I haven’t actually gotten this question, but I’m sure some people are thinking it: Why am I so supportive of the Amazon strike?
I know I’m showing my age here, but I come from a time when you would see striking workers A LOT. Once upon a time, before they were gutted, unions had power. Even in the 1980s you would see picketing workers with their signs, and most people respected those workers and wouldn’t cross picket lines.
GOP leaders were very successful in convincing the people of the US that unions were bad and were taking their money and doing nothing for them. Republican voters tended to support this sentiment, even though they were being hurt by it. The GOP was also able to convince people that the ‘minimum wage’ was not supposed to be a living wage, among other falsehoods that led to the disintegration of union power.
My dad was one of those people who thought that unions did nothing for people, until he (as a newbie in the DPW) was elected as steward for his chapter. And now he understands how much unions do, and also the fact that the powers that be WILL do anything to exploit their workers. Without union protection, company leadership would have people working zillion-hour workweeks with no overtime… This is what unions prevent. Unions also arbitrate grievances, lobby for decent health care, and prevent unfair termination.
Let me me repeat something in slightly more detail: Your boss will not do nice things for you out of the goodness of their heart. Because of shiny capitalism, your boss’s only job is to make money, and they will exploit you to get that money. As much money as they can. And they will gaslight you into believing that’s just fine.
Which brings us back to the Amazon strike.
Strikes need to work. The American people (and the people of the world with their own unions) need to see that strikes work. These workers aren’t picketing to whine about slight inconveniences–they are literally dying in the course of their jobs. They are striking for fair work conditions. They are striking for fair pay.
The middle class in capitalist countries seems to operate on the notion that they will one day become “The Boss,” and thus, the enemy of unions. So a subset of people, generally Republicans, will rail against unions, even while making their paltry $9/hour, because they believe that one day, they’ll be making $500/hour and will hate unions just as much as their exploitative boss does now. So for this slightly non-zero probability, these people harm themselves to provide for a future they’ll likely never achieve.
Repeating the truth again: Your boss is exploiting you. They may be friendly, they may act like family, but they are still squeezing you for every dollar they can get from you. Because every dollar they’re not giving to you, they are putting in their pocket.
And if I am ever in a situation where I need to strike, I want it to have power. I want my boss to look at the Amazon strike, and at the strikes of teachers in various states, and the UPS strike against the 7-day workweek without overtime, and see that strikes WORK. You can’t leave all the power in the hands of the upper class, because they’ll use that power to strangle you.
So I don’t care if it’s inconvenient. I don’t care if you need something that just happens to come up for sale on Prime Day.
Do Not Cross That Picket Line.
source https://bargainbrutedotcom.tumblr.com/post/175884821204
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