The Hot and Crusty Workers: An Image From the Future of Labor

For today’s minimum wage workers, the material conditions of life are similar to the conditions of the working class in the early 20th century. Hours are long, workers underpaid, and there's little benefits. Because of low pay and a standing reserve of unemployed workers in the market, there’s generally little leverage for low-paid workers. Organizing necessarily entails the threat of intimidation and downright termination. All in all, for the country’s lowest paid and often hardest working workers, there is little hope. 

Or is there? Late last week in an unprecedented victory, the workers at the 63rd street location of Hot and Crusty in New York voted to certify an independent union. The victory came after an extensive campaign, following an even longer period which included extensive labor violations:

A 4 month-long public campaign to bring attention to injustices in the workplace . . . [including] widespread labor violations spanning 6 years, including overtime and minimum wage violations, non-compliance with health and safety codes, and sexual harassment and verbal abuse of female employees . . . [The campaign] began after [the workers approached] . . . grassroots community organization Laundry Workers Center United to assist them in their efforts ("Workers Win Election").

An important note to make in the effort was the role of the Laundry Workers' Center. The rise of independent worker and advocacy associations with strong support from community organizations is an increasingly successful model of organizing. Some big examples of this include the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, and now the Laundry Workers Center; all of these organizations have achieved significant victories. These independent associations are able to act as a resource station for worker attempts to organize a campaign against a workplace, or even in an entire industry.

In the case of the Hot and Crusty workers, the Laundry Workers Center could serve a collection of purposes, such as resource collection from the community, outreach, and interacting with the media about issues affecting the campaign. All of these are a necessary aspect of organizing, but are difficult to accomplish in the transitory state preceding a union vote. Concurrently, a third party organization can externalize many of the risks of organizing away from workers by acting as representation for their efforts and thereby allowing the anonymity of certain employees to remain intact. 

This organizing strategy is an image from the future of labor. Even Joe Burns, in the popular labor-based book Reviving the Strike: How Working People Can Regain Power and Transform America, argues for the widespread erection of independent worker organizations. This growing form of labor organizing may hold the key for the millions of workers who lack representation and are re-living the severe working conditions that workers dealt with a century ago. 

Interestingly, in the increase of independent workers associations and workers’ centers, one might see the spectres of industrial unionism reemerging. That is to say, industrial unionism tends to be built around the essential belief that workers should organize not in specific trades or specific workplaces, but across  different industries and even communities. In other words, both industrial unionism and workers' centers are similar in that both strategies draw from all available infrastructure; instead of having an isolated workforce trying to organize a single local, workers can organize first in associations that are isolated away from the territory of the employer. Interesting, indeed, especially because the last time industrial unionism and its methodology was as relevant as it may soon become was in the early 1900s, the last time economic inequality was as severe as it is now. 

But that's just food for thought, of course.

Tyler Crawford, 2012

Source

Eidelson, John. “American Workers: Shackled to Labor Law.” www.inthesetimes.com 23 May. 28 May. 2012. <http://inthesetimes.com/article/13181/american_workers_shackled_to_labor_law/>

Sunkara, Bhaskar. “Can Labor Strike Back?” www.inthesetimes.com 10 May. 28 May 2012. <http://inthesetimes.com/article/13194/can_labor_strike_back1/>

Workers Win Historic Election. Press Release. 25 May. 2012. 28 May. 2012. <http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002725003>

A Montreal Story: Unions Should Look to Students

As the Montreal student strike passes it’s 100th day, it shows no signs of slowing down or losing steam. If anything, the new draconian anti-protest laws being imposed on the students in Quebec are drawing in more allies from across the broad spectrum of the progressive community. On May 22nd, the movement saw a boom after it was officially endorsed by CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees. CUPE  President Paul Moist:

“We cannot stand by while governments continue to violate our basic rights in the name of austerity and funding cuts that only fuel the growing gap between rich and poor. Today we stand in solidarity with Quebecers who oppose these measures" (CUPE National President Paul Moist).

