Is There a New Militant spirit in the American Workforce

[Milchshake]

How do you do fellow comrades! I feel a great disturbance in the capitalist work force -- as if millions of voices suddenly cried out take this job and shove it.
Are you paying attention to your fellow workers? Do you think there's a new level of militancy?



Couldnt happen to a worse company.

The number of people quitting their jobs has surged to record highs, according to new data from the Department of Labor released Tuesday. The "Labor Shortage" is often framed only in terms of wages vs welfare. Missing out on other wants of working class Americans.

Looks like a Soft General Strike...

American workers are engaged in “the equivalent of a general strike,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has argued, following unexpectedly low U.S. employment figures.
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) numbers released on Friday showed that U.S. employment increased 194,000 in September—about 300,000 shy of estimates.
Despite record level job openings and 7.7 million out of work, many employers still report difficulty filling positions.
Some have described the issues as a labor shortage. “But that’s not what’s really going on,” Reich, who served as labor secretary from 1993 to 1997 during the Bill Clinton administration, wrote on progressive website Common Dreams on Sunday.

“In reality, there’s a living wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a health care shortage – and American workers are demanding an end to all these shortages. Or they won’t return to work.”
Among other aggravating factors, BLS’ report highlighted parents struggling to return to the workplace as a result of high childcare fees.

Reich added that since the COVID-19 pandemic, some workers retired, found other income or “simply don’t want to return to backbreaking, low-wage s*** jobs.”

Reich looks somewhat correct here, though I think this is a bit less political than he puts it. This is in a small way similar to how W.E.B. DuBois described the slave general strike, where slaves just individually walked away from the plantations and toward Union lines, taking their labor away from the traitors and to themselves and the Union.

It’s just decisions people are making on their own. But when you have millions of people doing it, it can have a widespread impact on the labor market and this is what is happening now. It would be nice to see some political organizing out of this situation, but I’m not even sure that people are really ready for that. They mostly seem to want to be left alone, or at least are happy just not working a shit job. And good for them.

[Edge-]

Good, we could use some increased class consciousness and more "militant" labor activism.

Are we picking up vegan milkshakes for this?

[Endus]

If you'd asked me five years ago what would be required to bring about class consciousness to the workers of the capitalist West, I don't think "a global pandemic" would've been in my top 5, but it certainly seems to have done the trick. I guess when you try and require people to go work for a shitty minimum wage that doesn't come close to being a reasonable level of pay, when doing so requires them to risk their lives due to a deadly pandemic, a lot more people wake the fuck up and question what they're doing and why. This is a good thing. The status quo is borked and we need class recognition for that to ever change.

Plus, as a side note, before anyone is gonna bitch at me for saying the $7.25 or whatever is a shit wage nobody should be offered, enjoy this art piece;

https://www.blakefallconroy.com/mini...e-machine.html


Turn the crank, and the machine pays out a single penny roughly every 5 seconds (4.97, precisely). That's it; keep turning the crank, another penny every 5 seconds. How long would you sit there turning that crank?

Because that's a $7.25/hour payout. That's what minimum wage looks like. It's egregiously awful and we need to stop devaluing human labor.

[NED funded]

People should stop trying to build a narrative to events that are occurring now if you don't want to look like a fool

Good on people if they dont find it themselves to return to a job that can make them miserable or not worthwhile their time

[Shadowferal]

Related; Record-breaking 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August, new data show

Across the country, people are leaving their jobs at record rates.

According to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs in August. The nationwide quit rate increased to 2.9% of the workforce. That's the highest percentage ever reported by the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey series.

Experts stress that people are leaving their jobs as workers across the country are demanding higher pay, better employment conditions and critical support in their daily lives.

"There is no 'labor shortage.' There's a child care shortage, a living-wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a healthcare shortage," Robert Reich, UC Berkeley professor of public policy and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, wrote on Twitter Tuesday. "Until these shortages are remedied, Americans won't return to work anytime soon."

Julia Pollak, the chief economist at ZipRecruiter, says the high number of job openings can contribute to the quit rate.

"There are now about 50% more job openings than there were before the pandemic," she told USA TODAY. "Someone who was passively looking for a new job before might have seen five or six job postings that are relevant. Now they're seeing 10 or more. There's just more attractive alternatives."

"Anyone who expects that these things will be really short-lived and transitory has been proved wrong," she said. "[Think of] the companies that told their workers to go work from home in March (2020) for the next two weeks — there's two weeks clearly turning into two years, and possibly more. So this is not just a short term issue."

[Machismo]

Strikes, boycotts, and collective bargaining are exactly how such things should be handled. It's the epitome of capitalism, combined with the exercising of 1st-Amendment rights.

