobs, less than there were before the pandemic.
Low pay rates are making many of the new jobs unattractive to unemployed workers looking for new work. Right wingers have attempted to make hay out of this, saying that unemployment benefits are so high that people don’t want to go work. Quite the reverse is true. It’s a real indictment of the capitalist system that wages are so low that some people figure that unemployment’s a better option!
25 Republican state governors are planning to end the $300 per week additional payments.
Many of the moratoriums on eviction are scheduled to expire soon.
Inflation is increasing with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 5.0%. It remains to be seen if this is going to be a longer term fixture of the economy.

Strikes

In this economic context, where does the labor movement stand? Let’s start by going through the four main strikes taking place in this country today.

St Vincent Hospital, Worcester, MA. This strike has been ongoing since early March. The basic demand of the strike is a reduction in the patient:nurse ratio. Management has dug in its heels. There are 800 nurses in the bargaining unit, of which 100 have crossed the picket line. Scabs have been recruited from across the country. Striking nurses have been threatened with permanent replacements.
Allegheny Technologies Incorporated. 1,300 members of the Steel Workers Union have been on strike since March 29. These workers have not had a pay increase since 2014. The two sides are quite far apart at the bargaining table with wages, healthcare, and work rules being the main issues.
Warrior Met. 1,100 coal miners have been on strike since April 1, primarily in Brookwood, Alabama. The key issues here are wage rates, pensions, and shift lengths.The strike has taken on all the features of a traditional coal miners’ strike: large rallies in camo fatigues, shanty huts on the picket line, and strong community support. There has been an injunction limiting the number of picketers and at least three instances where miners have been struck by cars attempting to cross the picket line. There have been arrests on the picket line and civil disobedience activities.
Volvo Truck. 2,900 UAW Local 2069 members are on strike at the large truck plant in Dublin, Virginia. The situation here is complicated. The local first struck from April 17 until May 16. The international leadership then said that a satisfactory agreement had been reached, the workers should return immediately to work, and then all the details would be explained to them. When the workers learned what was in the agreement, they rejected it by a vote of 98%. The issues in dispute are the ones to be found in all automobile negotiations: the wage tier structure, healthcare, and shift procedures.

The union then went back to the bargaining table and came back with a second contract agreement. This, in turn, was voted down by a 90% margin and the local went back on strike for a second time on June 7. Automobile trade publications have questioned how much Volvo is being hurt by the strike. They speculate that Volvo might have limited production at the plant anyway, given the shortage of semiconductor chips.

Lockouts and new organizing

These four strikes are not the only strikes taking place. For example, there recently was a two-day teacher strike at Urban Prep in Chicago. However, these four strikes are the largest and most important. We should look at some other forms of labor activity to get a rounded picture of the state of our movement. 650 members of the Steel Workers union have been locked out by ExxonMobil in Beaumont, Texas since May 1. (A lockout is when union members are prepared to work, but the company will not let them in until they agree to management’s contract proposals.) 200 Teamsters have been locked out since a one-day strike on January 21 at the Marathon Refinery in St. Paul.

There is no evidence of any substantial new organizing taking place. Last year’s union density figures did go up slightly, but only because Covid-caused layoffs were less in unionized workplaces than in non-union workplaces. The figures show that unionized workplaces are better places to work, not that large numbers are joining unions. The Who Gets The Bird? website maintains a very careful tally of new organizing. There is just no evidence of big successful organizing drives at the moment.

Passing the PRO Act is the central focus of the AFL-CIO leadership. The PRO Act is a piece of legislation designed to overcome the most anti-labor features of contemporary labor law. The main point to be made here is that the campaign to pass the PRO Act has not taken off. There have been a number of online events and some set piece actions. Substantial lobbying and advertising have taken place. However, there have not been large rallies and demonstrations. “Street Heat” has not been created. The campaign has not moved outside the world of the AFL-CIO apparatus.

Union Oppositions

When unions collaborate with management, militants traditionally form opposition caucuses inside the union. The influence of these caucuses are a good gauge of the militancy of the labor movement. Opposition caucuses do not exist in most unions today. Happily, there are some important exceptions.

Auto Workers. The UAW is involved in an important corruption scandal at the moment. Former President Gary Jones has just been sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison for embezzlement. In the course of the case, the US Attorney and the UAW reached a consent decree. Part of this is a referendum on the direct election of UAW officers. The Unite All Workers for Democracy caucus is actively campaigning and winning support for one member one vote in this referendum.

Teamsters. The strongest opposition force in a union today is in the Teamsters Union. Sean O’Brien and Fred Zuckerman are the “OZ” slate candidates in the November election. They are running against the slate of Steve Vairma, who is seen as the choice of the Hoffa forces, as long-term President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. retires. The immediate issue is to ensure nomination of the OZ slate at the online convention, which begins on June 22. The slate’s convention platform makes its viewpoint clear. They call for rank and file Teamsters on all bargaining committees, for majority rule in contract votes, the right to be able to vote on contract supplements and riders, starting strike benefits from the first day on strike,prohibiting the forced merger of local unions or the forced transfer of members to another local,continuing the democratic elections of union leaders, and finally, for ensuring that only those who have actually worked as a rank and file Teamster can run for President or Secretary-Treasurer.

This campaign has won substantial support from rank and file Teamsters. There are now hundreds of activists working on it.

Conclusion

So, what’s the overall balance sheet? There are some long hard strikes and lockouts taking place. There are not a lot of them, but they deserve our support and solidarity. They take place in the overall context of a low level of class struggle. Labor is not conquering new ground, even though there are some real opposition movements inside the unions.

The situation may brighten as the pandemic recedes and the upturn in hiring continues. In general, an economic upturn helps the class struggle. Workers feel more confident fighting the employer when the repercussions of being laid-off or fired are less. In an upturn, the bosses will need a larger workforce and are less likely to get rid of workers. Similarly, a new job is easier to get, making the threat of dismissal less threatening. However, in mid-June, there is no evidence to support the contention that this process of increased militancy has begun.

Whatever the ups and downs of the current situation, nothing alters our fundamental belief: only class struggle has ever improved working class peoples’ lives. Nothing else ever has, and nothing else ever will.