Skyscraper Solidarity

As I finish my first month in the Labor Movement, this high-profile Writers’ Guild strike is underway and garnering plenty of media attention. It’s interesting, because I think (maybe naively) that it’s bringing the concept of the strike to audiences that might not normally think about it. The Labor Movement in America is strong these days, but it’s not really as widespread as it used to be. Of course, this is counterintuitive in light of the fact that Big Business is becoming increasingly exploitative and pervasive. However, I think that this kind of reflects the way that America is going. We might be becoming more complacent and less willing to fight against these injustices because it’s been the status quo for so long.

The WGA Strike is noteworthy both in terms of the Labor Movement and the digital age. The entertainment industry and, say, the hotel industry have never been associated historically, but they are using the same tool to gain footing in the workplace. The strike– once a revolutionary tool used by workers to demonstrate to employers and to members of the community that they would rather sacrifice their pay than suffer the conditions they were subject to in the workplace– has throughout time slinked into the background and has been taken for granted by most of us as we lead our lives. Worker solidarity has gone from something that has been felt with a resounding familiarity to all but the elite to something that has been marginalized beyond recognition and placed on the back burner. One reason for this is the introduction of the middle class. With the middle class bridging the gap between the elite and the hoi polloi, there came more of a need to distance themselves from the proletarian class in order to be more closely aligned with the bourgeoisie, and thus shedding their blue-collar, working class identities to be more accepted as the more desirable ruling class.

Instead of being seen as a necessary tool for workers of all social classes, labor unions have been associated with blue-collar, lower-class laborers. The middle class has probably perpetuated this point of view the most, and has time has worn on, they’ve struggled to attain status and separate from lower class roots. The expanding middle class has created a chasm that’s difficult to bridge. Around World War II, membership in labor unions soared at around 60% of the workforce…now it’s down to about 12%. To me, this is no coincidence: social, political and economic forces have created a perfect storm for the surge of big business, high profit margins and union busting, and have thus led to a dramatic decline in workers’ rights.

“Pencils Down Means Pencils Down,” said a full-page ad taken out in Variety last week by the likes of Tina Fey, David E. Kelley and Steven Bochco. In addition to the rank-and-file staff writers, executive producers and head writers– the “show runners”– are walking out and crippling the television shows that they created. If every strike could boast Tina Fey on the picket line, we’d all garner the media attention we need and a sweeping wave of solidarity would suddenly consume the US.

This is monumental.

It’s showing America that the Labor Movement isn’t only for one type of worker– its’ for anyone who works hard for their money and feels that they’re entitled to fair wages. That’s a good thing to see. So as I work with hotel, restaurant and service employees at my own union, I’m encouraged to see the WGA strike highlighting to the rest of the world the similarities between workers everywhere. The struggle is one that we all need to be a part of.