With the recent defeat of the union election of Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, I believe it is useful to look at a bit of history. In the year 1941, the workers who toiled for the Ford Motor Company went on strike. This strike forced Ford to recognize the union, and this was an essential step in making the United Auto Workers union a national force to be reconned with.
When we look at the union election at Amazon and the 1941 strike against the Ford Motor Company, there are important similarities and differences. Among the similarities were the CEO’s of both corporations. These is Jeffrey Bezos and there was Henry Ford who were among the most powerful capitalists of their day.
While Bezos profited from online marketing, Ford profited from mass automotive production on the assembly line. Certainly, these advancements were only possible because of the thousands of workers who made these advancements a reality.
At Amazon in 2021, and Ford during the year 1941, workers toiled at a furious pace for long hours at relatively low pay. In both events, the discrimination against African American workers was a central issue. In both events, there were determined efforts that supported and opposed union recognition. So, in order to better see how these efforts were similar and different, we need to look at a bit of history.
Background to the 1941 strike against Ford
In the period between the years 1877 and 1934 there were many titanic strikes, These strikes attempted to improve the miserable conditions workers routinely faced. At that time, workers toiled at life-threatening jobs, for long hours, at a rate of pay that oftentimes did not provide sufficient food for families.
Then, in the year 1934, in the midst of the depression, there were three strikes that began to transform the labor movement. These were the San Francisco Long Shore Strike, the strike against the Auto-Light Corporation in Toledo, Ohio, and the Teamsters strike in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These strikes were followed by the 1937 sit-down strike against General Motors.
So, while there were clear weaknesses in the labor union leadership, there was a growing acceptance among workers that belonging to a union was the clear path to a better future. However, in order to achieve the kind of unity required to win union recognition, the union needed to advance the interests of all workers.
In those days, millions of workers from all over the world were inspired because of the Russian Revolution. While employers refused to treat workers as human beings, the Russian Revolution took power away from the employing class. A worker’s government began to transform the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Employers also learned that they could lose all their enormous power, if workers became organized in a sustained movement.
At the time of the 1941 strike against Ford, there was the Great Migration of African American workers away from the states where Jim Crow segregation was the law. While Black people had some rights in the northern states, they continued to experience systematic discrimination.
Henry Ford had a problem finding workers who would carry out the horrendous work of doing the same task all day long at a furious pace. Because of this problem that Ford actively recruited Black workers to do the worst jobs.
Ford established relationships with Black preachers in the Detroit area. These preachers acted as a kind of hiring hall for Black people who wanted to get a relatively better paycheck from the Ford Motor Company. Ford employed about 10,000 Black workers and this was about 10% of his total labor force.
During the attempt to organize workers at Ford, a banquet was held for 300 people, sponsored by Donald J. Marshall, director of colored personnel for the Ford Motor Company. Marshall argued: “The Negro will regret the day if he helps turn the Ford shop over to the CIO.” (Congress of Industrial Organizations was the union federation that the United Auto Workers Union belonged to). Well, the UAW won union recognition and the Black workers at Ford did not regret the fact that they received significant wage increases because of their support for the union.
Background to the organizing drive at Amazon
From the end of the Second World War until the first years of the 1970s, the standard of living in the United States improved for most working people. However, this improvement in living standards took place while tens of millions of people continued to live in dire poverty. The union battles supporting workers rights were the primary reason for this relative improvement.
Bessemer, where the organizing drive took place is just outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham used to be a manufacturing center concentrated in steel production and mining. Capitalists derived profits from the workers in those industries largely because of the vicious discrimination enforced by Jim Crow segregation. In fact, the civil rights movement began when Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
Then, beginning in the 1970s, the dollar was taken off the gold standard. This step was one of the reasons why corporations began moving their factories to nations where workers are paid between one and ten dollars per day. I’m writing this blog wearing a t-shirt made in Bangladesh where workers wages are about one dollar per day.
