Unions Can Beat the Billionaire Bosses, starting with Amazon
Celebrate MayDay as if a Better World is Coming
There has been a good deal of debate within the labor movement since the election defeat at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemere, Alabama. The discussion has unsurprisingly been about who, if anyone on the union side, was responsible for the defeat (For more information about the unionization campaign and election, see my article).
Of course, the culprit was Amazon. If a majority of workers wanted a union, they should have been granted one. It’s as simple as that. Help from the government by passing the “ProAct,” would make many of Amazon’s tactics illegal.
Unfortunately, this Congress is not exactly pro-union. The problem arises because a majority of Republicans, and a good number of the Democrats in Congress are bought and paid for by the employers. The rich pay for the politicians’ campaigns, while the unions contribute a pittance to getting anyone elected. The answer is public funding of political campaigns and a ban on private contributions. Then, we would see laws that are beneficial to the vast numbers of working-class people who deserve due process and democratic practices at work.
A massive public campaign in support of the Pro-Act should take place, and the mid-term elections should be a referendum on the legislation, with support and cash being withdrawn from Senators who do not pledge their votes. Rank-and-file union members should be urged to run against candidates – Democrats and Republicans – who won’t support the Pro-Act.
Time to get serious, before we’re all working for Amazon
Meanwhile, the labor movement should not depend on Congress. At Bessemer, Amazon should have had to confront the entirety of organized labor. The AFL-CIO should have focused its strength on this important struggle. National unions and locals should have raised money and led picketing of every Amazon warehouse and store in protest of its despicable actions against the Bessemer workers. So don’t blame the workers, or the union, the RWDSU, if everyone else in the country acted like spectators watching a professional sports telecast.
The Union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), that calls for the election to be overturned. Fat chance, without an uprising across the country. We should all understand that the murderer of George Floyd would not have been convicted in court without giant demonstrations in the streets by Black Lives Matter. Likewise, labor could turn the staid hearing on the unfair labor charge into marches, strikes, and general disorder, if it had the leadership and the will to do so.
There is talk of all of labor taking on the Amazon plants all at once. That is a good idea, if everyone commits to it. But we should be aware that Amazon has friends among other billionaires, all of whom will take this as a personal affront. Uppity workers.
Social Movement Unionism
Meanwhile, we need to examine what techniques can be used to overcome the anti-union propaganda of the employers. During the 25 years that I, and my colleagues, were slogging it out in the front lines of the class struggle, we learned how to turn the tables on the union busters.
You can call it Social Movement Unionism. By that, we mean an organization that is always on the move. This model has roots in the Civil Rights Movement, the CIO unions of the 1930s, and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a kick-ass movement around the turn of the century. They were all fighting organizations.
First of all they fought for their members, often making use of creative and unexpected tactics. They also supported and fought side-by-side with other organizations that were struggling to win rights for their members. In turn, these organizations supported the unions that came to their aid.
Sounds simple? Yet many union leaders are reluctant to go and help other groups, unless they can see a direct connection to their own needs. Even worse, there are many instances where unions abandoned organizations in need, who had strongly supported their union. This behavior is self-defeating and must stop. Once again, we should recall, as the IWW told us long ago, that the working class is a hand, or fist, and all our fingers (including our union) must work together.
Over a period of years we rediscovered these truisms. I was fortunate to become involved with some of the most committed and smartest organizers ever. I would be remiss if I did not write something about this crew, which restored my faith in the decency of humanity. They included Geraldine Johnson, who was also the president of the Northern California Coalition of Black Trade Unionists;
Yolanda Miranda, who learned her fighting spirit as a farm worker, and then as a United Farm Workers (UFW) organizer, in California’s Central Valley where her family were among the first to become active in the UFW union, including her brother, Billy, who was Cesar Chavez’s best friend while they were growing up;
Philip Melnick, who I met when we were campus radicals at Valley State College, and together fought side-by-side with in union battles; Ali Hebshi, who immigrated from Saudi Arabia, endured racism aimed at people with whom he had no connection, then jumped into the union movement, and became the most loved organizer by those who knew him;
Pattie Tamura came out of the workforce and became variously a staff officer and the local union president, but never wavered from her commitment to the “cause;” John Armstrong, in the best traditions of the CIO of the 1930s quit his job in Cincinnati to join our rebel crew in California. Likewise with Virginia Rodriguez, who had been the personal assistant to Cesar Chavez, until he started seeing communists under every bed.
