Sanitation workers in New Orleans went on strike November 5 in protest of low wages, poor conditions and unfair treatment.
Union leadership said the company was unresponsive to their concerns, and workers plan to strike until their demands are met.
These workers join a growing labor movement across the country. Workers everywhere in every sector—John Deere employees, Starbucks workers, film and television staff and many more—are using the power of collective bargaining to demand better from their employers.
Demands for higher pay, better conditions and basic dignity are abundantly reasonable. The greed of corporations that seek to crush unions and steal power from workers should be admonished.
Growing wealth inequality during the pandemic has only exacerbated these urgent demands. American billionaires have gained $2.1 trillion since the start of the pandemic. These 745 people now hold two-thirds more wealth than the bottom half of Americans.
Despite conservative adoration of “trickle-down economics,” this exorbitant hoarding of wealth has certainly not trickled down to the working class.
Take John Deere, where more than 10,000 workers represented by the United Auto Workers union are striking for better compensation and treatment.
John Deere CEO John May took a 160% salary increase during the pandemic as the company projects a record $5.7 billion in profits for the 2021 fiscal year. Meanwhile, workers report inadequate wages and unstable employment.
It is difficult to understand the greed that motivates May to inflate his own already enormous salary while his workers struggle.
John Deere executives have gone to great lengths to safeguard their own wealth and avoid the abundantly reasonable demands of their workers. In one example, executives forced salaried employees to take the place of striking workers, which immediately resulted in accidents.
Large corporations almost universally value profit above the well-being and prosperity of their workers. The government throws subsidies and tax breaks at these companies, promising that what’s good for the company is good for the worker. But corporate executives almost always use extra profits to line their own pockets, not to better compensate their employees. Too many American corporations don’t treat their workers as people, but as capital-extracting, profit-maximizing tools.
Collective bargaining is a powerful, irreplaceable tool to change these unfortunate realities. Organized protest forces employers to realize their workers aren’t as replaceable as they treat them.
When one group of workers somewhere wins better treatment, it benefits workers everywhere by demonstrating the power of organized labor.
Don’t cross picket lines. Refuse scab work. Do what you can to support striking workers.
American workers deserve much better, a truth many have found harder to ignore amid pandemic conditions and inequality, sparking thousands to organize and millions to leave their jobs in the “Great Resignation.”
The American labor movement is growing, and it isn’t stopping any time soon.
Claire Sullivan is a 19-year-old coastal environmental science sophomore from Southbury, CT.
