Hi again everyone and sorry for the technical
difficulties but we’re getting started for
real, I promise. In just a minute you’re
going to hear from Sara Nelson of the Association
of Flight Attendants and Stacy Davis Gates
of the Chicago Teachers Union, but first we’re
going to share a quick video from our friends
all of those Amazon workers you’ve been
hearing so much about lately.
My name is Christian Zamarron. I’m an Amazon
delivery essential worker in Chicago and I’m
a proud member of DCH 1 Amazonians United.
Amazon has been raking in billions of dollars
during this pandemic while showing a complete
disregard for our lives. Until we took action,
Amazon wasn’t providing masks, hand sanitizer
of wipes, and they were working us faster
than they are now, to ship out all these non
essential goods. We weren’t surprised though
because just a year ago Amazon wasn’t even
giving us clean regular access to water. Even
though co-workers had been passing out from
dehydration. This sparked our organizing and
we forced Amazon to provide us with water
after doing a petition and presenting it to
the manager at the start of our shift. We
decided after this success to keep organizing
to get other issues fixed. We took over our
managers office during our break to communicate
our demands and made them real nervous. We
got managers retrained because they were treating
us like we were children. We started doing
potlucks during lunch and building community
with our co-workers. We saw Amazonians United
Sacramento wear buttons and walk out for PTO
and so we did a PTO petition and started wearing
buttons too. That PTO movement grew from Sacramento
to Chicago to New York City, and that resulted
in winning PTO for 10s of 1000s of Amazon
workers. We’ve learned that we make change
by organizing ourselves. So when Covid-19
arrived at DCH 1 we held an emergency call,
drafted our demands, collected signatures,
and organized four safety strikes demanding
Amazon shut down and clean up. A majority
of coworkers on each of the shifts we struck
joined us outside or did not go into work.
So Amazon wasn’t able to do very much. Everyone
saw our managers nervous and scared, yelling
threats at us from behind the police cars.
Amazon did not shut down, but they did immediately
improve safety protocols and reduce the speed
of work. Amazon workers around the US have
been reaching out to us saying they’re going
through the exact same thing and they want
to know how they can get organized too. Our
movement is growing deep and it’s spreading
wide. Amazon started trying to scare us with
HR meetings and retaliatory write ups, but
we’re defending ourselves by filing unfair
labor practice charges and launching an international
anti-retaliation campaign. Because when they
hit us, we hit them harder. We need our fellow
workers everywhere to start organizing and
building power at your work places. We don’t
wait for someone to come save us, we’ve
got to defend ourselves and our communities
from our bosses’ greed. There’s also many
ways y’all can get plugged into this movement
we’re building. Go to our Facebook page
DCH1 Amazonians United and in the about section
you’ll see we have links for people to sign
up to help or join our movement. Just know
that we’re building this up ourselves independently
and democratically as Amazon workers. We welcome
your genuine solidarity that respects how
we’re building our organization. And we
look forward to building up an international
labor movement together with you all.
Hello again and thank you. To get our conversation
started here I’m going to ask each of our
speakers to give us a quick 5 minutes on where
they think we are right now and what should
happen next, and then I have a few questions
for them before we open it up to all of you.
So Stacy do you want to go first?
Sure. Thank you. This is a great opportunity
to talk through the moment we’re in right
now. Shout out to Labor Notes and Haymarket
for putting this together and also Shout Out
for this all female panel. It’s very important
in this moment that we understand who the
workers are, and where you know the center
of gravity has to be with female workers in
this moment. We’re frontline workers. We’re
heads of household, we’re mothers and so
that makes this pandemic and what’s happening
with frontline workers even more insidious.
Because not only are frontline workers dying
every day, they’re leaving behind whole
families. And so we have to contextualize
what this is. We have to put a face on it.
We have to make sure that we are using the
language that is not a generic worker but
there are Black workers in Detroit who have
given, who have lost their lives. There are
female workers across this country who have
lost their lives and consequently their families
are suffering as a result of it. But we’re
here. And so three things that I’ve been
thinking about very much is that you know
we often talk about you know, triggering a
moment of revolution where the many are able
to dictate and provide space, leadership,
and guidance in this country and abroad. Well,
we didn’t trigger this moment, it’s an
insidious virus that has triggered this moment,
and yet we’re here. So we’re teachers
in Chicago, we’re paraprofessionals we’re
clerks, and it is important for us to organize
across sectors. I’m wearing an SEIU t-shirt
intentionally in this moment SEIU healthcare,
a very close ally of ours in the Chicago Teachers
Union. Their nursing home workers have sent
notice to 40 nursing homes to say that they’re
going on strike. And they’re not just going
on strike for wages and benefits, they’re
going on strike because they need to live.
They need to be available to their families.
And then to make it even more personal, these
women these Black women, these Brown women,
these working women, they’re mothers. Which
means that they are the mothers of our students
in the Chicago Public Schools. And that this
across sector organizing, this across sector
solidarity, is the only thing that’s going
to save us in this moment. Look I know that
we talk a lot about Trump and what he’s
not doing. We’re lifting up governors in
this moment, we’re talking about local politicians
in this moment, but let me be very clear about
what this moment is and isn’t. They’re
not going to save us. We are going to save
us. And so the moment that people have been
opining about, reading books about, studying
about, we’re here. So we have got to take
this moment and clarify the needs of the many.
