Why don't we see National Strikes here in the US?

[bleedingheart]

My uncle is a union miner. When the air traffic controllers were striking back during the Reagan era, and Reagan basically fired them...my uncle wanted to see a national strike.

He wanted to see every union man and woman just walk out in solidarity and shut the country down.

Every time he sees another union concede or more workers getting screwed...he brings this topic up.

The old guy is now 80 and suffering from lung cancer and it just upsets him to no end that all the hard work of the early union worker is slowly being conceded back to the corporatists...

[acmejack]

1. November second

[DJ MEW]

7. true but it will only work if enough people do it.

We should do a role call to see how many people are planning on participating.


Edited, because I can't spell.

[porphyrian]

2. The South doesn't strike.

They barely have unions, and the ones they do have wield little or no power there at the moment.

[bleedingheart]

4. that is really sad...and considering that in the south...

there were great populist movements...

I am reading Zinn's book and it is wonderful and it is also sad to see a region that was once progressive be dragged downward by politicos...

[0007]

19. Which one? "Passionate Declarations" - "A People's History of the U.S."

Both are loaded with information on the "Labor Movement"

[bleedingheart]

27. "A People's History of the US"

...made me want to cry...to think that states like Oklahoma were on the forefront of the populist movement and now look at how they have become nothing but GOP pawns...

[porphyrian]

42. Organized religion helps maintain ignorance there.

The Southern Baptist Convention doesn't like competition for the minds of its followers, I suppose.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Because union members would be punished in one way or another

But I agree with your uncle. It is criminal that we are backsliding into the gilded age, complete with worker exploitation.

[bleedingheart]

11. they were punished back when...but they accepted that as a sacrifice

for the common good.

when my father was an infant, his parents were cast out of company housing and they and their family of 5 kids at the time were living in a tent...all to fight for a union.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. I think things aren't bad enough for people to make those sacrifices yet.

They are still comfortable enough to not want to rock the boat. *sigh*

[acmejack]

40. Were they in the IWW?

Wobblies? I don't think any one has ever figured out exactly why the IWW members were "wobblies".

[SteppingRazor]

5. Them dirty commies over at World Can't Wait...

are calling for a national strike on Nov. 2, but it remains to be seen whether it will conquer American apathy.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Divide and conquer.

The scandals of mob control of unions in the 50s and 60s left the unionists unsure of who to support, so they wound up supporting only their own union, which they knew (usually) themselves to be free of mob influence. That was when the unions stopped conducting support strikes, unless there was a direct connection between the striking unions. The miners would not strike to support airline workers, the teamsters would not strike to support garment workers, etc. Everybody was just taking care of their own.

Notably, this precipitated the decline of the unions as well.

At least that's my take on it.

[rinsd]

34. I would tend to agree.....

...sympathy or solidarity strikes are very rare nowadays.

[LincolnMcGrath]

47. Most of the Mob stories are folklore.

Or propaganda.

[RaleighNCDUer]

49. Of course. They were used to scare workers away.

Crooks or commies, every one.

Just enough truth in it to make them believable. Painting with a broad brush didn't begin with Faux News.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Several reasons:

1. We've had decades and decades of media such as The Reader's Digest (one of the most widely-read publications in America) railing against the "evils" of unions.

2. Intimidation by employers. In these days of "permanent replacements," i.e. you can get fired for striking, there is de facto no right to strike.

3. The American people are cut off from one another. European countries still have neighborhoods and villages where everyone has lived there for generations and knows everybody else, as well as town squares and cafes where people sit and argue politics. (We have cafes where people sit and argue politics, but most of the customers are NOT union members.) How do you organize a suburb, or worse yet, an exurb?

4. The Dems lost some of the union vote when they failed to stand up to Reagan and when so many of them supported NAFTA. Some union members have gone Republicanite on cultural issues, while others have gone completely apolitical.

[bleedingheart]

14. It all makes me so sad and also very mad

[shraby]

9. I would guess it's because of the size of this country.

That makes it difficult to institute a nationwide strike of any kind.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Several reasons

1.- The Unions are scared to call for this, retribution

2.- The population is atomized

3.- Propaganda has worked

4.- People have been very comfy until now

[Angry Girl]

13. Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! You get the prize!

I am very curious to see how Americans will react to the extreme poverty that is about to hit. I don't think the majority have any clue how far down things can go - they've never had a hungry day in their propaganda-insulated lives.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I am betting on Revolution, but that is me

the violent kind too, and if not revolution civil war, or to be more precise, for this cold civil war to go rather hot. If this scenario comes to pass, I don't expect this country to survive it... balkanization is in our future

[Angry Girl]

18. I thought so too....

I thought the theft of the prez elections would spark major riots.
Yeah, right.

Ten I thought the Downing Street Memo would stir the populace.
ZZZZZzzzzz

And then I was sure that Katrina would spark racial riots.
*crickets chirping*

Now I'm starting to realize that without a strong leader, nothing is going to happen. And we all know what happens to strong leaders who champion the cause of the people in this country....