This news highlights a lesson that is once again being re-learned by students and labor organizations alike- that the interests of labor will often necessarily intersect with the interests of the broader civil society. The same forces that are pushing toward cuts and privatizations in student services are also herding society toward raised retirement ages, slashed pensions, and neutered union contracts. CUPE realizes these intrinsic relationships, offering words of encouragement to students:

“Students shouldn’t have to suffer huge debt loads before they even get to work. They’ve seen the cost of post-secondary education grow outrageously in the United States and the rest of Canada, and they don’t want a society where only the rich can afford to go to school. I admire their stand, and CUPE supports them 100 per cent.” 

With comparatively few resources, labor organizations can see massive dividends from investing in student groups. Regularly, a labor organization will invest millions of dollars on a single election (AFSCME has already pledged 100 million toward the 2012 re-election of Barack Obama). With merely an endorsement and perhaps a small financial commitment dedicated toward organizer stipends and student resources, labor can see legions of dedicated students championing causes of worker rights on campus. And, perhaps most importantly, guarantee future generations of talented youth lending their abilities to the causes of labor.

The new logic of austerity means that both cuts to social programs and attacks on workers are justified, not on ideological grounds as they were in the past, but rather on the practical need to “tighten our belts” in this unsure economic climate. This means that students, public employees, and workers of all stripes need to work together to forge (or, in some cases, remake) networks that can pose a viable counter-narrative. 

Sources

http://cupe.ca/education/offers-support-quebec-student

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/afscme-votes-to-endorse-obama-for-reelection/2011/12/06/gIQAjJanZO_blog.html 

Why This Week's NLRB’s Decision Concerning the Target Workers Union is Very Important

Target, a retail outlet known for its aggressive anti-Union practices, has been in the news a lot this week. A recent attempt to unionize a Target in Stream Valley, New York failed by a 137-85 vote. The election, however, was overturned this week by the National Labor Relations Board. After a 10-day trial, the NLRB found that Target Corporation used unfair labor practices in order to interfere with the process for the vote, including threatening their employees:

“supervisor Nicole Barrett “pulled” [employee Tashwna Green] into the men’s accessories department and told her that she saw an article [Green wrote] in which Green...[wrote] that management was not listening to what the workers had to say...Barrett asked her “what management” she was referring to. Green...[said] “management overall"...Barrett [said] “I’m not here to tell [you] what to do; it’s [your] decision on how [you] want to vote. Just be careful of what you do cause you never know what could happen" (David).

Workers in the retail sector have long been considered a transient workforce, an argument which lent itself to the lack of attempts to organize at such outlets. The Stream Valley case is yet another sign that this is simply not the case. Instead, it's becoming increasingly apparent that the main driver behind a lack of employee based organizing is because of the aggressive attempts to intimidate these workers.

Retail employers like Target and Wal-Mart are some of the world's largest employers. Wal-Mart, in fact, is the world's largest private employer with 2.2 million employees. Target follows not too far behind as the fifth largest employer in the U.S. with 365,000 employers working at more than 1,700 locations (Form 10-k). These companies generate enormous revenues. When you do the math for Target's numbers, employees tend to generate more than $170,000 per capita even though they are only paid $6 - 7 an hour. Meanwhile, Target's CEO, Robert J. Ulrich, has been paid by the company more than $100 million dollars over the past 5 years (Forbes). The conflict here is clear: Target wants to reward its top executives with huge payouts while simultaneously decreasing the quality of life for its hardest workers.

Though the efforts to unionize a Target in Stream Valley might seem like a black swan, the case is by no means isolated and is in fact high stakes. The case smashes the illusion that Target Co. can practice unfair labor practices while still flying under the radar. For some time now, it has long been the opinion of many business analysts that Target's labor practices were altogether unimportant compared to the monolithic Wal-Mart Stores Inc. which dominates the industry (Bhatnagar). Yet, Target is the second largest employer in an industry which employs millions of worker.

Most importantly, the largest service employers, including Target but also Wal-Mart and McDonalds have never certified a union. Ever. Imagine how many millions of workers are employed in these industries who are vastly underpaid and have few benefits. A successful organizing campaign at such a significant employer like Target would definitely be a game changer as the sudden presence of employee based organizing began to affect workers in other labor sectors connected to the industry. 