And the needs of the many are different from
the needs of those who are on Wall Street.
So when we say recovery, recovery is not a
$1200 check. Recovery is I have free healthcare.
Recovery is that I have a union in every single
work place to make sure that I’m supported
and I’m protected. Recovery means I don’t
lose my home to foreclosure. Recovery means
that I don’t get kicked out or evicted because
I can not meet my obligations because I’m
unemployed. Recovery means that we are going
to try and form this in a multi racial multi
ethnic coalition led by women to make sure
that we are in a position to not just reimagine,
I’m sick of imagining. But that we are implementing
a society that prioritizes people their humanity
and their safety. We’re here. We’re here.
We don’t have to theorize it any more. We’re
here. Center Brown people who are still in
cages at the border. Center Black men and
women who have been put in cages across this
country. Center the worker who is ringing
you out at the grocery store, delivering packages
to your home every day and your mail everyday.
We have to center this across sectors. We
have to center this with women and we have
to center this with Brown and Black leadership
as well. thank you.
Thank you Stacy and I’m going to toss it
to Sara now.
Thanks Sarah and thanks Stacy. I don’t know
that I can do that any better than my sister
Stacy just did. But what I am going to do
since it’s May Day I’m going to start
off with a quote from Mother Jones that always
centers me. So she said “The capitalists
say there is no need of labor organizing but
the fact that they themselves are continually
organizing shows their real beliefs. The capitalists
want the most labor for the least money and
the laborers want the most money for the least
labor. Workers produce wealth and build the
world’s palaces but they neither use the
wealth nor dwell in those palaces. If you’d
only realize that you hold the solution of
the whole problem in your own hands you could
settle the whole question easily. If for instance
instead of striking in small groups every
industry in America were to hold up the capitalists
would be obliged to yield to any and all demands.
For the world could simply not go on.” So
let me just tell you, you know, this is what
we were talking about last year during the
government shut down and let me just say that
during the government shut down when federal
workers were going to work even though they
weren’t getting a pay check, a lot of people
said they should solve it. They should solve
this government shut down by walking out.
Well that’s just what the White House wanted
them to do. And so we are smarter. You know
I’ve been in a lot of board rooms. They
do not have the corner market on smarts. Ok.
We are smarter than that. That is exactly
what the president wanted them to do. He wanted
them he wanted them to hand to them the ability
to privatize all the government functions.
And they didn’t do that. They didn’t do
that. Those workers came to work and made
good on the oath that they made to this country
and all of us. And continued to work for all
of us. And you know what when they came to
work American people across the country, even
though we were told we were in this deep divide,
were coming into the airports and saying to
TSA workers “thank you” in places where
they usually aren’t saying thank you by
the way. They’re usually not very nice.
They were saying thank you and what can I
do to help you, and how can I help. And that
was the common experience everywhere. Ordinary
people were ready to take care of each other
in extraordinary circumstances. And so it
was only a few people who wanted to take all
the money and all the control and all the
power and were not afraid to put the rest
of us in chaos, to put the rest of our lives
on the line in order to do that. And so we
had to say, we can’t have the people who
are being shut out of work, we can’t have
the people who are being harmed take all the
risk upon themselves, they’re already put
in an impossible situation. But if they can’t
do their job we can’t do our job either.
And that principle goes forward no matter
what we’re talking about. So when we think
about work today, and we think about International
Workers Day, we have to think about the fact
that work has no borders.
That’s right
There is no difference. There is no difference
between gender, there is no difference between
what we believe in there is no difference
between who we love. There is the fact that
we work and we create all the value in this
world. And if we stand together and we don’t
allow them to divide us by hate, then we have
all the power to take what’s ours. So that’s
what we have to understand in this moment.
Is that Mother Jones told us that the capitalists
are always organizing. And the capitalists
are trying to use this moment right now. Mitch
McConnell just said, just laid down the demands
for the capitalists. He said in this next
package it has to be required that there are
liability protections for the businesses.
No protections for the workers but liability
protections for the businesses. They are literally
trading lives for money. They are literally
ordering people to go to their slaughter in
the meat packing factories. And they are literally
telling people they are going to open up businesses
and come back to work so that they can deny
people unemployment benefits. So they can
deny people healthcare. So we have to make
our demands clear and we have to understand
what’s at stake. And we have to be clear
about that. And so we have to be clear about
the fact that Mitch McConnell is a shill for
the billionaires. And it doesn’t matter
what Trump is saying at the podium. It doesn’t
matter. Because Mitch McConnell answers to
his caucus who answers to you. And so right
now in this moment I was just thinking about
this power analysis and it’s very difficult
to talk about a general strike right now.
It’s very difficult to to talk about a general
strike. Let’s be real when a lot of people
are out of work and a general strike will
simply mean that we are handing over to the
government the argument not to give people
unemployment benefits. Not to give people
help right now in this time of need. And so
and also to say to our health care workers
who are out there slugging it out on the front
lines without the proper PPE without the backing
from their country that that we’re putting
that on them to ask that question. Because
that is what the other side will say. That
is how they will talk about us. They will
talk about us as uncaring people. So we have
to think strategically about where our power
comes from and right now our power right now
our power in this moment is this election
coming up. They are not going to come and
say this, like Stacy said, they are not going
to come and say this. But if they think that
we are not going to save them they just might
do something about it. So we have to make
sure that we are backing #1 where people are
taking on these safety strikes we need to
spread the word about what’s at stake. We
need to spread the word about who is putting
those lives on the line and what is happening
there. And we need to spread that word amongst
each other and make it very clear. If we can
define what’s at stake then people are able
to define what they’re willing to do about
it. And we have to make very clear to the
Democrats that if Mitch McConnell is going
to say that what his demand is that there
are no liability for the businesses if people
die or get hurt on the job during this time.
