Crickets

Union busting continues at an unprecedented rate while nobody seems to care.

I wanted to start this post by saying that this week marked the beginning of the federal unions fight to get back their rights after the Trump Administration launched it’s opening salvo against unions during this term, but the fight began much earlier. Everyone in the federal unions who was around for his first term knew what the playbook would offer— much of the same attacks, but this time with more ammunition and the benefit of hindsight and lessons learned.

It’s late summer here, the cicadas are as deafening as they will be all year, and soon the sounds of crickets will ring out at night to challenge them. While I wait for the crickets to arrive, the collective lack of outrage or attention to the largest instance of union busting in the countries history, has been met with metaphorical crickets, and that sound is absolutely deafening.

While locals like the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 in Chicago immediately jumped into action to raise awareness and protest the actions of the Trump Administration, the Trump Administration moved to terminate the collective bargaining rights of workers at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We’re looking at the decertifying of hundreds of thousands of union members, and possibly millions in the coming months. Where is the outcry from private sector unions? Where is the acknowledgement? Where is the solidarity?

I continue to wonder why it feels like so many people weren’t prepared for this. Whether it’s the fatigue of the overwhelming news cycle, or the misguided belief that it won’t come for them, the biggest coup of all will be the Trump Administration convincing the working class to roll over on each other when it matters most instead of using the overwhelming power of collective action to punch them in the fucking mouth.

I’ve often felt that the left (centrist, liberals, progressives, and beyond) has a tremendously terrible record of pulling in the same direction. If you look at left leaning discourse, you will often see the implementation of purity tests, and a level of scrutiny that is toxic and self-defeating. If there is one thing that the left can learn from the right is that it doesn’t fucking matter what you believe as long as you say the right things to the most amount of people.

I firmly believe that we can build a tent large enough to defeat anyone if it is a tent that is based on uplifting the working class, strengthening unions, providing opportunities, protections, and safety nets for the most vulnerable in our society. Once you’re in the tent, wear all of your issues on your sleeve and hold your elected officials to account, but get them elected first.

I feel like this situation is like planting a tree, the best time to do all of this was 20 years ago, but the next best time is today. If the ruling class got started decades ago— their dismantling of the middle class is all but complete— the next steps are not pretty and every gain made is at the expense of you and your family. Your blood, sweat, and tears are no longer what this country is being built on, it’s just the seasoning on their dinner.