Behind the widely broadcast dramatic images and videos of riots and nationwide protests against recent police killings of unarmed black men, lies a greatly underreported movement of low wage workers that yesterday set a new record of protests and strikes in over 190 cities across the country in what the New York Times called ” the largest labor protests in the nation in years.”
Yesterday, fast food workers carried out another round of one day strikes in an organized movement to raise the national minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, this time joined by other low wage workers from retail stores and gas stations, as well as home health-care workers who joined in on the protests in September. The movement of low wage workers seeking a raise began two years ago with walkouts from restaurant employees in New York City, and has since grown into an organized national movement, supported in part by the Service Employees International Union. Similar strikes have been mounted against Walmart over the years, and against other retail stores, particularly during the holiday season which has seen a push of Black Friday into the day of Thanksgiving.
The significance of these protests, and the impact they are having on the national debate, and policy, has been important and measurable. A mis-reading of the recent Midterm election results has conservatives boasting of America’s rejection of “liberal” policy ideas from the Obama Administration and Democrats. Their optimistic interpretation of the election results leaves out two glaring facts that cannot be ignored: Republicans won control of the Senate and gained House seats with the lowest voter turnout in a Midterm since 1942, and (2) even more important, voters in very red states and Republican leaning states, such as Arkansas and Alaska, voted yes on ballot initiatives to raise their state’s minimum wage. The ballot initiatives were necessary, because ironically, the Republican lawmakers that these voters support, have been vocal opponents of raising the minimum wage, and have of course, towed the conservative party line of always rejecting an increase in the federal minimum wage whenever it is pursued.
It would be a stretch to suggest that these ballot initiatives in red states, as well as recent legislative action by local lawmakers in the cities of Seattle and San Francisco to raise their minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour, would have occurred without the pressure coming from this new labor movement. At the federal level, the Democrats have pitifully fought (unsuccessfully of course) to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour – a much lower goal than that of what is now called the “Fight for 15.”
Other industrial, wealthy nations comparable to the United States have a “livable wage” instead of a minimum wage. These other nations also have universal healthcare for their citizens, greater pay, more worker’s rights, more holiday and vacation time, more affordable or near free college education, and a stronger social welfare infrastructure all around. In the U.S., such ideas are routinely demonized as “socialism.” And the more moderate of the two corporate sponsored political parties that dominate American politics, the Democrats, have failed to make an effective case to the voters and failed to enact better policies for the people when they are in power and have the chance.
All the major rights that Americans too often take for granted, such as child labor protection, women’s right to vote, and civil rights for minorities, have been won through the willingness of the people to stand together and fight the entrenched power systems of the elite and uber wealthy minority. With our broken political system damaged even further through the irresponsible ruling of the Supreme Court that undermined what was left of our inadequate campaign finance laws, it is no wonder that the majority of our citizens have lost interest in showing up on election days to exercise our “freedom” of selecting our own government. Most voters recognize that candidates on the ballot box more often than not, represent a “choice” that the all powerful corporations have allowed as sponsored options.
When fast food workers first started demanding a raise to 15 an hour with the option of unionizing, the industry executives, their P.R. wing, and the political propaganda machine of the extremely rich and privileged, balked and portrayed it with the usual disdain and pack of lies about how it would hurt the “job creators,” small businesses, and the economy. They also immediately dismissed the idea of 15 an hour as grossly over ambitious and unrealistic. The wet mop excuse of the people’s party, the Democrats, meagerly and with apprehension pursued the poverty wage increase to $10.10 an hour. Some Democrats (in name only) in red states, openly rejected the call for raising the minimum wage. It makes you wonder if some of the bigger cowards in the Donkey tent who lost their Midterms after campaigning on how much they had in common with Republicans, are scratching their heads and wondering how over 70 percent of voters in red states approved a ballot measure of raising their state’s minimum wage. It also makes you wonder how frightened the multi-million dollar executives from America’s largest employers of poverty wages such as McDonald’s and Walmart are now becoming.
The poverty wage, billion dollar corporations are so far still sticking to their script of misinformation and lies. In an article yesterday (December 4) in the New York Times titled “Strong Voice in ‘Fight for 15; Fast-Food Wage Campaign,” quotes Brad Jones, a spokesperson for a business trade group in Missouri, as warning : “They’re not looking at your independent pizza guy, your deli on the corner, your little bar and grill,” and “If these folks have to increase their wages by $5 an hour, it’s really going to be detrimental to them.” Mr. Jones reportedly also warned that restaurants wouldn’t be able to hire as many young workers at entry level jobs if 15 an hour became law.
Yes, the P.R. spokespersons for the large, billion dollar corporations are still pretending to care about “small business owners” on the corner, even as their giant chains such as Walmart continue their takeover and economic destruction of independent businesses of small towns across America. And they still prop up the myth of the young “entry level” worker who would be harmed if the greedy workers who depend on their slave wage jobs as their source of income get their way. They even warn of the dire consequences of the rising costs for consumers that would accompany a move into a living wage instead of a minimum wage.
What they don’t tell you and don’t want you know, is that their enormous profits, enormous share of the market, and millions of workers who work for them trying to earn an honest living, are in reality subsidized by the taxpayers. A large number of food stamp recipients and other “welfare” dependents are their employees who cannot make ends meet and live on the wages they are paid. Apparently, this simple concept has yet to reach the more hostile-towards-the-poor Tea Party voting block of the Republican party. Far too many low and middle income people in this country still blame poverty on the laziness of the poor, still portrayed as “welfare queens” gaming the system. Far too many Americans are clipping their coupons to spend at Walmart and complaining of having to pay taxes to support those “who don’t wanna work,” not realizing that the cashier ringing up their purchase is often times the beneficiary of their tax payer funded food stamps.
I salute the bravery of the underpaid and poor in this country who are risking their job by going on strike and protesting their government subsidized, profitable, billion dollar corporate slave masters.
It’s bad enough that the fast food industry is pedaling unhealthy food choices that are partly behind the nation’s costly rise in obesity and diabetes; and its bad enough that retail giants such as Walmart have forced American middle class-paying manufacturing jobs overseas by squeezing the sweat shops in Bangladesh to abuse their workers ever further for a chance to sell their clothing to the American markets. What is worse than bad is that enough Americans are still voting against their own best interests and supporting corporate sponsored politicians who are custom designing our Third World economy in the world’s wealthiest nation.
The silver lining in all of this is that the workers are finally realizing that the only way things get better for the average person in our country is through a popular struggle and uprising, a fight that is long and hard and in the end usually only yields most of what was sought, always a day late and a dollar or two short. And then, even as these victories are won, the “owners” of the country, the smallest minority who own the vast majority of the wealth and capital and control the government, continue with a sustained and determined effort to roll back hard fought progress.
Please, support the low wage workers of this country and their struggle for a livable wage and fair working conditions. Let’s also hold accountable the corrupted and bought politicians, and share on social media, at the dinner table, the water cooler and the local watering hole, your belief that America deserves better than an economy which funnels the vast share of the pie to the top one percent, leaving millions of hard working people working for them while not earning enough money to afford housing and food.