Yesterday was Labor Day in the United States. For a lot of Americans, it’s merely a much-needed day off school or work, or even a perfect chance to snag a good deal on mattresses. And we sincerely hope you got to enjoy that extra day off if you got one. However, it strikes us as quite odd that, unlike most federal holidays, there is little public ritual associated with Labor Day. Many of us spend a third of our lives toiling away in our places of employment, and yet, as Jay Zagorsky writes for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, “For most people, [Labor Day] simply marks the last weekend of summer and the start of the school year.”
In the Current Affairs News Briefing, we always try to include updates on the state of the global labor struggle. Whether across the world or across the street, there are people fighting to make their work more dignified or to have even their basic humanity recognized. America’s Labor Day holiday was borne out of this struggle in the 1880s, at the dawn of a national labor movement that would, in the coming decades, secure rights like the 40-hour work week, minimum wages, Social Security, workers’ compensation, the abolition of child labor, paid vacation and sick leave, and the right to unionize. We feel that on this Labor Day, we ought to commemorate the ways in which the struggle for workers’ rights continues today by drawing attention to some of the most important news from the national and global labor movements. Without further ado, we bring you our special Labor Day edition of the Current Affairs News Briefing.
❧ If there’s any place to start, it’s the American Prospect’s annual “State of the Unions” report, which they publish each year on Labor Day to assess the gains and losses of the American labor movement throughout the preceding year. We highly recommend reading the full article, but here are just a few things highlighted by writer Harold Meyerson:
As a result of a cooling labor market, “American companies are now hiring workers for tens of thousands of dollars less than they were offering for the same jobs last year,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
This is what Meyerson expected, given that private sector union representation stands at a measly 6 percent. However, he points out that it’s not because Americans don’t like unions—in fact, quite the opposite: 70 percent approve of them according to a recent Gallup poll.
The reason, he says, that unions are failing to grow is that “the near-universal response of American employers is to fire them.”
Despite this, there have been some major successes over the past year. Meyerson points to two in particular: The momentous decision of Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga, TN to join the United Auto Workers, and organizing efforts by Starbucks baristas, who unionized more than 280 stores this year (bringing the nationwide total t0 480) and got the corporation to negotiate with them directly.
Meyerson notes that “union growth remains concentrated among disproportionately young professionals, a number of whom are more audibly progressive, with more time for political activism, than many of their blue-collar counterparts.”
Biden’s National Labor Relations Board has also been active in reversing anti-labor court decisions and protecting workers’ right to organize. Still, Meyerson writes that “unless congressional Democrats can amend the National Labor Relations Act itself, so that workers no longer need to fear getting fired if they organize, the prospects for significant union growth remain dim.”
Labor cartoon from the Seattle Union Record, 1913.
The Prospect’s report focuses primarily on private sector unions, but there have been important developments in the public sector as well. Increasingly, public sector employees have earned less than similarly educated workers in the private sector. However, a report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that in states where collective bargaining rights are the strongest, that gap is considerably smaller.
Boeing’s contract with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers ends on September 12, and a strike is looking likely. Workers in the Seattle area say they’ve been dealing with “10- to 12-hour days, 19 days in a row” and wages that barely match nearby retail and fast food jobs. (Labor Notes)
After three years of stifled negotiations, United Airlines flight attendants voted last Wednesday to go on strike with an astonishing 99.99 percent support with more than 90 percent of employees voting. The 28,000 employees hope to secure a double-digit raise, more flexible schedules, and greater job security, among other demands. “Our leaders get pay raises regularly, while some of us have not gotten a raise in years,” said Ken Diaz, the president of the United chapter of the Association of Flight Attendants. “We have flight attendants who are struggling to make ends meet while our CEOs are on private jets. We want some respect shown in the contract.” (Common Dreams)
Diaz announces the “historic” vote result.