This move by corporations exposed a basic flaw in the politics of the union officials in this country. Those officials have routinely allied with government officials in the democratic party. They do not see that those government officials have a long history of ardent support of corporate interests. For this reason, the unions need to organize a labor party, and this has never happened in this country.
In the past, unions pressured corporations by striking and withholding the productive labor of workers. In this new environment, union officials routinely worked at attempting to convince corporations that they needed to stay in this country. Well, with the loss of millions of union jobs, that strategy has proven to be ineffective. As a result, there have been few labor battles over the past fifty years where workers won significant concessions.
So, when we look at this overall history, we might think of some of the reasons why the Amazon workers in Bessemer were distrustful of unions. Thousands of jobs had been eliminated in that area without a fightback by the unions. Then, Amazon opened their facility and workers had the ability to earn a living.
Yes, those warehouse jobs are horrendous, but a job is better than no job. The record of the unions hasn’t been very good for a long time. So, it becomes clear that the environment that autoworkers faced in their strike against the Ford Motor Company was entirely different from the environment that Amazon workers face today.
We can also say that many of the workers who voted against the union were white collar workers who are employed at this facility. These workers also have demanding jobs, but the environment where they work is entirely different.
The challenges of the labor movement today
Another difference between the labor battles at Ford and Amazon was the tremendous support Amazon workers received from all over the world. I was one of those who demonstrated in Philadelphia in support of the Amazon organizing drive. Similar demonstrations took place all over the world. There was even a strike against Amazon in Italy.
These demonstrations, as well as the Amazon organizing drive, reflect the beginnings of a changing consciousness in this country. For the past fifty years, literally tens of millions of people had the resources to move to homes in suburban communities. There, many of the residents of these communities had two cars, many of the household conveniences, many had the resources to travel, and their children usually attended college.
During these same years, there were tens of millions of people who do not have enough food to eat. About 500,000 people are homeless. The United States has more prisoners than any other nation in the world. In the course of the pandemic, tens of millions of people became unemployed. Many of these people might be evicted from their homes when the moratorium on evictions is lifted.
Then, we know that in the capitalist system there is a continual drive to sell more and more commodities. The capitalists also demand lower production costs, as well as increased productivity. They advance this drive by investing about $200 billion in advertising every year. Yet, in this last year, the U.S. economy actually got smaller. Many corporations went out of business, and others have only been able to survive because of the billions of dollars in charity they receive from the government.
However, while the economy is shrinking and the government has a $25 trillion debt, there is a massive construction boom. The government has handed out checks of $1,400 and has plans for more stimulus money. So, while the economy is shrinking, the government has been busy printing massive amounts of money and throwing it at the economy.
Looking at this overall picture, we can see why young people are apprehensive about their future. Many young people demonstrated last summer protesting the police murders of George Floyd, Breanna Taylor and many others.
We can also say that today the world is much more globalized than it was in the 1940s. Clearly imperialism has been a central part of the capitalist system for hundreds of years. However, today the world is much more interconnected than it was eighty years ago. This means that we are not only workers who live in the United States. We are also members of the working class of the world.
The United States has become a largely service centered economy. When we look at the cities, we see skyscrapers that house the enterprises of finance, insurance, advertising, corporate law, as well as corporate headquarters.
None of those enterprises directly produce the goods and services we all need and want. These include, food, clothing, housing, education, health care, transportation, communication, and exposure to culture. Yet when we pay for any commodity, we are also paying for services that contribute absolutely nothing to the value of the commodity we are buying.
So, when we begin to see this overall reality, we can also see how the labor movement needs to develop a new vision. Young people have good reason to be apprehensive about the future. However, the international working class has the potential to transform the politics and economics of the world.
The resources have existed for a long time to eliminate poverty. We have the real potential to organize the world in a way where literally everyone is working to make this a better and more rewarding place to live.
So, when we think of this temporary setback for the Amazon workers, we might also think about how the international capitalist system is in deep crisis. Working people have the potential to free ourselves from this crisis, and build a world where we can begin to see what genuine freedom is all about.
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