I also think that TV has too strong a grip on us. Education is failing in this country and Hollywood creates the best propaganda in the world....

*sigh*

[blindpig]

25. ding ding

Take away their televisions and people won't know how to act. Like I said in another thread it's the best means of controlling the population since religion, better than machine guns.

Take away their gasoline, ration food, all will be chill as long as the idiot boxes are running.

Be it an insidious plot or coincidence gone to hell the American people have been the lab rats in the grandest crowd control experiment in history. It's about the only valid reason that anybody might feel sorry for us.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. I Think #4 Is The Key

The Professor

[bleedingheart]

29. I have to agree with you...

when it hits home...then the revolution may start.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Ground Swell Revolution Almost Never Happens. . .

. . .when the middle class is abundant and happy. It's when the poor and destitute outnumber any other single class that trouble brews. Think France, Russia, and Mexico (v. the French).
The Professor

[Selatius]

22. People are also afraid because of job security

There is little job security. I believe this would fall under population atomization though. When you are alone or believe you are alone, the burden appears greater than it may actually be.

Where I work, the few workers who are still unionized face the same problem with workers who aren't union but could join: Fear. Many don't want "trouble" from the boss, and as long as they aren't in trouble now, why join the union? There is no solidarity there. There is no sense of brotherhood or community among the workers, and the corporation I work for wants it to be this way no matter what its PR department says.

[Burning Water]

12. It's because most

people say, "I'm OK", and don't give a shit about people that they don't know living on the other side of the country, or town.

[ticapnews]

17. People are scared to lose their job

One of the few benefits of my current job was the ability to work four 10-hour days instead of driving five days a week. When your round trip is 60 miles, that's a big deal. Just before Katrina hit our company instituted a new policy that required us to start working five days. Good timing.

One of my co-workers and I tried to get some others to go to our boss to protest. We had a couple of people on board, but someone went and ratted us out. That ended our little revolt. Out of 18 employees we had at the time three quit. I tried to quit, but my boss is more liberal than I am so he understood, so we worked something out. He wasn't thrilled with the mandate from corporate either.

The corporate suits are cracking down even more and really ticking people off. At this point, I think they want people to quit. But as I told my boss, the people who are still working there are so desperate, corporate could say that lunch breaks were canceled and the supervisor would just come around every hour and strap feedbags on the employees and the only response would be to ask if they had to buy their own feedbags or if the company would provide them.

People are able to justify in their own minds that things are going well. They are still making enough money to get by so there is no reason to rock the boat. And what would they gain by rocking the boat? They might lose their jobs which they would see as a catastrophe. If they "win" what do they get? An extra buck an hour? It isn't worth the risk. Even as workers lose more and more rights, they will find a way to justify it: The economy overall is bad, so the company has to cut benefits - but at least I still have a job!

There is no time to organize because they spend so much time working to try to make ends meet. Besides, things like collective bargaining and unions are evil, socialist, communist ideas and a lot of people want nothing to do with them. It wouldn't be American to go on strike, or even to get together to demand better treatment. Remember: Reagan fired all the strikers in '81 and for a lot of people Reagan is the greatest president - the man who stood up to those Godless Commies. To strike would be to go against that iconic image.

By the time enough people are ready to get together to try to change things, I think it will be too late. The Fascists will have enough of a hold on things to keep the workers isolated and under control.

[Aries]

36. "American"

>It wouldn't be American to go on strike, or even to get together to demand better treatment. Remember: Reagan fired all the strikers in '81 and for a lot of people Reagan is the greatest president - the man who stood up to those Godless Commies. To strike would be to go against that iconic image.

Depends on what you mean by "American", and what your definition of "history" is:

http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_073500_railroadstri.htm

RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1877

What came to be called the great railroad strike of 1877 began on July 17 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad had cut wages for the second time in a year. Protesting workers refused to let any trains move until the pay cut was restored. Militia units were sent in by the governor to restore train service, but when the soldiers refused to use force against the strikers, the governor called for federal troops, the first time such troops had been used for strikebreaking since the 1830s. In the meantime, the strike had spread to Baltimore, triggering bloody street battles between workers and the Maryland militia; when the outmanned soldiers fired into an attacking crowd, ten people were killed. In Pittsburgh, as in Martinsburg, local law enforcers refused to fire on the strikers, and soldiers brought in from outside were routed by a ferocious crowd, which took control of the city until federal troops imposed order.

By then, sympathy strikes had spread out along the railroads in every direction, from line to line, from city to city, from railroad workers to other industries. In Chicago, demonstrations organized by the Workingmen's party drew crowds of twenty thousand; in St. Louis, a general strike put the city in the workers' hands for nearly a week. In towns throughout the country, streets were thronged with strikers and their supporters; there were battles and arrests, injuries and deaths. The struggle seemed to align all workers against all employers. To some, this was a hopeful sign, bearing the promise of future labor victories, but others saw it as a threat to the very foundation of American society. Federal troops were rushed from city to city, putting down strike after strike, until finally, a few weeks after it had begun, the great railroad strike of 1877 was over.