Then our demand is treble damages. If the
stand-off our demand is clear you’re trading
lives for money. So our demand is higher than
your demand. And then we might just get some
worker protections and real protections and
health care for all. And a green infrastructure
that we can support with good green jobs.
And all the things that we need like the right
to strike when we don’t agree with the conditions
at work. Like the right to organize and not
have to go through ridiculous elections that
take forever. Like the right to actually negotiate
with the people who truly control your work.
So that’s what we really need to be thinking
about in this moment because the capitalists
see this as their moment of opportunity to
take all the money and all the power. And
the truth is that they are creating chaos.
But we need to take the power back and say
that the chaos is ours we’re going to own
the chaos and we’re going to make the chaos
a hell of a lot worse for you because the
minute that they think that the risk is too
great for them, that is when change is made
in our favor. So make our demands clear. And
make clear what we’re going to do about
it. And we’re going to make real change
in this moment.
I want an own the chaos t-shirt. That’s
amazing. So what both of you were just saying
there made me think about the way that we
are talking suddenly about essential workers,
right. I drive through Philadelphia to go
to the grocery store and there are big billboards
in my city saying Thank You to grocery store
workers. So we have this brief moment of thanking
workers and calling them heroes but how does
that help us build power in this moment and
because this is going to get confusing I’m
going to go to Stacy first again.
Thanks Sarah. How do we build power in this
moment. For us in Chicago it’s always been
about the discussion with the workers. It’s
always been about what is the very thing that
we need to focus on in this moment. So look
we’ve been here before. In 2008 there was
the great recession. And what the great recession
resulted in massive foreclosures, folks out
of work, but on the flip side it was also
a time where the greatest concentration of
power and wealth happened. I say it all the
time in Chicago we have Cottage Grove on the
South Side. On the West Side you know we have
Homan Ave. Those places never recovered from
2008 however Wall Street is and quite frankly
the stock market is doing just fine. So things
are happening right now for some, just fine.
So what we have to do in this moment is identify
the fact that the people, the many, they need
it. The second thing that we need to do is
identify who is unorganized and who we haven’t
invited to our party. You know labor for so
long has been a caricature of White men with
hard hats and not the nurses that are in hospitals
saving lives right now, or the CNAs in hospitals
saving lives right now. Or the laundry workers
or environmental services cleaning up the
rooms to make is safe for everyone. So if
we have to do one thing in this moment it’s
not just thank a worker, it’s to identify
who the workers are who have our backs right
now. And those are the very people who have
our backs right now. They are making it work.
And so not just say thank you, but within
the labor movement we have to prioritize who
gets to talk and not just be a shill, or not
just be a mascot but who gets to make strategic
decisions. Who gets to lead. Who gets to invite
other people into the tent and make it more
diverse and make it bigger. For so long we’ve
missed our opportunity to advocate effectively
for our immigrant communities and immigrants
are not just coming from south of the border,
they’re also coming from Africa, they’re
also coming from the Caribbean they’re also
the people who are taking care of the kids
of the 1% right now and risking their lives
to even do that. Like we really have to be
clear in the labor movement right now where
we center this. And if we are not centering
it with the train operators and the bus drivers
then we’re missing a moment. Look the best
thing our members, our educators can do right
now is make a call home and ask parents how
they’re doing, ask families what can we
do with them and for them and then ask them
to sign onto a pledge that all of us get to
recover, not just Wall Street. And then ultimately
we’re going to have to be in a position
to shut all of this down. So we know that
it can get shut down because we’re all on
Skype right now as a result of the shutdown.
Like we’re not in a theater somewhere having
this discussion with people all around us.
We have to make a decision, not the virus,
we have to make a decision, not Wall Street,
we have to make a decision, not the wealthy
landowners who have been making decisions
for a long time. We also have to make a decision
to trust each other too. We have to make a
decision to trust those who are doing the
work to hear them and to create policy and
strategy that reflects their needs.
Well that’s exactly right. You’ve got
to listen to the workers and focus it around
them and this is the moment to talk about
the value of work. And who those workers are
and what exactly they’re doing and how this
world just doesn’t go on unless every single
one of them does that work. You know I think
about the sanitation workers that Dr King
was striking with and talking about the fact
that if they couldn’t do their work then
the rest of us were going to get sick. And
isn’t that the truth. Isn’t that the truth
right now. And so you know you’re right
Stacy this is a moment when we need to be
making those relationships, calling out those
commonalities and one thing that we have going
for us that’s really to our benefit right
now is that we are having a shared experience
here. And that is what happens on the strike
line too. A lot of times when you’re in
the work place you don’t choose who you’re
in the work place with the boss hires everybody
in that work place, right. And so as Stacy
knows when you’ve got to plan for a strike
it’s not as simple as who are you going
to vote for in November. No no no no no this
is not something that’s going to be won
with 51% margin. This is something where everyone
understands that we have more in common with
our common demands than anything that could
divide us. And it starts out with a lot of
organizing and a lot of conversations about
what’s at stake and what are our demands,
and what are we willing to do. And then by
the time you get out on that strike line,
there’s people talking to each other who
maybe have never had those conversations with
each other in the workplace but all of a sudden
they have a common bond and a common experience.
