Communist Party U.S.A.:
Decades of wage stagnation, little to no benefits, work weeks well above 40 hours, increasing housing costs, drastically declining standards of living, and plummeting life expectancy rates have all led working people across the United States to rethink having a union at their workplaces. Two years of the pandemic have woken up millions of people around the world to how indifferent their employers, and governments, are to every facet of their lives. We liberally apply the label “hero” to every worker that we have realized are integral to society now, but scoff at the idea of compensating them appropriately for their heroism. Euphemistically, this is an “appreciation shortage,” but in reality it is the culmination of years of degrading the living standards of everyone from bus drivers to doctors — a wage shortage.
However, working people are reengaging with organized labor to address one of the most pressing issues of our time. On the heels of “Striketober” (thousands of workers went out on strike across the U.S. in late Fall of 2021), workers at over 88 Starbucks stores have demanded the recognition of their union. Labor unions, as we know them, originated in the highly skilled trades of workers performing jobs in factories at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Over the past 200 years, these trade unions have expanded and diversified their ranks to represent most skills at any given workplace in any given industry. Unions basically serve to bind a group of working people together so that they are strong enough to stand up and make demands from, and negotiate with, their employer. Communists in unions
This organized, relatively class-conscious, mass of working-class people have the ability to place extreme pressure on the economy and government to gain advances for working people across the country. The Communist…
Quelle: Communist Party U.S.A. – The role of Communists in union organizing