In the aftermath, union organizers planned future campaigns, and politicians and business leaders took steps to ensure that such chaos could not recur. Many states enacted conspiracy statutes. New militia units were formed, and National Guard armories were constructed in many cities. For workers and employers alike, the strikes had dramatized the power of workers in combination to challenge the most established structures of American life.

See also Labor; Railroads.

[ticapnews]

45. I understand that...

however, even some people I work with think forming a union is un-American because a union is a corrupt, socialist, communist creation and they want nothing to do with it. The very idea of collective bargaining is evil - besides, why would someone want to cast their lot with other people who "aren't as well off" or "as good" as they are?

The bad news is people predicting "revolution" or "civil war" are a little behind the times. The war is already over: the revolutionists surrendered without so much as a whimper. The great American labor force has already been whipped.

[eggman67]

20. Never understood the concept

of support strikes. Basically this seems to punish employers that have done nothing wrong due to the actions of other employers over whom they have no control.

[RaleighNCDUer]

44. With the interlocking of corporate boards, a sympathy strike

could be a message for owner A to pressure owner B to settle, because they are both losing money. Consider that something like 50 families control 90% of the wealth in this country, it stands to reason that the same people own everything.

So sympathy strikes apply pressure across the entire upper strata instead of on a single point; it disrupts the comfort zone of the disinterested middle-class, who demand to know why the strike can't be settled; it solidifies the worker ranks in common cause; and it guarantees support for the supporting union by the striking union if the supporting union is forced to strike at some time in the future.

A sympathy strike doesn't have to be a full out strike, either. It could work as a slow-down; the supporting union could provide pickets for the strikers, and help fund the strike if the striking union's strike fund runs low, with such things to be reciprocated when needed.

It's class solidarity -- despite that being a taboo word in this culture.

[eggman67]

46. I can see some of that

Things like "the supporting union could provide pickets for the strikers, and help fund the strike if the striking union's strike fund runs low, with such things to be reciprocated when needed." make sense to me under any circumstances.

I can even see a full on strike if ownership can be legitimately connected, I just can't see full on strike if there's no relationship.

[K-W]

23. We dont have a unified working class. EOM

[Zinfandel]

24. Because government has instilled in us, to just think about ourselves and

our family, fuck everyone else...This philosophical ideology serves the republicans and corporations very well!!!

Divide & conquer...Even though we are fucking ourselves indirectly!

[Gruenemann]

26. Because we are sheep. eom

[Loonman]

28. We're not France

D'oh!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

50. Because they don't work. n/t

[MercutioATC]

30. Please thank your uncle for his support (from an ATC).

...and if I wasn't an air traffic controller (thus, subject to termination for job actions) I'd be the first in line for a national strike. Your uncle is right, something needs to be done. We've lost WAY too many union jobs.

[bleedingheart]

38. I will let him know

if you talk to him today it was as if the ATC strike happened yesterday...it is still a raw wound and as I mentioned he was a coal miner.

[Silverhair]

32. Unions aren't that powerful anymore.

Less than 15% of American workers are in a union.

[LSK]

33. TV + credit

It didnt tell the sheeple to strike yet. Credit convinces people they are better off than they are.

[NashVegas]

35. Debt Has a Way of Making Wimps Out of People

Who are afraid to lose their jobs.

[cap]

37. In the 30's,500,000 people went on strike nationwide

in support of the textile workers.

We had union leaders who went to jail to support the rights of the working class.

Today, we had one of the largest union concessions in history. Billions of dollars taken away from GM workers' health care. Delphi is about to shove a class of its workers into Walmart wages ($10/hr).

Times have changed. Not a peep from the unions. Let's just negotiate and save what we can.

[bleedingheart]

39. once again...it takes sacrifice to make things better and no one

seems to be able to sacrifice...

as people have mentioned...the masses are addicted to their TV's and laden with credit card debt...they have no idea of how to sacrifice for the greater good of all ...even if it includes themselves.

[SoCalDem]

41. Because everyone is too worried about their own jobs and lives

No one has savings to live on, and people are too afraid to lose their health insurance..

It really all boils down to health insurance for most workers.. If you are young and invincible, it's not something you think about, but once you have children, it's pretty much at the top of the list..

Employers control whether you (and yours) live or die.. As long as there are more people than jobs, people are too afraid to step up in support of "people they don't know"

[cap]

43. those textile workers were stripped of everything they had

they were at below subsistence wages. My grandmother was a textile worker and collapsed from hunger and lost her job.

I hope we dont have to get to this point.

Health insurance is being stripped away. Read the Financial Times, the British equivalent of the WSJ. They had a big article on the $3 billion dollar concession on health insurance.

[ComerPerro]

48. Because people can't afford to lose their jobs