And we’re all going through that common
experience right now and we’re all having
a different forms of heartache and we’re
all having to deal with the challenges of
this virus and that gives us something common
to build these relationships around so that
when we get to a place that Stacy’s talking
about, because we’re going to be in that
place, this is our time to organize for that
general strike.
That’s right
Because this is our moment and there is going
to be that moment when we’re going to exercise
that power together. And so every day we can’t
let one day pass that we don’t build those
relationships, build those common experiences,
build each other up, talk about the work that
each other is doing, thank each other ok,
not just thank a worker, but actually talk
about their stories and ask them their stories
and ask them to tell their stories. And thank
God for Labor Notes and Haymarket Books and
Sarah Jaffe for that on that point by the
way we need more of that. But this is our
moment to do that and plan for that day when
we exercise that power and that is coming
very very soon so now is the time to use this
shared experience to build that power.
Amazing. So this time I knew it was going
to go super fast, I have a million questions
to ask. but so for Stacy I have today being
May Day, May 1st is also the day that the
rent is due for a lot of people and there
is organizing around the country going on
for a rent strike. In the last CTU strike
you guys made history basically by including
demands around housing in your bargaining.
Can you share some lessons from that fight
and how labor can include more demands like
that in the future?
Absolutely we call it common good bargaining.
And I also say that common good bargaining
is very easy for teachers to do because we
are, we’re operators of common good. We
are a part of the public sector that is offering
a public good. That being said, there was
a question posed to me a couple of weeks ago
with How will schools recover post Covid,
and I go well that’s a question but let
me ask you a better question. How are societies,
how are the communities that envelop our school
communities how are they going to recover.
Because if Mom and Dad are both unemployed,
if the families are now homeless because they’ve
been evicted, because there was no grace from
a landlord or because there was no legislative
action from a mayor or a governor then we’re
going to be in trouble. Because if you’re
not in a stable household, then you know taking
a test handing in homework, even sitting at
attention in class is secondary, right. So
this whole concept of the connectedness of
housing, the connectedness of transportation,
the connectedness of employment and help.
Those all impact our school communities. So
we have to as workers and school communities,
we have to be very clear about what we’re
asking for. Listen, I can get a better wage
and a benefit. I can. We can argue about that,
we can even go on strike for that, but as
a worker when I go back into my class room
and I’m dealing with a class room that is
disproportionately disenfranchised because
families don’t have jobs and they’re homeless,
then anything that I could want to talk about,
makes very little senes because people are
dealing with trauma. And we often forget that
our children are experiencing Covid just like
we’re experiencing Covid. They may not have
the language for it. They may not have the
ability to connect with grown ups to like
express that and they are still having a traumatic
moment. That impact we won’t know for years.
But that being said our school communities
are going to have to see the reality of our
responsibility and our accountability. My
accountability as an educator is not to bring
come a test score. My accountability as an
educator is to fight for the resources that
my students need in order to be a whole person.
And to be a whole person getting an education
is a part of that.
Excellent excellent. For Sara you are in an
industry that is both in the center of this
current crisis and also the looming climate
crisis, no pressure. So we’re in this moment
where we are seeing massive changes to every
facet of our lives right now. How do you think
about this sort of going forward. You’re
a supporter of the Green New Deal how do we
think about this moment leading us towards
a just transition and how do you balance the
tension between fighting for members right
now and fighting for the future of the working
class in a warming planet. Again, no pressure.
Yeah thanks, So you know, here’s the thing.
Flight attendants are experiencing the climate
crisis every day when we go to work. We’re
experiencing it by bouncing around the cabin
with 300 lb carts because there’s more turbulence.
We’re experiencing it when planes don’t
take off and they’re grounded because of
the climate events or because the airport
infrastructure was destroyed in that climate
event and you can’t fly there for a while.
That’s our work. And then science predicts
that at a certain point those tarmacs get
too hot and planes won’t even be able to
take off. So and we also see frankly that
our industry recognizes it too because they’re
trying to save costs in this time by going
to bio fuels. They’re trying to compete
for consumers based on talking about the greenest
air travel. So there’s a recognition across,
they’re not doing enough, but there’s
a recognition across the board that this is
coming and that the solutions to climate change
are not the job killer. Climate change is
the job killer itself. So as long as we can
agree on what the problem is, which is the
first step that we have to take frankly, that’s
where we’re still stuck right now. That
we don’t have agreement on what the problem
is we don’t have agreement on the fact that
climate change is the job killer. And we also,
what I have found during this, you know we
put forward a people’s bailout in this moment
in time in the aviation industry That we keep
people in their jobs, money from the federal
government for the first time ever in a corporate
bailout that tells the corporation exactly
how to spend the money and in fact actually
that that money has to go all of it to the
workers and that they can’t involuntarily
furlough anyone put anybody out of work. Oh
and that they can’t have any stock buy backs,
and that they’ve got to have caps on their
executive compensation. People could not even
imagine that that was possible and so we had
even progressives working against us saying
don’t bail out the airlines because people
are about tearing down, one because they’re
so damn angry ok so I don’t blame em. But
because of what’s been going on. But 2 because
we can’t even imagine a world where we can
actually make it work for the workers. So
this is a moment, we just showed it. You can.