These large implications in the actions of such a small group of workers is astounding. With an NLRB ordered mandate for a second election, there is still a chance that a very important domino in the U.S. workforce is about to be toppled, that is, the domino that represents the intransigence of large retail multinationals and the impending return of labor in the vocabulary for millions of workers.

Target is afraid. Very afraid.

Tyler Crawford, May, 2012

Sources

Bhatnagar, Parija, Just Call it ‘Teflon Target,’ April, 2011, CNNMoney. <http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/20/news/fortune500/target_walmart/>

D’Innocenzio, Anne, “Labor Judge Overturns Union Election at Target,” 5/21/2012. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47512787/ns/business/t/labor-judge-overturns-union-election-target/?fb_ref=.T7v6-bxMe1y.like&fb_source=profile_multiline#.T72YEEXY-VT>

Form 10-k, Target Corporation, <http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/27419/000104746912002714/a2207838z10-k.htm>

Forbes.com. <http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/12/ODFF.html>

Davis, Steven. Target Corporation v. United Food and Commercial Workers, May 21, 2012, <http://mynlrb.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4580a0138e

Redesigning Power

“We of the labor hosts have conned that word over till our minds are all a-tingle with it. Power. It is a kingly word.”

- Jack London

For much of the world’s population, the birth of the free market has accomplished little more than ushering in two centuries of volatile and unpredictable market systems. Throughout the 19th and 20th century, societies undergoing the transition into a capitalist economic order have tended to be riddled with a chaotic variability. The free market, with its rote cycles of boom and bust, defy prediction and stability. Yet, its contradictions have remained consistent: the owners of capital, or economic power, as a class, tends to get smaller while the working class tends to get larger and increasingly disenfranchised.

Yet, there is hope within this increasingly acute duality. The dichotomy between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’ has led to the birth of a labor regime nearly as old as the vast institutions of capital. Indeed, the history of labor is the veritable history of capitalism. With the ebbs and flows of movements for social and economic justice, we have also seen its paired opposite, the ebbs and flows of the richest and most powerful individuals.

After the great labor struggles of the 20th century, western economies arrived at what has been termed “the accord.” This silent relationship between the forces of capital and the movement for labor resulted in the birth of a middle class, historic levels of equality, and an end to the mythos of the fighting union and the militant strike.

However, this delicate balance between capital and labor which has historically been in favor of capital yet tolerant of the demands of labor is now under attack. In particular, an increasingly hostile trend of vulgar libertarianism tending to reject all attempts at marketplace regulation and reform has pushed both the political and economic establishments of much of the west toward the right. Unions are now seeing historically low membership. In lieu of a connectedness to the struggles of the past, much of the labor establishment has lost touch with its greatest imperative: organizing the power of the worker. In past generations, this was simply a fact of life.

Nevertheless, the contemporary problems of labor extend even beyond the capitalist economic order. With the dawn of the New Economy, much of what remains of the old labor establishments have begun to lose their stride. An alarming cultural and age gap has grown amongst the working class. While a generation which once carried the torch of labor approaches retirement, a new, younger generation of laborers entering a broken economy has been left disoriented and disorganized. The benefits of labor reforms once considered commonplace, such as pensions, a living wage, and solid representation, now scarcely exists for the vast majority of the working class. When one looks upon these conundrums, the conclusion is clear: we must re-envision the power of labor.

The labor regime of the new economy must be rugged enough to outlast the 21st century. This task will require institutions that are both strong, yet flexible. They must operate both horizontally and democratically, but be able to command great organizational power, all with a base of resources and highly mobilized rank and file.

Hands On Organizing is a journal of contemporary labor authored by two young organizers, Tyler Crawford and Patrick T. Shepherd. We wish to see this become a sandbox for new approaches to building power. Concurrently, we seek innovative approaches to worker self-management under the new economy, and set ourselves toward this ambitious end. The possibility of an egalitarian society rests on the challenge of building a new labor movement, the fundamental task of the modern working class.