Fightbacks in the workplace today

The probable fall of the House of Trump has dominated the news over the past few weeks.The purpose of this article is to look at a very different aspect of the US situation. That is the state of the class struggle. Where does the conflict between employers and workers stand today?

Small strikes

The first point to be made is that the level of strike activity is very low. September is the latest month for which statistics are available.September strikes fell into two categories. First, there was the very important University of Illinois Hospital strike that has already been described on this website. This strike involved roughly 4,500 workers. Secondly, there were a few small local strikes. These included workplace actions atReith Riley Construction, Hood River Distillers, Langeloth Metallurgical, Miller Tool & Die, NLMK Steel, Johnson Controls, and at the Highland Park Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in Michigan. All told these strikes involved just 5,618 workers. This slim number represents the total of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services reported strikes for the whole country.

The BLS only collects strike statistics for bargaining units that have over 1,000 members. The Bureau calculated days lost through strikes in September at less than 0.005% of total work time. So, the pattern is no different for larger workplaces.

Now, it’s not a mystery why workers are reluctant to risk strike activity at the moment. The combination of economic downturn and the resurgence of COVID19 has placed the working class in a very difficult situation. Restaurant and hospitality workers have been devastated by the closures. Many jobs are gone forever. Job security is as fragile as it has been for years. In this situation, caution, not confrontation, can often be seen as the better option by many workers.

ReConserve Strike

Looking at one small strike in more detail will help flesh out this picture. ReConserve is an animal feed manufacturer in the Chicago suburb of Hodgkins.The plant has the high tower of an old mill. The work is dirty and the equipment dangerous. Twenty-six, mainly Latino workers represented by UFCW Local 881 are on strike fighting for a first contract. Wage parity with other ReConserve locations and with other factories in the Hodgkins industrial park is a central issue.

Hector Lopez, ReConserve worker and Arise board member makes the official announcement. (Source: Arise Chicago)

The picket line is overshadowed by an expressway marking the border of an industrial area off the main road. The workers are spirited and welcome support from UFCW staffers, Arise Chicago, (a pro-labor faith-based organization), and from members of other unions. “Scabby,”the giant inflatable rat, dominates the scene. Truckers frequently sound their horns in support. The tough-minded workers know that they are a small group against a large company. But they believe that wage parity and the security of a union contract are worth fighting for. This strike captures much of the feel of the small strikes in this country today.

Healthcare

All of this year’s bigger strikes at Asarco, Bath Iron Works, and University of Illinois Hospital have now been settled. There is one large struggle on the horizon, however. Some 2,500 nurses at four hospitals in the Philadelphia area have voted to authorize a strike. Their union, the Pennsylvania Association for Nurses and Allied Professionals, has a militant history. The central issue is the same as in all other hospital struggles since the pandemic began: nurse-patient ratios. In fighting for “safety in numbers”, as the union slogan goes, nurses are fighting for their patients’ healthcare just as much as their own working conditions. Union activists will need to closely monitor the Philadelphia nurses’ situation and prepare to build solidarity.

Elsewhere in the healthcare industry, management’s hostility to unions has taken a turn that is simultaneously both confrontational and bizarre. Five nurses at the massive Stroger Hospital in Chicago have been disciplined in a most unusual situation. The Illinois Nurses Association at Stroger recently began a new round of contract negotiations. The nurses decided on a public event to publicize their contract proposals. Seeking apublic relations advantage from the Halloween holiday, they decided to dress up when they presented their demands to management. The bosses said that this was threatening behavior! They have brought five nurses up on charges that could lead to suspension or termination. While the charge is laughable, we should take management’s threats seriously and rally to the defense of these union activists.

Education

One needs a scorecard to keep track of the situation in K-12 education. Each school district makes its own decision on how to respond to the pandemic. There are a thousand different combinations of remote, hybrid, and in-person learning. Many districts have different policies for different grade levels. One district can also usewidely varying procedures at different points in time. This means that teacher unionists are faced with a complex patchwork situation. Unions have responded in a number of ways. For example, in Chicago, the school district has adopted remote learning but there has been public discussion of requiring teachers and students to return to in-person classes.In response, the CTU is waging a lively public relations campaign to ensure that in-person learning does not resume until schools are safe to reopen.

Another example of teacher action recently took place in Brookline, Massachusetts where 915 teachers (out of a workforce of 1,000) engaged in a well-organized “sick-out” on November 3. Their demand is that the school district ensures six foot distancing. The outcome of this struggle remains to be determined.

Covid Walkouts

Last Spring saw quite a number of spontaneous workplace walkouts demanding PPE and other protections against the virus. The current resurgence of the virus has not seen a similar pattern of walkouts. One part of the explanation for this differenceappears to be that therehas been some increase in the amount of PPE that employers are providing. While workplaces have certainly not been refitted to provide for six foot distancing, masks, gloves and hand sanitizer appear to be more readily available. These may be of varying amounts and quality, but they are more present in the workplace than before.

Oppositions in the Unions

Militant opposition inside of the trade unions has taken three main forms. One, opposition caucuses in the teachers’ unions, the AFT and the NEA. These are mainly younger teachers inspired by the RedEd movement. Two, the network around Labor Notes. Labor Notes has been able to maintain an impressive range of activities during the pandemic.

Three, there is the work of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union. They have put down real roots across the Teamsters Union. The TDU is involved in many issues from union democracy to a stronger stand against management at the bargaining table. Currently, they are supporting the O’Brien-Zuckerman slate in the 2021 IBT Presidential election.

Uber/Lyft referendum in California

Uber and Lyft put great resources into promoting California’s Proposition 22 in the recent election. Proposition 22’s purpose was to overturn the law that designated drivers as regular employees subject to wage and benefit protections and instead to classify the drivers as independent contractors. Classifying workers as independent contractors rather than normal workers is a form of cost-cutting often used by the employers.Proposition 22 passed by 58% to 41%. This is a real defeat for the labor movement in California, and particularly for app-based workers—and it could have national implications for contract workers elsewhere in the US.

Deepen the fightback

In conclusion, having surveyed the overall situation we can see where the areas of fightback are today: the small strikes, the hospitals, for safety during the pandemic in schools, and the Teamsters’ opposition. We can wish there were more of them, but this is where things stand. Our task is to do everything in our power to support and deepen these examples of working class fightback.