if you set clear demands and you say we’re
going to focus in on jobs and we’re not
going to allow them to divide environmentalists
from the labor movement but find our common
ground. These conversations are going to have
to happen in the union halls. They’re not
going to happen in self selecting organizations
where everybody thinks the same way. We’re
going to have to understand there’s going
to have to be hard conversations and you’ve
got to start with what the problem is and
have everybody agree on that so we can talk
about the solutions. And if we don’t if
we don’t host those conversations then we
are just handing this over to the capitalists
to make money off of this crisis. And then
to create a crisis even bigger than we have
ever imagined. And then put us in even more
hurt because they will have all the control.
And so we need to start defining the problem
and setting our set of demands because this
is our moment in time and we see it right
now. If there’s a silver lining in this
in this corona virus we’re seeing exactly
what happens when we stop burning and creating
emissions into our environment. When we stop
the airplanes from flying that are currently
contributing to the climate crisis we’re
seeing what happens when we actually take
action. Now we’ve got to think about how
we build that new world with jobs, good union
jobs and not just maybe people can organize,
but these are union jobs that has to be the
baseline that’s where we start.
Alright one more question for the both of
you before we open it up to audience questions.
Many of the strikes and actions that we’ve
seen since the beginning of the Corona Virus
have been by non union workers. So how do
unions in this moment support this new found
militancy and in some ways kind of catch up
with it? Stacey you look like you have something
to say.
Well I mean, here’s the thing. When I see
this new found militancy I see my cousins.
Right. I see people who look like me, people
I grew up with, who live in my neighborhood,
and I’m happy about that. This is my point
about how we have to reimagine leadership
within labor. And how it is incumbent on labor
who’s been here before to organize across
sectors. Like we have to not just show up
to their actions, we have to ask them what
else do we need to do to support your fight.
How can we be supportive and instructive to
how this is going to be. How can we be included
on your strategy session and listen through
and either mentor or take direction or just
be there in support. You know I do not want
to, I don’t want to say that we know what’s
best, to be honest with you. Because if you’re
going on strike in the middle of a pandemic
I’m going to say you might know what’s
best already. Right. Think about it, the tremendous
amount of risk that’s being taken. The fact
that they’re low wage workers to begin with.
Already check to check, the danger in which
they are working in these moments. I think
we have a lot to learn from them. We have
to prioritize spaces where they get to come
and help us reimagine the power that we say
we have but so often don’t flex because
we might offend someone.
Sara
I’m just going to say that this is how our
labor movement started, right. We didn’t
start with fully formed unions, we started
actually in the coal fields with 28 different
languages being spoken and the boss assuming
we weren’t going to be able to talk with
each other because we were different and we
were from different areas and we couldn’t
even speak the same language. But guess what,
when there’s a mine explosion and families
die we understand the hurt on each other’s
faces. And we understand having to comfort
our children and say that you know your dad’s
not coming home. So we have to get back to
basics and understanding that the people who
are going on strike who are not union members
are already a part of this labor movement.
Because every single worker belongs in this
labor movement. There is not labor there is
not union members and non union members. All
workers belong in our labor movement. And
that’s how we have to start acting. And
that’s the best thing that the labor movement
can start doing right now. Is claiming these
workers as already a part of our movement.
They’re not separate, they’re a part of
us.
Excellent so we’re going to jump to audience
questions in just a minute so get those in
if you do not have them already, and in the
meantime while you’re doing that we’re
going to share another brief clip from some
of our friends. This time some of the frontline
healthcare workers that you’ve probably
been clapping for every week.
Hi my name is Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, I’m
a registered nurse at Montefiore Medical Center,
the emergency room in the Bronx, New York
and I’m president of the New York State
Nurses Association representing 42,000 nurses
in the state of New York. I’m reporting
to you from the epicenter in the epicenter
in the Bronx of this Covid-19 crisis. If nothing
else, this crisis, this inept response to
the crisis has proven that our for profit
healthcare system is totally incapable of
managing any kinds of disasters, based on
its for profit structure. It’s clear that
it’s not profitable for these structures
to prepare for any kind of disaster. To save
respirators and ventilators, equipment necessary
to save lives doesn’t make money. Doesn’t
make money to have beds open and ready. Doesn’t
make money to have people prepared and ready
to move on and handle such a situation. We
need a national healthcare system. I do hope
that people remember the suffering that they’re
going through right now as it eases up, as
it ends hopefully eventually they remember,
not get amnesia about how the system has failed
them. The system failed us in particular when
the Center for Disease Control decided to
loosen their standards and gave the hospitals
and the government an excuse to not provide
us with the protective equipment that we need.
I just left a virtual town hall where we commemorated
the 25 nurses who died unnecessarily without
protection because of treating Covid patients.
This is inexcusable. In addition there are
many other workers, transit workers people
who deliver your packages and your groceries,
food workers, all of use who’re supposedly
essential but clearly are expendable to this
society. If nothing else it proves to us that
we’ve got to change the system. Not only
the healthcare system but the way we manage
situations. Instead of opening up the economy
which is dangerous, which is going to just
cause spread of the virus, we need to have
government programs implemented. Tax the rich.
