While mainstream pundits and columnists wax philosophic about the meaning and potential of what they shorthand as the new “Populist Rage,” the world’s backchannels are ablaze with actual accounts of what is in fact victims fighting back.
Though certainly enraging, it is a mischaracterization to slap these acts of sanity with a simplistic, dismissible label like “rage.” These days, rage is what we do for jollies. Collective direct action in the pursuit of economic justice is what men and women around the world are once again doing out of necessity. On the job. Where all the bread is buttered. “Rage” suggests some victory of emotion over logic. But we know “Our Labor Creates All Wealth.” And we are acting accordingly. Again.
The factory occupation by workers of the United Electrical union (UE) at Republic Windows & Doors in Chicago did make national headlines last December. nd, management at Republic told workers that the plant would be closed in three days. “We’ve had a lot of our machines taken out of the plant at night,” Melvin Maclin, vice president of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1110, told Labor Notes. “Along with the machines go people’s jobs.”
When Republic owners failed to show up at a meeting about the severance and accrued vacation pay owed to the workers, the workers voted unanimously to stay in the plant. They phoned family and friends who phoned family and friends, and within hours a wave of solidarity spread from their factory’s windows and doors, out into the street, and around the world. The occupation lasted six intense days. It was coupled with an organized international boycott of Bank of America. On December 10, the workers voted unanimously to accept a $7,000 severance package that included two-months of healthcare insurance – which had been terminated.
A similar but lesser known factory occupation occurred just last month, just across the Detroit River, at an automotive supplier. On St. Patrick’s Day, members of the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW) welded the doors shut from inside Aradco, a supplier ofmotor mounts and other metal parts for Chrysler. They too had abruptly lost their jobs and were committed to stopping Chrysler from removing parts and tooling until they had received their owed termination and severance pay. Less than 48 hours later the workers got their nearly $1.7 million in collective earnings.
On March 24th, a 3M factory in Pithiviers, France that produces pharmaceutical supplies saw workers lock manager Luc Rousselet in an office, demanding better severance packages for those recently laid off and improved conditions for those who would remain. Two days later, union negotiators and management had an agreement for the release of Rousselet and the fulfillment of the workers’ demands.
This was the third time in as many weeks laid-off workers in France had held their bosses captive. Workers at Sony and Caterpillar also detained their employers to force negotiations after abrupt terminations. As of March 31st, nearly two hundred Visteon workers at a former Ford plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland were occupying their facility. John Maguire, a representative from the Unite union, told the BBC, “We have been left with no choice but to occupy the factory to save our jobs and to defend jobs for the people of Belfast." Again, swift cuts had been announced, leaving workers no warning that they would be thrown out with nothing.
There are two important trends to pay attention to here.
Clearly the first is that workers are no longer waiting for their bosses, politicians, and even their union leadership to protect their rights. They are taking matters into their own hands – and doing so by taking collective action at the point of production, where the real wealth, with real value, is made.
The second trend is that for the most part these classic tactics are being used only after the closings and cuts have been announced, and ending when the “owed” compensation is paid. The workers are still without a job. The community is still destabilized. The larger society is left without the fruits of their talents and resources to make things we really need; like fuel-efficient cars, wind turbines, trains, bicycles, hospital beds. After the big paydays for bosses, bankruptcy lawyers, demolition contractors and employment services agencies, all that remains for communities is uncertainty, fear, memories, brownfields and poverty.
Is that really all corporations “owe” to workers and communities?
The difference between these recent workplace takeovers and those like the 1936-37 Flint Sit-Down Strikes is that workers back then were fighting for improved wages and conditions, not a payout after being let go. The workers who brought about the Flint Sit-Downs had jobs, but were being exploited, intimidated, and worked to death. They knew the value of their labor. They knew the value of what their labor produced. “Our Labor Creates All Wealth.” They were not getting their fair share and acted accordingly.
Olen Ham had been at Buick less than four months when the Flint Sit-Down Strikes began. He was a new hire, just out of high school, but could see right away that a drastic change was coming. It had to. People were working longer, harder, faster, for less. Grievances had been piling up for decades. There was no mechanism to address them. General Motors paid this no mind. They had no motivation to change anything.
The Sit-Down Strikes changed their minds. After forty-four days of tear gas, billy clubs, door hinges, court injunctions, National Guard troops, and a huge outpouring of solidarity and engaged support from the community, General Motors officially recognized the United Auto Workers union and agreed to all demands.
In the years that followed, Olen and his young family benefited in unforeseen ways from this defining act of workers fighting back. Olen said, “By raising the wages, the autoworkers could now become consumers. They could start buying cars. The outcome, really, of the sit-downs was the formation of the middle-class. This middle-class created a tax base, buying houses, supporting schools, supporting other businesses, supporting growth, hospitals, universities. This area prospered greatly. But also, because of the wage standard we set, other workers in other areas of the country saw their wages and quality of life increase as well. The entire country, all businesses, benefited from more people earning more money. That should never be forgotten.”
It is encouraging to see that the methods and message of the Flint Sit-Down Strikes have not been forgotten. On February 9
th, leaders of the factory occupation at Chicago's Republic Windows & Doors presented Olen Ham and Flint Emergency Brigade member Geraldine Blankenship with a plaque honoring them and the spirit of social justice they represent.
Time will tell if bold collective action on the job will be reserved only as a tool to collect owed compensation on the way out the door, or if it will once again be employed as a seriousness strategic force to elevate whole populations. According to Olen, “This has been going on since the time of the pyramids. It always comes back around.”