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Title: Fast Food Workers Strike Author: Adam Weaver Date: August 29, 2013 Language: en Topics: strike Source: Retrieved on 10th December 2021 from https://machete408.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/fast-food-workers-strike-what-is-and-what-isnt-the-fight-for-fifteen-campaign/ Notes: This is a short prequel to a longer soon to be released analysis piece on the Fight for Fifteen campaign.
A called for nation-wide strike of fast food workers by the Fight for
Fifteen campaign (FFF) is set to go down today. Surely a historic
moment, this is the first large scale and national strike involving fast
food workers who are at the core of the low-wage service industry.
Beginning with a series of strikes among fast food workers in New York
City late last year, the campaign and the called for strike is organized
by the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), though in many
cities this is being organized in conjunction with allied institutional
non-profit organizations.
This is significant in that this is helping to popularize the use of
strikes as a tactic, even for workers who are not formally part of a
union, and the idea of the tactic and the experience gained can be built
upon. But at the same time an on the ground analysis is needed by folks
on that left that doesn’t mistake this for what this is not—SEIU isn’t
building a movement to organize workers and fight bosses.
Instead of a ‘march on the boss’ directed towards the corporations
robbing workers daily, rather this is a ‘march on the media’ where the
strikes serve as the visuals in a narrative of worker protest crafted by
professional media consultants. Actions are scripted and run by the
staff (themselves young, overworked, underpaid and working to meet
difficult mobilization quotas) and the ultimate shots are called by
officials in Washington, DC, not spontaneously by workers from below
like the picture painted would lead you to believe.
Speaking to workers involved in the campaign in several cities on the
condition of anonymity I was told stories of how when important shifts
in the public direction of the campaign were made they were instructed
to state publicly “the workers made this decision.” A national
conference was held in Detroit August 15–16 by the campaign with 7–800
attendees from the core cities of the campaign, a large number being
campaign staff as well. Here workers were guided through a rapid fire
pep rally, where they were handed a pre-written agenda and presented
with the pre-packaged plan of the August 29 strike as the only decision
of the meeting. No further discussion of the direction of the campaign
was had. As one worker who was involved the past strikes and who
attended the conference as a member of the staff selected steering
committee said, that this is when they realized “maybe this isn’t our
movement, but this is really their [SEIU’s] movement.”
As to where the campaign is headed the rumors leaked so far are that
SEIU is still up in the air about which direction to take this effort.
One possible route is a focus on major chains aimed towards a neutrality
or industry standards agreement and would likely include SEIU agreeing
to lobby for some sort of pro-restaurant industry tax breaks similar to
what SEIU did in the California nursing home industry in promising to
lobby the heavily Democratic state government for pro-industry
legislation in exchange for industry wide union recognition which
included agreements barring workers from striking or speaking out on
their working conditions. I think this route is unlikely and not very
realistic.
The second and I believe more likely route would be a move towards a
range of legislative efforts including state ballot initiatives allowing
cities and counties to set their own minimum wage. A third potential
direction might be a combination of both employer agreements and
legislation such as previous efforts of unions such as HERE to raise
wages through legislation but which exempted workers covered by union
agreements. Another factor is that Obama recently announced plans to
introduce a bill to increase the federal minimum wage. I think it’s hard
to believe it coincidental that SEIU, one of the largest contributors to
Obama’s 2012 reelection, unfolded the campaign just in time to deliver
the legislative effort a ready-made support base.
Some have called FFF a form of “venture syndicalism”, a tactic whereby
unions fund riskier and more confrontational start-up efforts. In terms
of tactics this makes sense but I think only at the surface level, as I
think it is questionable, unlikely even, that SEIU is committed to
building anything beyond a campaign for legislation or national level
agreements that are made over the heads of workers. Others have cast the
effort in the light of “militant reformism”, whereby reform oriented and
institutional actors temporarily adopt militant tactics associated with
more radical movements but only with the goal restoring their seat at
the table. I think this is basically correct when looking at the use of
one day strikes by mainstream unions such as SEIU- this is a change in
tactics but the model of top down unionism tied to the Democratic Party
remains firm. The best framing in my mind though is “militant lobbying,”
where seemingly militant tactics are used not with the goals of
empowerment and building a militant movement but creating a new base,
guided from above, to push for legislation.
So how should we relate to the campaign and called for August 29 strike?
Undeniably the campaign has lit a spark and is bringing together in
meetings, rallies and strikes workers who would normally not be in the
same room together. I would say support the strike action, go on strike
and organize your co-workers if you work in fast food and most
importantly make contact with striking workers. We should not do this
though without any illusions of where this is headed and our focus
should be the need to build an inside/outside yet independent effort of
fast food workers. Workers are brought into the campaign with little
training on organizing, shop floor issues remain unaddressed and these
are places where radicals can step in to play a practical role.
Instead of lobbying the same entrenched political system, appealing to
change from above, and attempting to retool the existing system of
profit, inequality and exploitation, it’s time for the left to build its
own organizing efforts and worker organizations that are committed to a
long term vision of building a new world where our lives are not
controlled by and dependent on bosses, corporations and politicians. The
Fight for Fifteen campaign presents the potential to take an important
step in that direction.