Get a tax base that’s much fairer so that
we can actually take care of the people in
our society that need us the most. In the
community in which I live and work, we have
the last county with the worst health indices
in the state. Of course those are the people
who suffer the most. We have the highest per
capita of Covid positive and deaths and the
staff that cares for the patients in our community,
we’re the collateral damage to the way that
the patients are treated in our community.
The most vulnerable the most needy. So we’re
hoping that at the very least everybody takes
a really hard look and realizes it’s the
people who are going to be able to change
things. It’s the people who must change
things for the better to make the world a
better place.
Hello again and so I have some questions from
some of you here. We’re going to start with
a question from Al Bradbury from Labor Notes.
What is the labor equivalent of disaster capitalism?
Because we know that they’re sitting around
as Sara said earlier planning for that. We
know that they’re going to be broke on purpose
to try to break the unions. What is our version
of that?
You’re not broke if you’re taxing rich
people. That’s the bottom line. You are
not broke if you are taxing rich people. And
we do have to be clear about this moment.
In 08 they came to educators across this country
and they said take a break on your retirement
security, make sure that you can teach 40
kids in a class room. That nurse or that social
worker that you need, well maybe not so much,
right. And they expected us to do more with
less as inequality grew as wealth was concentrated
at the very top and many of our families did
not have jobs. And we too were struggling
to make ends meet in our own households, right.
Getting rid of veteran teachers at the same
time. So we know that script, right. And they’re
going to take full advantage of it now. They’re
going to come with all these austere policies
from people who we are hero worshipping now
because they are doing their jobs. I don’t
believe, listen, I grew up in a household
where you didn’t get a cookie for doing
your homework. That’s what you were supposed
to do, right. So when we have elected leadership
who are doing their jobs in this moment I
appreciate that. Because the guy in the White
House is not doing his job. And that’s a
low bar. You don’t get judged by that low
bar. What we have to do very clearly in this
moment, is name disaster capitalism, name
their chaos and be very clear about calling
out the normalization of that crazy stuff
that’s happening at state capitals right
now with people trying to reopen before it’s
safe. They’re not there by accident. The
wealthy landowners in the South understood
working class White people very well and they
sent them out in lynch mobs. So we’ve seen
this video before. So we need to be clear
about how a multi racial a multi racial line
that centers both racial justice that centers
female empowerment, is a part of naming austerity
as racist, naming austerity as sexist, naming
austerity as something that we are not going
to do that’s number 1. Number 2 we have
to be clear. Rich people get to put in, hey
I thank you for opening up the United Center
Jerry Reinsdorf and making sure that supplies
can be there. We appreciate you, and you get
to pay more taxes because you have it to pay
in this moment. The woman in the nursing home
that’s risking her life everyday, she doesn’t
have to survive with more cuts, because she’s
a hero remember? So we don’t thank her with
a billboard, we thank her because wealthy
people get to pay more, wealthy corporations
get to put more in the pot. Our social safety
net doesn’t exist, and when we had a great
depression when the activism of the civil
rights movement dovetailed, government got
bigger and government got bigger and black
people and brown people and women benefitted.
And this is what we have to demand. So when
we say a Green New Deal rhetorically, no we’re
saying a Green New Deal in legislation and
we’re saying that rich people get to pay
for it.
Alright what Stacy said. And let me just say
that you know that rich people don’t get
the privilege of handing out charity. Rich
people have to pay taxes ok. So we are, this
is not, we are not going to set up a system
where we are saying thank you and where we’re
begging for their help. No I’m sorry that
was the feudal system of Elizabethan England.
We’re not going back there. I mean that’s
what that was. That’s what they’re trying
to set up here. You know when I hear that,
I have a friend who works in a homeless shelter
for women ok, and she got a grant from Jeff
Bezos to run this homeless shelter for women.
Meanwhile Jeff Bezos is paying his workers
so poorly that they can’t even afford to
have a home. So this is, no no no, we’re
not going to have a charity society, we’re
going to have a society where everybody pays
their fair share and where workers can actually
have a sustainable way of life. And so we
take over the chaos, yes this is for you Sarah
Jaffe. We own the chaos, we own the chaos,
and we own the chaos in this way. Stacy already
talked about it. You know Mother Jones said
“I’m not a humanitarian, I’m a hell
raiser. No matter the fight don’t be lady
like, God almighty made women and Rockefeller
and his gang of thieves made the ladies.”
you know they want us to conform to their
conventions. But the white man’s day is
over. Women are at the table, people of color
are at the table. Gay people are at the table.
We’re all freaking at the table, ok, and
we’re going to take the table and own it.
And that’s really the difference here is
that we’re going to make sure that we have
leading voices from people who have been marginalized
for years. Who have been pitted against each
other for years. I think about my own union
and I think about those women who formed this
union in 1946 and the very first thing they
did was negotiate a seniority list. You know
why? So the boss couldn’t have them trade
sex for schedules. They put that out of work
in 1946. And so when you actually bring people
to the table who otherwise have been marginalized
they lead in a way that is thoughtful for
everyone around them because they have had
to make their way in life by looking and seeing
everyone around them. As opposed to people
who never have to think about anybody else
because they’re so damn privileged that
all they see is themselves. Ok. So that is
how we flip the script here. And that is how
the labor movement is going to move forward,
is that we are going to promote leaders who
are going to lead without ego and who are
going to be thinking about everyone around
them because they’ve had to do it their
whole lives.