(ABC 7 Chicago)
A year after the SAG-AFTRA strike, 160,000 video game voice actors—also represented by the Screen Actors Guild—went on strike in early August. Now entering its second month, the strike began after the industry refused to meet the union’s demands for protections from being replaced by A.I. technology. Companies offered protections to voice actors, but not to motion capture performers. (The Verge)
Kroger Teamsters at a Shelbyville, Indiana warehouse won a groundbreaking contract in July that brought back outsourced jobs, installed a popular attendance policy in writing, and allowed them to go on sympathy strikes with other Kroger Teamsters. The victory was all the more impressive considering that Indiana is a right-to-work state that is notoriously inhospitable to unions, and the workers also faced the challenge of organizing a warehouse where at least five different languages are spoken. (Jacobin)
As the new semester began, employees at Cornell University went on strike for the first time in decades. The school receives an annual endowment of $10 billion, but many of its dining, custodial, and maintenance employees make so little that they can’t afford rent in Ithaca and have to work second jobs. Support from many students—including the Young Democratic Socialists of America—has helped support the strike and made it harder for the university to find scabs. Last week, the 1,200 employees and UAW Local 2300 secured a tentative agreement for a cost-of-living adjustment, wage increases, and an end to the tiered labor system. (Labor Notes)
find alternative employment without undermining the strike.
At the Dakkota auto parts plant in Chicago, a contract has been reached between the company and its striking workers. But some of those workers aren’t happy about it, accusing the leadership at United Auto Workers Local 3212 of forcing them to vote for a deal with too many concessions to the bosses. (World Socialist Web Site)
Restaurant workers at Elmwood Taco & Subs, a popular sandwich shop in Buffalo, New York, are facing an onslaught of union-busting tactics from the owners. But there’s a twist: city legislator Michael Kooshoian, a Democrat who claims to support organized labor, is married to one of the bosses! (Truthout)
Over the weekend, the Amazon Labor Union won an important legal battle, with the National Labor Relations Board ruling that its 2022 election win at the Staten Island Amazon warehouse was legitimate and must be respected. (Reuters)
In April, the World Justice Project published a report comparing labor rights in 142 countries around the world. It is part of a broader examination of “fundamental human rights” worldwide, which the Project found “have been declining since 2016.” However, they said “Labor rights is the exception.” Some of the biggest improvements have occurred in Grenada, Pakistan, India, Botswana, and North Macedonia.
The biggest labor union in Israel, Histadrut—which is actually older than the State of Israel itself—held a one-day general strike on Monday, blocking roads and demanding a hostage deal with Hamas against the wishes of the Netanyahu government. However, because this is still Israel we’re talking about, the country’s Labor Court immediately stepped in to squash the strike. (NPR)
The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades—one of the largest building trade unions in the U.S. and Canada—is directing its pension plan to divest from the genocidal war in Gaza. (Democracy Now!)
Art by Nick Sirotich from Current Affairs Magazine, Issue 49, July/August 2024
Tens of thousands of Australian construction workers are protesting in the streets, with an estimated 50,000 marching in Melbourne, 10,000 in Sydney, and another 12,000 in Brisbane. They’re resisting a government policy that dismantled the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) leadership, fired 281 elected union leaders, and placed an unelected government bureaucrat in charge. (Red Flag)
The government of Namibia has set a minimum wage for the first time in the country’s history: $18 an hour. (That’s in Namibian dollars, which currently translates to about $1 USD). The policy will take effect on January 1 of next year, but workers in certain industries including agriculture and domestic work will be “phased in” more slowly. (The Namibian)
On an unrelated…ahem…note, Namibia has some very pretty currency. (Freepik)
China’s youth are facing a wave of unemployment—in June, more than 20 percent of those between 16 and 24 were jobless. Many highly educated college graduates are finding that their high qualifications are yielding nothing but low wage work. Many are dropping out of the work force altogether to live with their families. It has led to a new buzzword to describe them: “rotten-tail kids,” likening them to the millions of unfinished “rotten-tail buildings” that have blighted China in the wake of the pandemic. (Reuters)
SONG(S) OF THE WEEK
As we commemorate the workers around the world who are busy rebelling against low pay, unsafe working conditions, and abuse from the boss, take a moment to enjoy the Dead Kennedys’ raucous punk cover of “Take This Job and Shove It”:
Or, for readers who prefer their punk rock with a more British flavor, there’s the Clash’s 1977 track “Career Opportunities”:
And finally, this extended Labor Day wouldn’t be complete without a quick spin of Aesop Rock’s underground hip-hop “9-5ers’ Anthem”:
“We the American working population
Hate the fact that eight hours a day
Is wasted on chasing the dream of someone that isn't us
And we may not hate our jobs
But we hate jobs in general
That don't have to do with fighting our own causes”
Transit workers across Europe will be striking over the next month: These include Border Force staff at London Heathrow Airport (whose strike concludes today), Italian air traffic controllers and rail workers, French motorway workers, and public transit employees in several major Dutch cities. (Euro News)
The Canadian government intervened this weekend to prevent a rail strike that would have paralyzed freight shipping. After contract negotiations stalled out, CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. locked out their employees on Thursday and the Teamsters called a strike. The government forced both parties into arbitration, but the Teamsters have challenged the order. (ABC)
After an economic collapse, the National People’s Power party—a coalition made up of working-class interests—is gaining momentum in Sri Lanka. Its leader, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, is currently a top contender in the presidential election and has run on nationalizing the country’s resources and negotiating to ease the burden of the nation’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund. (Associated Press)
Hou Chung-Liang, the president of Taiwan’s National Teachers’ Association, has been on a hunger strike since August 20. He hopes to pressure the government into meeting its obligations and providing funds for the pensions of public employees, including teachers. (Education International)
A forthcoming book by historian Sarah Bond looks at the history of labor unions in ancient Rome. In an interview with the Guardian, she said, “The Romans were terrified of any kind of group that were going to push back against them, and the number one way to do that was to have occupational groups that are formulated already, because people’s jobs were so closely tied to their identity, just like today.”
