Minimum Wage is a Gateway Drug

What happens when the working class wages war back?

In the midst of all the other world changing calamities (Covid-19, the rise of fascism in major world players, war in Ukraine), we’re seeing a labor movement in the US long overdue. Starbucks unionized. The writers and actors are in a coordinated strike for the first time since 1960. And UAW - the United Auto Workers - have just started a strike that could swell up to 150,000 workers.

We’re currently over 180,000 workers on strike, not counting the 120,000 auto workers that could go on strike. There’s another 37,000 workers with looming strikes, Flight Attendants and Los Angeles service workers. For reference, 224,000 workers were on strike all of last year and that was a 52% increase from the year before. Those numbers should be obliterated by the end of 2023.

Time Magazine had an article at the end of last year calling this worker’s rights movement. It details key factors like baby boomers leaving the work force and companies exploiting the goodwill of workers. It also makes mention of the effective Reagan scare tactic, firing the air traffic controllers for a legal strike in 1981.

It was a timely article, written just after Biden signed a bill to block railway workers from going on strike at the end of last year. That gross display of government overstep was used to “save the economy.” A lot has been said about the one true god of America, money and/or greed, so much so that any thing I write here is going to feel redundant. Redundancies aren’t all bad though.

What will get lost in the conversations about labor stoppages is the long term effects vs the short term losses. America has seen a growing power disparity in the post Reagan world. Between the infiltration of right wing fascism in the American Church and the effective war on the middle class, we’ve entered an era of unmatched prosperity and some of the worst wealth inequality in American history. America also stands out amongst its peers for income inequality. We’ve created a safe haven for a few rich people to become obscenely wealthy at the expense of the rest of the world.

Those power dynamics make fighting back against employers a matter of life and death for the working class. Empires overtaxing their subjects until a breaking point is nothing new. A tale as old as time. What has changed is access to information. Knowledge is the key component that allows people to make informed decisions.

Where do we stand on the knowledge we have now? The working class is definitely at a fever pitch. I remember seeing Occupy Wall Street and realizing this was the first battle in a war to come. The important thing now is solidarity. A lot of information about unions and strikes will come out condemning the working class for fighting for their rights. Data will be used to underscore the importance of working for the sake of the economy.

But, as Time has told us, the future is stronger for the working class than ever. More bargaining power coupled with worse conditions means that a united front will help secure better conditions for all people. Millennials and Zoomers are better educated and far more progressive. Millennials have maintained a progressive bent as they have aged, due to crippling economic factors.

Where the conversation will break down is the inconvenience aspect. Where nuance will save the day and help us fight back against the real issues we face. Because the long term effect of workers not seeing their demands met is that essential jobs lose good employees and we’re left with people who have no other choice. The quality of the essential job gets worse and the people working that job are subjected to substandard conditions still, a losing proposition for everyone except the people who profit off the situation.

Instead, if we reframe our thinking on WHY people are striking and supporting them, even at an inconvenience to ourselves, systems can start to change. I saw a post about a company in Texas complaining about the work no one would do for $14 an hour. So they had to do it themselves. Public ridicule followed, but it reinforces the point. If there’s a job YOU wouldn’t do for a certain amount of money, why should we expect ANYONE to do it for that amount of money?