Excellent. So we have a question from Brett
Wallace which is: How do we keep the momentum
around Medicare For All beyond a single candidate?
which is incredibly important right now right
because we’re in a massive healthcare crisis
and we’re seeing how bad our healthcare
system actually is.
Look this work has never been about a candidate.
It’s been about coalition, it’s been about
community, it’s been about labor. You know
our formula is not one person. That’s the
whole point of union and solidarity. And so
the first thing is that we can not get caught
up in the mourning of right now. Look I know
right now hurts. I know right now is disconcerting.
And I also know there are ruthless people
in our community that do not see today different
from three months ago. And so what we have
to do is be very clear about where we need
to go. With elections, with organizing. We
talk about where we want to be. We don’t
talk about where we are right now. And we
use the moment of right now to organize with
our brothers and sisters across sectors. We
use it to talk to our neighbors. Look are
we calling our neighbors even and saying hey
yo are you ok? What can I do for you? Where
are our ties to mutual aid in this moment?
Those are the building blocks of momentum.
Those are the things that we get to do right
now in order to shut it down later.
You know what this virus has done is laid
bare all of the problems in our society. All
of our broken society. And where we already
were building, we started by talking about
this. This wasn’t around a candidate this
was around coalition building. And community
building. And for the first time we actually
have doctors in this debate. When they were
pitted against, against this debate before.
Because people, people have a common experience
here. Everybody has had someone who died or
couldn’t get the care that they needed in
this for profit system. And that’s the truth.
And so we have to remember that this world
is going to change when we demand it’s going
to change and when we have that common experience
we can demand that together. But we have to
understand and believe that this is not something
that you build in one election. This is what
you build between the elections that matters.
And that common experience has grown better
than it ever has before. And this moment in
time is showing us right now exactly what
doesn’t exist. But what needs to happen
right now in order to get this virus under
control is every single person has to have
healthcare. So out of necessity we have a
moment in time when we can actually demand
that what is part of these relief packages
is care for everyone. Not coverage, because
coverage somebody else gets to decide what’s
covered and what isn’t. Care for every single
person. And that’s what can be created here.
This is what Bernie Sanders has already introduced
and is promoting, and we can demand it right
now because this moment requires it and we
have to understand already that we have built
the political will behind this because the
political will truly comes from the people
it doesn’t come from the candidates. So
we have this moment to show people what it
can be if you actually have a healthcare system
that provides care for every single person.
We have that opportunity right now. And we
need to go for it.
Alright so I’m going to, because we’re
getting close on time I’m going to combine
some of these questions because I have a question
about how we build racial solidarity and labor
organizing process. I have a question about
how we convince coworkers to unionize if they
are not. And then how we engage young people
in the struggle. And I think those are all
very related. So i’m just going to put them
all together for you.
Go for it Sara
Ok. Listen. We can’t be afraid to ask people
about their experience, and that’s just
the truth. And we can do that in our unions.
We can host that kind of conversation, and
we can say, you know what, if you’re scared
to ask the question because you don’t know
about somebody else, then that’s exactly
the time that you need to ask the question.
And we just need to make that ok and create
the space for that to happen. I am not going
to go on and on about this because I probably
can actually talk about this for a couple
weeks, but really that’s what it really
comes down to is making it ok and actually
very important to actually sit and ask somebody
else and take the time to listen.
Absolutely you know labor has got to grow
up and be about the neighborhoods that our
workers live in. It’s gotta be about public
safety in that I have to be able to go into
a neighborhood when I punch out and feel safe
in my neighborhood. Not police but safe. You
know I have to go in a neighborhood that doesn’t
have vacancy and vacant lots so that means
that labor has to respond to the needs of
the community. It has to speak to the needs,
the total needs of the person. It’s the
360 of our experience in this world. We can
not just say hey you young kid you don’t
understand yet keep living when that little
kid has probably lived more than we have based
on their circumstance, right. Have overcome
sacrificed, felt oppression in ways we will
never know. We have to be clear about community
and centering our movement in the 360 of the
lives of the people who are on the warehouse
floor. Who are on the tray lines in the hospital.
Who are in the locker rooms you know getting
dressed to scrub into a surgery. These are
things that we need to be clear about. Even
within you know our bargaining unit. It can’t
just be the teacher, it has to be the school
clerk, it has to be the teacher’s assistant,
it has to be the security guard, it has to
be the cafeteria worker. We have to care about
that community. And the student. When you
say young people I just forgot about that
part. But it’s gotta be about the student
and the lives that they bring in there. They’re
not just a test or test score, they are people
who come with histories and experiences.
So I’m going to ask you for closing thoughts.
And you can wrap this last question into those
if you want to. Which was just how do people
support the essential worker strikes that
are happening now and then also anything else
that either of you wanted to mention that
didn’t get mentioned already.
Listen yeah people are craving solidarity.
People crave solidarity right now. And I just
I have to liken this to the CTU strike. I
mean the demands that CTU put on the table
was taking a risk. It’s a risk to say we’re
going to strike for something that maybe isn’t
directly about your paycheck, or directly
connected to your job even though you can
make those connections, right. So it’s a
risk to take to have those conversations.
