at the Tar Heel plant were not passive victims. They were active and fought for their rights. The struggle for workers’ rights is not won by union bosses in smoke-filled rooms. Rather, it is won by the rank and file, those who endure the brunt of the capitalist system. And it is only through direct action that such progressive changes can be won."
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So writes Russell Hall in his review of the book Hog Wild, by Lynn Waltz (Monthly Review May 1 2019.) I have not read Waltz's book and it sounds very interesting but what strikes me in the review of it is there is no mention at all of the heroic 1985-86 strike by Local P9 of the UFCW at the Hormel plant in Austen Minnesota.
Mr. Hall mentions Marx and capitalism but as far as I could tell, the trade union leadership only once, and that's in the above quote where he refers to them as "bosses". This is incorrect in my view as they are not bosses in the same way as capitalists are and using that term can be confusing and not helpful in the inevitable struggle against the present union leadership and it's class collaboration.
It is usually the case that liberals, progressives, as well as various leftists and self proclaimed labor experts, refuse to identify another major cause of the decline of organized labor's social power and that is the trade union hierarchy itself. The present right wing trade union leadership sees the unions as employment agencies and themselves as the CEO's. For decades, but particularly since Reagan's crushing of the PATCO (Air Traffic Controllers) in the early 1980's, the heads of organized labor in the US have had a conscious strategy of concessions, they don't even pretend anymore. I even attended (only one class I might add) early on in my trade union activity, a class called "concession bargaining". Why would I need to learn how to give my hard won right and benefits away? And from my own leaders? I can get that info from the boss.
The national trade union leadership under Lane Kirkland did nothing when Reagan fired those 11,000 workers of PATCO and banned them from working in their industry for life. That same decade, there were two strikes at Greyhound, Eastern Airlines, Hormel, Detroit newspaper workers public sector disputes and others, some taking on a national character. These were all defeated due to the refusal of the union hierarchy to mobilize the power of organized labor and the working class as a whole to drive back this offensive.
In the case of Hormel, the UFCW national leadership withdrew strike sanction from Local P9 and simply replaced that leadership with one that was more cooperative with them and the employers. As they usually do, the union hierarchy chose to crush a more militant and forward thinking section of organized labor. Conditions in meatpacking were terrible and Local P9 took steps to correct that against the giant corporations that dominated this industry, IBP, Cargill, and Con Agra. These companies that controlled the market began savaging wages in the late 70's in to the 80's. By 1983, Con-Agra had bought thirteen plants form the old Armour company and cut pay from $10.69 to $6.00 an hour.
After IBP took over one factory in Iowa in 1981 with an average annual pay of about $30,000 a year, IBP also cut pay to $6.00 in 1992. This is the sort of crisis P9 was responding to and after P9 was defeated pay had barely risen by a dollar an hour by 1996. "Throughout the industry, hourly pay fell 31.4% over 15 years when adjusted for inflation." Along with this, the belt speed increased dramatically making meatpacking one of the most dangerous jobs for workers. Today there are even claims that the animals are still alive when they are skinned. *
This is what occurred throughout the 1980's when Reagan continued the deregulation begun under Carter and waged an assault on organized labor. The trade union leadership, as it does today and in the mold of Gompers, (See: Work With Capitalism Not Against It. ) did practically nothing other than a little fundraising and whining about fairness. Leadership has responsibilities, and unfortunately, for some, the trade union leadership is off limits when it comes to criticism.
This is particularly the case when it comes to many members of self styled socialist groups, so many of them in crisis and collapsing under the weight of events that they were ill prepared for and whose policy it is to keep criticism of the leadership off limits. Often, to avoid an open confrontation over policy and their role in the concessionary wave, you will read in many left/liberal publications that it is the "union" that did this or the "union" that did that. This is not an accident. In a union there are different forces, the leadership and the membership, and throwing them together under the "union" mantle is just a way of letting the leadership off the hook for policies that have been a catastrophe for us. Any movement form below that threatens these policies is moved against by the leadership.
