WALL OF TEXT: WALKOUT

 

WALL OF TEXT: WALKOUT. My roommate participated in a labor movement last week. Temps at a warehouse managed to scare management when they threatened to take away one of their breaks and only offer 1 dollar extra per hour for holiday season premium (last year they offered $4). The temps (most of whom are Hispanic) organized a walk-out and working at a reduced pace in protest. Managers held an emergency meeting and then agreed not to take away one of their breaks and offer 2 dollars an hour holiday premium (and thank you for your feedback your voice was heard). A small concession, but that came from just a tiny bit of pushback. Imagine if the temps could unionize, how much better they would be able to resist such squeezing. I remember when Hostess was going through bankruptcy. One of my bosses shook his head at the news and said unions are holding us back. No mention that the managers of that company deliberately ran it into the ground to push it into bankruptcy so they could sell it for a profit. New management cut staff and pay while taking huge bonuses for themselves. That has always been the point. We have forgotten how we used to fight back against companies cutting wages and pushing more work onto fewer people, forcing workers to do the same job for less pay. We used to understand companies do this not because the company is in trouble and everyone must pull together for the greater good, but because shareholders demand more stock value and executives want more money, and the only way to make that happen is to squeeze the workforce one way or another. By all means fight back against such practices. While we are at it, we should update our stereotypes about Hispanic-Americans. Instead of: those damn Mexicans are stealing our jobs, it should be: don’t mess with Mexicans they know when they are being exploited and will stop working if you dare make them do the same job for less pay. My roommate followed their lead. Americans in general should, too. If temp workers at a warehouse can get a concession with just a little bit of resistance, that should alert us to just how terrified management is of employees, and how easy it is to put a stop to such abusive practices. Anything is possible when we know what we are fighting for.