The assault on American workers by employers, government and the courts has increased recently, making it more difficult to organize and negotiate contracts, At the same time, sympathy toward unions from the general public has also increased – along with growing support for some strikes. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME makes it harder for public sector unions to collect dues. The court decision marked a 70-year effort by the National Right to Work Foundation to weaken unions, funded by billionaires who hate unions.
Their victory contrasts with the recent wave of teacher strikes earlier this year in West Virginia, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, and Kentucky. These strikes occurred in so-called “right to work” states, where workers in the private-sector have few rights and strikes by public workers, are illegal. These are the same conditions that existed 100 years ago, prior to the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.
A new book by historian Erik Loomis, A History of America in Ten Strikes, gives historical context to the current labor movement. The book is one-part introduction to labor history and one-part introduction to the history of America as made and experienced by the working class.
“The workplace is a site where people struggle for power,” Loomis writes, and his book places that conflict at the center for an understanding of American history. Loomis notes that work is one of the few experiences that tie people together. “Fighting for better wages and conditions unites workers across industries and generations,” he says.
Each of the ten chapters are framed around one major strike. The strikes are laid out chronologically, starting with the organizing by workers in the mills of Lowell, MA in the 1830s and 1840’s, that was led by women when America was beginning to industrialize—and ending with the immigrant-led Justice for Janitors campaign of the 1980s and 1990s. In between, Loomis discusses many of the country’s most famous strikes, including the Flint Sit-Down of 1936-1937 and the most successful strike in American history—the self-emancipation of the millions of enslaved people during the Civil War.
One could argue about which strikes are spotlighted and which are not—the 1934 West Coast longshore strike gets only a few pages. But these “ten strikes” are only a window that Loomis used to view the historical and economic context surrounding each strike. It is here that Loomis really shines by giving readers a comprehensive understanding of the issues facing workers and the complex political and social landscape that workers were organizing in.
For Loomis, workers are not mere spectators to history who are shaped by forces beyond their control. He sees workers as political and economic actors who shape the world around them, and Loomis does it without romanticizing the history of working class struggle.
Working class movements have long struggled with their own internal divisions based on racial, ethnic, gender and craft differences – which is a recurring theme in the book. While many of these divisions have been exploited by employers to weaken labor movements, Loomis notes that many workers and unions have willingly embraced and maintained these divisions. While exceptions exist, such as the ILWU’s push of racial integration in the 1930s, other unions openly supported Jim Crow segregation in their locals and promoted anti-immigrant legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Racist and nativist sentiments, lack of democratic practices and corruption have all worked to undermine the strength of the labor movement. Loomis doesn’t avoid this dark history, but shows how rank-and-file movements have risen to fight discrimination and promote democratic reforms.
Another theme that emerges in A History of America in Ten Strikes, is the importance of political action by workers in order to neutralize government-employer alliances. From the beginning of industrialization, employers have used the courts, legislature, police, military and private security and mercenary forces to crush strikes and unions.
“There is simply no evidence from American history that unions can succeed if the government and employers combine to crush them,” Loomis writes. The chance of success for labor struggle increases dramatically if the state remains neutral and doesn’t put its finger on the scale in favor or the employer. Loomis continues, “After decades of struggle, in the 1930s, a new era of government passed labor legislation that gave workers the right to organize, the minimum wage, and other pillars of dignified work for the first time. While employers’ power never waned in the halls of government, the growing power of unions neutralized the worst corporate attacks until the 1980s.”
Members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) would learn this lesson in dramatic fashion when Ronald Reagan fired over 12,000 air traffic controllers during an illegal strike in 1981. The crushing of that strike ushered in a new era of attacks on organized labor.
Ironically, PATCO had endorsed Reagan during the 1980 election, despite his anti-union record. Their faulty assessment ended in a catastrophe. Loomis is clear that politicians won’t lead the charge to protect workers. That’s up to the working class, who must take collective action to challenge employer power. Now we’re living in times like the 1920s with extreme inequalities of wealth and corporate power at the expense of workers. Loomis’s book argues that our only hope is to challenge this new “Gilded Age” by building inclusive, democratic unions that understand how the government can be leveraged to benefit the working class.