What Is "Striketober"?
Workers across the country are standing up to the bosses, politicians and billionaire class in a way we haven’t seen in generations. It’s been dubbed “Striketober,” and while the name fits — thousands of union workers have already joined picket lines and nearly 100,000 more are prepared to strike this month — we have already seen a massive exodus from the American labor market during the pandemic. In many ways, we are living through the largest wildcat strike in American history; in August alone, 4.3 million workers quit their jobs. Add this to the millions of workers (mostly women) who have left the workforce since the start of the pandemic and you have a radical reformation of the American workplace and experience. The pandemic is the spark that lit the fire, but the conditions for this exodus have been brewing for years.
Secessio Plebis: Secession of the Plebs
Workers leaving the workforce, as a tactic, is nothing new. The first recorded strike — over insufficient rations — happened in Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. A particularly effective strategy employed by the Roman working class was the secessio plebis: the entire working class would leave the city and refuse to work or to fight in the army, leaving the ruling class to fend for itself; these informal strikes were a means to address low pay, debt and land and wealth consolidation and often resulted in improved social conditions for the masses. Just like today, workers took these steps because the political process was dominated by wealthy special interests and rarely addressed the needs of the average citizen. If that sounds familiar, it should. Fast forward 2,500 years and you find our social issues are not vastly different — only the technology and scope of the problem have changed.
The Pandemic, Income Inequality and a Phallic Space Race
The COVID-19 pandemic shrunk the global economy by 3.5% in 2020, the largest single drop since the end of World War II. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank working on policies to reduce poverty and restore fiscal responsibility, estimates the following pandemic-related impacts on the American working class: 28% of American households don’t have the money or income to meet their monthly expenses, one in eight adults with children are food insecure and one in six renters aren’t current on their rent (the number for Black renters is more than one in four). CBS News reports that more than 60% of Americans say they could not afford an unexpected $1,000 expense. Household debt in the U.S. rose to nearly $15 trillion in the second quarter of 2021. In a relative sense, Americans are poorer than they have ever been; in fact, America’s economic system is so imbalanced that income inequality is worse today than it was at the time of the American Revolution.
Despite this economic and social misery, American corporate profits are booming and the stock market continues to soar to record numbers. Those profits, largely buoyed by government bailouts and 40 years of putting American workers in a vise grip, have added to the wealth inequality we currently live with. The billionaire class, whose economic fortunes are built on the backs of working people, is thriving. At the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic, total wealth held by U.S.-based billionaires was roughly $2.9 trillion; by October 15 of this year, that wealth is estimated to have jumped to over $5.1 trillion.
The increase alone in these billionaires’ wealth could have funded most of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. While the president’s plan isn’t perfect, its investment in social infrastructure would be significant to the lives of Americans and to our country’s competitiveness in the global economic sphere. Instead of benefitting from investment in roads, education, clean transportation and child care, Americans get to watch a trio of billionaires conduct a space race in phallic rockets. The absurdity of it all is hard to take, and some Americans no longer are taking it.
Workers Are Fighting Back
For the first time in a generation, both unionized and non-union workers are fighting back. For non-union workers, there appears to be a social shift that rejects America’s economic system. Whether due to weathering the pandemic, watching those at the top flaunt their wealth or realizing that poverty wages aren’t worth working for, many folks are leaving or not accepting low-wage jobs, and the food-service and retail industries are facing massive shortages. The billionaires and their minions are so worried about Americans’ new “anti-work” attitude that a new buzz phrase is spreading in right-wing and corporate-focused media: “wage inflation.” Beyond Wall Street, this means that wages are going up to the point that they will impact profits. If anything, the proper term would be “wage correction,” because for decades American corporate interests have driven wages into stagnation while boosting profits.
For those of us who are working, it can be easy to look at this situation and get frustrated, but it is important for us as workers to stand with those who are non-unionized and pushing for higher wages. For the last 40 years, union workers have been the ones keeping wages above subsistence level. We should embrace the help from those new to fighting back — even if there is some level of disruption — because it means our own ability to bargain for higher wages will be easier. Like the Roman workers before us, we must recognize the importance of class solidarity. (For example, if OHSU has to compete with other businesses paying a living wage, it only helps us at the bargaining table.)
For unionized workers, the battle is different — it’s not about not accepting poverty-wage jobs, but about fighting take-backs and lowball offers. Corporate America expected that because the economic impacts of the pandemic have been dire and people are stretched thin, it could demand another round of take-backs from workers just as it did after the Great Recession. However, thousands of union workers are saying “hell no” and leveraging their collective power to employ the union worker’s most powerful tool: the strike. (OHSU should remember this when it considers proposing take-backs at the bargaining table next year.)
Striketober!
In mid-October, 10,000 John Deere workers went on strike to fight back against paltry wage increases despite record profits and a 160% wage increase for the CEO. Before that, Kellogg’s workers walked out and, as of writing, are still out; they are fighting back against poor wages but even more so against brutal schedules, seven-day work weeks and a PTO system. Before that, Nabisco workers, including some here in Portland, conducted a 40-day strike to fight take-backs from a profitable company. In traditionally anti-union Alabama, 1,100 miners have been on strike at the Warrior Met Mining Company since April. In many cases, striking workers have been harassed, beaten and even hit by company trucks — yet they have persisted, fought back and galvanized support across the country.
These are just a fraction of the strikes or potential strikes happening. More than 60,000 IATSE members, who work in the entertainment industry, recently held a strike vote; voter turnout was 90% and more than 98% of voters authorized a strike. These workers stared down the Hollywood studios, Netflix, Apple and Amazon and appear to have won; they are voting on a tentative agreement shortly. Locally, Kaiser Permanente workers, our union family in arms, are planning a strike with their coalition of 24,000 members. If it happens, this strike would be the largest health-care work stoppage of the pandemic.
What Does This Mean for Local 328?
Seeing so many workers energized and standing up for themselves is amazing, but there is a fair question of what this all means for us here in Local 328. Striketober has increased pressure on employers, OHSU included, to raise wages and improve working conditions — something that hasn’t been the norm in bargaining in at least a generation. While it may be distasteful to think about striking at a hospital, especially during a pandemic, it’s also painful to think about hospital employees working short staffed and under stress. We need to understand our leverage and, more importantly, our value. Workers across the country are realizing there’s no one to replace them and are shedding their fear to express their power via work stoppage. Next summer, Local 328 will have a chance to express our power and join our union family in the streets if necessary. Until then, we need to support workers who are fighting for better wages, no matter if they are unionized and no matter their social status. The billionaires may have rockets, but we have each other, and if we’re militant and organized, we win every time.