But we have to take those risks because the
only way we’re going to change this world
is if we’re actually making people have
to think about that. Making people have to
think about why it makes a difference for
a teacher teaching in a classroom where their
kids are coming to school and they didn’t
have a place to sleep the night before. Make
them think about the fact that there are parents
at home working two or three jobs trying to
get by and don’t have time to take their
child, or the ability to take their child
to a doctor to understand why they’re having
a hard time in school, when all it took was
a school nurse to find out oh this person
has a hearing disability let’s get them
some hearing aids so they can actually hear
in the class and be a student. Can you imagine
what that’s like for those parents to be
able to provide that for their kid when they
didn’t know what the problem was and they
didn’t have the ability to even take the
time to know or have the expertise or be able
to access those resources? CTU had those conversations
with their members. And those conversations
were not easy to have. And those conversations
were not immediately obvious to everyone,
but at the end when they had the conversations,
they had unity around why those demands were
important to each one of those teachers’
jobs. And not every one of those teachers
has a certain political identity that agrees
with each other, but they had a common experience
and they had a common understanding of what
those demands were. So we have to have those
same conversations about what these safety
strikes are about and why it’s connected
to us. And why we have to take part in supporting
those workers.
Covid has showed us that everything is connected.
Everything is connected and so our bargaining,
our labor it has to be about common good.
I’m going to be a broken record it has to
be about the 360 of a person’s existence
in this world. In order for us to fight the
power, in order for us to organize with each
other, we have to see the humanity in one
another. We have to break down the barriers
and say look everyone deserves healthcare,
everyone deserves shelter, everyone deserves
a living wage, and I deserve to be safe when
I go into my work site. Those are things that
we can organize around regardless of region,
geography, gender, race, or ethnicity. And
so we just got to be clear about how we can
have common good to humanity.
And Sarah, we haven’t talked about the post
office but I have to put this plug in. We
have got to save our Post Office ok. Nothing
connects us more than our postal service,
nothing. Nothing creates more equality than
our postal service. It’s older than our
constitution. It employs 600,000 workers who
are union workers with good union jobs. And
it and what the president wants to do in increasing
the price for that postal service at this
time, to put that on the American public,
we need to call that out. So we have really
got to stand up together and tell the stories
about how the postal workers have helped each
one of us in our communities including delivering
4 million prescriptions a day. There are people
who do not get the healthcare that they need
if the postal service does not exist. There
are airplanes that can’t take off because
they don’t have enough revenue unless they
have the mail in the belly of that airplane.
Every single one of us is connected here,
and our postal service, they are trying to
privatize it and they are trying to divide
our communities by getting rid of the postal
service. And we all have to take this up as
a priority and think about every single day,
what am I going to do every single day to
talk about the postal service and the importance
of the postal workers, what it means to me
and my life and how I’m engaging 10 people
about make a difference in their own lives
and speaking up and demanding that this government
bail out our postal service and make sure
it stays in place.
Stacy did you want to
mic drop.
Yeah the postal service is in the constitution.
It provides among other things an incredible
subsidy for the press which is my industry
so I’m biased, yeah and it also could be
a wonderful source of expansion right, postal
banking. Postal workers they go to everyone’s
door. They know who lives in every neighborhood.
I was on a panel with a UK postal worker this
summer who was just like yeah I know my customers.
I know who’s sick I know who’s having
problems, I know all of those things because
I go there every single day. It’s such a
good point. It’s such an important institution
that I don’t think there’s a better way
to, oh and also it’s a huge employer of
Black and Brown people because
That’s right
Surprise the private sector has always been
more racist than the public sector. So to
wrap up, I don’t even know how to top any
of that because y’all are amazing and this
is what the labor movement looks like now
right like every single time somebody asks
me a question about the labor movement they’re
like, oh well men, and everybody’s like
the white working class and I’m like what
do you think the working class looks like,
because it looks like this. And that’s who
is going to solve the problems that we have
right now that’s who’s going to lead us
out of this crisis and yeah so thank you to
everybody who came here. Thank you to every
one who’s donated, if you haven’t yet
and you are still making money or want to
do something with some of that stimulus check,
you can donate to Labor Notes and Haymarket
Books, there are links in the chat and it’s
LaborNotes.org and you can venmo @haymarketbooks
and we are going to go out with a few more
workers this time one of my favorite stories
of this crisis the GE workers that were demanding
to make healthcare equipment rather than military
equipment.
Good afternoon brothers and sisters. My name’s
Adam Kaczynski I’m the president of IUE-CWA
Local 201 in Lynn Massachusetts. We represent
about 1600 workers on the North Shore. At
Avis Budget the Lynn waste water treatment
plant, Saugus Public Library, Ametek Aerospace,
and General Electric Aviation right here in
Lynn. At GE we’ve been in a fight for the
5S pandemic platform. In a fight for supplies
sanitation, 6 feet of social distancing sick
time and serving the public, which is a demand
that includes building life saving ventilators
in the GE Union supply chain. Today on International
Workers day we stand in solidarity with all
workers and our fight for safety on the job
and justice in the workplace and our communities.
We stand against corporate greed and those
who will try to use this crisis to escalate
the attack on working people. We need a people’s
bailout, a union centered bailout, and a response
that puts working families first not profit
margins. Solidarity from local 201.
Thank you all again for coming. Happy May
Day, go raise some hell.