Nick Jones, creator of the farmworkers boycott campaign, snatched victory from defeat on more than one occasion; Not every organizer is personally organized, but Rochelle Howe actually knew the names and how every person in the workplace could fit into the union campaign. No wonder she became a lawyer.
So many more sacrificed whatever they had been doing for a chance to fight back and win against some of the most vile executives on earth.
Others who gave a good accounting of themselves included Nadra Floyd, a great leader who sadly died in the prime of life; Cheryl Parisi, who went from 5am meetings with workers to leading the AFSCME union in Los Angles; Larry Frank, future deputy mayor of Los Angeles; Conrado Terrazas, gay rights activist; Susan Sachen, a top-notch organizer and one of the few with prior experience.
All of the above, dedicated and selfless labor warriors should be in the Union Hall of Fame, if there was one.
The Rising of the Rank and File
Even the best organizers could not prevail in a union struggle without the active support and leadership of the workers. The organizers bring the expertise, but the rank and file bring their hearts and souls to any winning union campaign.
The Organizing Committee, with representatives from every department, is the heart of the union. Without a strong organizing committee the union campaign is doomed to failure.
Because of these wonderful organizers, described above, and our emphasis on the organizing committee, we were able to win 25 elections, while losing only two. This was at a time when most unions were losing 25, while winning two elections. An example can be seen in the film we made during a winning campaign for 8,000 workers in 11 California state hospitals.
It’s all about Social Movement Unionism, which excites and thrills workers, and fundamentally changes the balance of power in the workplace.
We had a slogan, “The union must dominate the flow of information in the workplace (and on the internet, and with the community).” The Employer almost always tries to turn the campaign from topics like poor conditions in the plant, pay and benefits, into suspicion about the union.
If the campaign becomes focused on the union and the cost of union dues, then all is lost. The company will win. If it continues to be about low pay, lousy health care, arbitrary firings and other conditions that afflict the workers, day after day, then the union will win.
In order to keep workers focused, the union needs a stream of flyers, brochures, emails, even fortune cookies and weepuls. Their purpose is to poke fun at the bosses, remind everyone of fellow workers who were terribly mistreated, didn’t receive family leave, or were victims of racism, sexism and other demeaning slurs. In most workplaces, there are enough “bad boss” stories to last for years.
We all need to be reminded that the union brings dignity and hope to each person. It brings a Constitution (called a union contract) that puts everyone’s rights into writing. And, pay rates and benefits go in there as well. A strong union means the beginning of the end of wage slavery. Amazon doesn’t stand a chance once the union train gets rolling.
We are all entitled to nothing less than a democratic workplace.
__________________________
The First of May
Welcome home
May Day!
It’s so good to see you.
You’ve been gone a long, long time.
Marx knows, we tried to carry on
while you were away.
But it was always the same old people.
It became a reunion for tired old lefties.
We mourned you, May,
thought Joe McCarthy’s thugs
had run you off for good.
Now you’re back in all your power and glory.
A million people marched in L.A.?
Hundreds of thousands
gathering and celebrating
at the most unlikely cities.
Even Chicago,
where it all began.
I’d say you are definitely back.
And who is turning out on May 1st?
It’s workers, nearly every last one.
Just like in 1890 when we celebrated
the fight for the 8 hour work day
right here in the USA.
Back then,
lots of us were immigrants
come to seek a better life,
but finding out we had to fight for it.
Some things never change.
¿Que No?
Not only that,
We’re still fighting for an 8 hour day!