It is important for new young trade union members to delve in to this period of the rising strike wave in the 1980's and huge events like the Staley battle and the Pittson strike later. There was clearly an attempt to drive back the bosses' offensive and we can see the blame falls on the shoulders of the union hierarchy for the failure. Using the term "union" in these situations obscures their role and actually blames the members for the defeat despite heroic sacrifices on the rank and file's part.
We are witnessing in the face of the teachers and educators struggles the use of a word that those of us who dared mention it in our union halls were vilified for and that's "strike". "Strikes Work" is a slogan I am seeing a lot these days. Again, we have to look at these events closely, know our own history and read between the lines. Strikes do work if they are run right. They work if labor, like capital does, uses all weapons at its disposal. including n\mass action to violate the law. Up until the teachers' victories, strikes were not much more than 24 hour protests with no attempt at all to stop production. Workers were even called off the job in order to press the employer to be nicer to negotiators at the table. Only someone whose paycheck is not disrupted would promote a stoppage like that.
What has happened is that since the West Virginia struggles and the victories that followed, all in states where striking was pretty much illegal and in most cases I believe in opposition to their own established leadership, strikes cannot be ignored and obviously can work. But what is important to recognize, is the fact that the established leadership was passed by, and state laws were violated. And in the case of West Virginia, workers refused to return to work at the call of their leadership. They were also organized in a totally different way as all workers beyond those immediately affected were drawn in to the struggles. Here is an excellent article form a participant describing how this was done and in particular the role of social media in organizing it.
While the actual events cannot be ignored and clearly strikes cannot be ignored when they are occurring without you and making gains; main aspects of these battles, rank and file leadership and the established leadership's tailing their lead, and challenging anti-union laws, is obscured, is not given the prominence they demand. To focus on these aspects of the events would conflict with the present view of the entire leadership of organized labor that when capitalism goes in to crisis they have to help it out, prop it up and that means at the expense of their members' living standards. This worldview is the dominant basis for their betrayals and class collaborationist policies.
And I have to be honest here. I have seen members of various so-called socialist organizations who I have watched cover for the right wing union bureaucracy's polices for years, some shamefully, descend on this movement, often offering very useful assistance and resources but again, refusing to point out these major aspects of the teachers/educators strikes and protests and how we have to build on it. The history of the workers' movement and their own negative role in it is hidden.
We are in a different era, and while different forces, both from the left and the right, will try to hold back and tame the rising opposition to the capitalist offensive that began with the teachers/educators, the genie will not be put back in the bottle and we can only speculate what will happen when the slump/recession hits. The movement as it grows will likely force splits within organized labor, much like occurred with the rise of John L Lewis. Some will see the writing on the wall and move left. We are seeing that perhaps with the emergence and increased popularity of the Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson who has thrown around the "general Strike" call. We have heard this sort of rhetoric before but we have to remind ourselves it is occurring in a different period and in the aftermath of some trade union victories. Sometimes movements don't travel the road those claiming to head them have mapped out.
These are some of my thoughts on reading the book review. Whether Ms Waltz takes this issue up, the tragic role of trade union leadership in our decline, I can't say, and certainly advocate reading it. I enjoyed Russell Hall's review but his failure to raise it is a glaring omission and I've been around too long to know that it is not an accident. Mr. Halls' review in its entirety is here.
Read this account of a recent strike in Washington State and especially the picket line rules to remind ourselves of one of the reasons we are in the state were are in and why we cannot ignore the role of leadership.
The reader may also find DSA, Labor Notes and the Trade Unions useful as we explain the difference in approach to union work between authors on this blog and some other currents in the labor movement.
A valuable contribution on the Hormel Strike and Local P9 is Hard Pressed in the Heartland by Peter Rachleff. An example of the disastrous role that left sectarianism plays in the labor and workers movement is also detailed in this book. I was present at the National Rank and File Against Concessions conference.
* OWL Books: Sharing the Pie, by Steve Brouwer P68
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