[JohnBrown1917]

Strikes, boycotts, and collective bargaining are exactly how such things should be handled. It's the epitome of capitalism, combined with the exercising of 1st-Amendment rights.

That explains why unions always get repressed in less regulated countries.

[Machismo]

That explains why unions always get repressed in less regulated countries.

Not really, but companies are under no obligation to deal with them. They can simply fire them all, and start anew.

[Draco-Onis]

People should stop trying to build a narrative to events that are occurring now if you don't want to look like a fool

Good on people if they dont find it themselves to return to a job that can make them miserable or not worthwhile their time

The data speaks for itself you don't need a narrative, it's easy to figure out why. When the pandemic hit millions of people got dumped like a hot potato from their jobs now imagine spending years at a job barely making it by but that one thing that kept you there job security is taken from you. That's what happened here corporate America gave a lot of people the middle finger now the fake narrative of loyalty and job security is gone, people are demanding more and changing jobs more often now.

[Elegiac]

That explains why unions always get repressed in less regulated countries.

No no, you heard him.

"Unionization is a pure expression of capitalism" is an implicit admission that capitalism doesn't work unless regulated.

[Draco-Onis]

Not really, but companies are under no obligation to deal with them. They can simply fire them all, and start anew.

training, culture, experience, talent and cost of hiring of course they are under no obligation to deal with them but in a lot of cases they would be incredibly stupid not to compromise. People don't seem to realize how hard it is to put a team of competent people together even in minimum wage jobs there are a lot of people you can't really just replace that easily.

[Shadowferal]

Airline pilots are daring every airline to collectively fire them all.
If that doesn't say f-u to big business...

[Machismo]

training, culture, experience, talent and cost of hiring of course they are under no obligation to deal with them but in a lot of cases they would be incredibly stupid not to compromise. People don't seem to realize how hard it is to put a team of competent people together even in minimum wage jobs there are a lot of people you can't really just replace that easily.

And therein lies the balance, and it's why I support it.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

I wouldn't call demanding fair compensation for labor "militancy". Your poll options have left me wanting.

[Mihalik]

No. There's no militancy.

The American working class is so stunningly brainwashed that it's psychologically incapable of organized labor action.

Individuals might not be willing to take shit work for shit money, but most working class Americans would chops their own dicks off with a plastic spork before doing anything like a general strike.

"Cuz that's fucking communism and this is America. "

What's most likely to happen is that they'll go and vote for some straight up fascist ethno nationalist come midterms and 2024, because Democrats will have wasted any opportunity to get anything meaningful done by then and the average American has the political memory of a severely retarded goldfish and will go - The Republicans are good with the economy, they'll fix it.

God I hope I'm wrong.

[Muzjhath]

No. There's no militancy.

The American working class is so stunningly brainwashed that it's psychologically incapable of organized labor action.

Individuals might not be willing to take shit work for shit money, but most working class Americans would chops their own dicks off with a plastic spork before doing anything like a general strike.

"Cuz that's fucking communism and this is America. "

What's most likely to happen is that they'll go and vote for some straight up fascist ethno nationalist come midterms and 2024, because Democrats will have wasted any opportunity to get anything meaningful done by then and the average American has the political memory of a severely retarded goldfish and will go - The Republicans are good with the economy, they'll fix it.

God I hope I'm wrong.

Agreed, the people at Deere need to talk to the teamsters. And make them stop delivering until deals start getting delivered on. Same with Kellogs.

Instead this will probably just. Fizzle and the outrage will go to very unproductive channels and against "others".

[XDurionX]

As a european, i've always wondered how much shit they're going to take. More power to them, i'd really wish they'd develop an awareness about how the american dream is nothing but a huge scam. Everyone should have the possibility of a dignified life working ONE fulltime job.

[Masark]

Agreed, the people at Deere need to talk to the teamsters. And make them stop delivering until deals start getting delivered on. Same with Kellogs.

They can't do that. That kind of secondary action has been illegal in the USA for over 70 years.

[Yadryonych]

Airline pilots are daring every airline to collectively fire them all.
If that doesn't say f-u to big business...

Ah yes, the airline pilots, the most underpaid class. Surely this mass sudden quit has nothing to do with vaccine mandates, it's just Arbeiterklasse snapping and getting woke on the second year of pandemic

[Shadowferal]

Ah yes, the airline pilots, the most underpaid class. Surely this mass sudden quit has nothing to do with vaccine mandates, it's just Arbeiterklasse snapping and getting woke on the second year of pandemic

They can get as snarky as you but we know the industry as a whole won't fire them or other staff. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/11/busin...int/index.html