WORKERS vs. CROOKS vs. SICKOS
(Or, “How is the labor movement dealing with our politicians?”)
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien just appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation for an interview. He defended his controversial decision to speak at the Republican National Convention (“It wasn't an endorsement for any and all Republicans. It was strictly a message about how important and how valuable we are,”) and explained why his union hasn’t yet endorsed a candidate for president. (“We want the opportunity to sit down with Vice President Harris… I said to someone the other day, you don't hire someone unless you give them an interview.”) You can watch the full segment here:
The Sex Workers Outreach Project has issued an open letter to Kamala Harris, urging her to make “comprehensive legal reform that fully decriminalizes consensual adult sex work” if she’s elected. They also want Harris to respect their right to unionize and implement policies to ensure they have decent healthcare. (In These Times)
A new federal rule limiting miners’ exposure to silica dust—which often causes the infamous “black lung” disease—is being rolled out this month. But there’s still a threat to miners’ safety, as Representative Robert Aderholt (R-AL) is trying to sneak language into the new Department of Labor funding bill that would stop any money from being used to enforce the rule. (Kentucky Lantern)
In a new podcast for the Lever, David Sirota shares his observations from the Democratic National Convention, pointing out “the tension between the convention’s populist framing and its corporate sponsors footing the bill.”
In the latest of a long string of public humiliations, J.D. Vance got booed by the International Association of Fire Fighters as he made a speech attempting to win their votes. (Axios)
DEMOCRACY RUNS WILD
IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM!
This briefing has been full of human beings exercising democratic power in their places of work. Democratic institutions are often thought of as one of the things that separates us from the animals. Jordan Peterson famously justifies human inequality by suggesting that dominance is an inherent part of nature, exhorting us to emulate “the victorious lobster” and its ruthless clawing for social control.
But there are plenty of examples throughout the animal kingdom of animals who make decisions not through the subjugation of their lessers, but via the consent of the many.
In a briefing last year, we noted that bison practice a form a democracy, deciding which direction to migrate based on where the majority of the herd points their bodies. But this is just one of many examples! Back in 2021, Russell McLendon provided “8 examples of animal democracy” in an article for Treehugger. “Scientists now view many animal societies as de facto democracies, with majority rule ensuring group survival more than tyranny can,” he wrote.
McLendon mentioned bison as well, but also described similar behavior in the red deer of Eurasia, who “only move when 60 percent of the adults stand up.”
These guys would love the Senate filibuster! (Photo: Flickr)
Chimpanzees, meanwhile, are particularly advanced with respect to women’s suffrage. The alpha male of the group “has to be accepted by the females before he can gain his status,” according to the Institute for the Study of Human-Animal Relationships. Baboons are very similar, allowing any member of the troop to influence their movement, but often deferring to a few “high-ranking” members.
Honeybees, meanwhile, essentially campaign to determine where to move. “When scout bees perform a waggle dance to pitch future nesting sites, dozens often take part to try and win over the rest of the colony,” McLendon wrote. And the campaign tactics are often no less brutal than the smear jobs seen in the heat of human election seasons: “To expedite the decision, other bees will head-butt any scouts that stubbornly keep dancing for a less popular site.”
Meerkats, on the other hand, prefer the old-fashioned voice vote. Large groups gather and produce a “moving call,” creating a “vocal hotspot” where smaller groups end up following.
Close your eyes and you’d think you were in the British Parliament.
Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.
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