Mastodawn

Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. 40 years of declining worker power shattered the American Dream (TM), producing multiple generations whose children fared worse than their parents, cratering faith in institutions and hope for a better future.

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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

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Pluralistic: How unions won a 30% raise for every fast food worker in California (14 Sept 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

The American #neoliberal malaise - celebrated in by "centrists" who insisted that everything was fine and nothing could be changed - didn't just lead to a sense of helplessness, but also *hopelessness*. #Denialism and #nihilism are Siamese twins, and the YOLO approach to the #ClimateEmergency, #covid mitigation, the housing crisis and other pressing issues can't be disentangled from the Thatcherite maxim that #ThereIsNoAlternative.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

If there's no alternative, then we're doomed. Dig a hole, climb inside, pull the dirt down on top of yourself.

But anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. For decades, leftists have taken a back seat to liberals in the progressive coalition, allowing "unionize!" to be drowned out by "learn to code!" The liberal-led coalition ceded the mantle of radical change to fake populist demagogues on the right.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

This opened a space for a mirror-world politics that insisted that "conservatives" were the true defenders of women (because they were transphobes), of bodily autonomy (because they were vaccine deniers), of the environment (because they opposed wind-farms) and of workers (because they opposed immigration):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

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Pluralistic: Naomi Klein’s “Doppelganger” (05 September 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. A new coalition dedicated to fighting corporate power has emerged, tackling capitalism's #monopoly power, and the #corruption and abuse of workers it enables. That coalition is global, it's growing, and it's kicking ass.

Case in point: California just passed a law that will give every fast-food worker in the state a 30% raise.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

This law represents a profound improvement to the lives of the state's poorest workers - workers who spend long hours feeding their neighbors, but often can't afford to feed *themselves* at the end of a shift.

But just as remarkable as the *substance* of this new law is the *path* it took - a path that runs through a new sensibility, a new *vibe*, that is more powerful than mere political or legal procedure.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

The story is masterfully told in #TheAmericanProspect by veteran labor writer #HaroldMeyerson:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-13-half-million-california-workers-get-raise/

The story starts with Governor Newsom signing a bill to create a new statewide labor-business board to mediate between workers and bosses, with the goal of elevating the working conditions of the state's large, minimum-wage workforce.

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Half a Million California Workers Get a Raise—and a Seat at the Table

Fast-food workers compel McDonald’s and Starbucks to abandon a ballot measure that would have squelched both.

The American Prospect

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

The passage of this law triggered howls of outrage from the state's fast-food industry, who pledged to spend $200m to put forward a ballot initiative to permanently kill the labor-business board.

This is a familiar story. In 2019, California's state legislature passed #AB5, a bill designed to end the gig-work fiction that people whose boss is an algorithm are actually "independent businesses," rather than employees.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

AB5 wasn't perfect - it swept up all kinds of genuine freelancers, like writers who contributed articles to many publications - but the response wasn't aimed at fixing the bad parts. It was designed to destroy the good parts.

After #AB5, #Uber and #Lyft poured more than $200m into #Prop22, a ballot initiative designed to permanently bar the California legislature from passing any law to protect "gig workers."

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

Prop 22's corporate backers flooded the state with disinformation, and procured a victory in 2020. The aftermath was swift and vicious, with Prop 22 used as cover in mass-firings of unionized workers across the state's workforce:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/05/manorialism-feudalism-cycle/#prop22

Workers and the politicians who defend them were supposed to be crushed by Prop 22. Its message was "there is no alternative." "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." "Resistance is futile."

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Pluralistic: 05 Jan 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

Prop 22 was worth spending $200m on because it wouldn't just win this fight - it would win *all* fights, forever.

But that didn't happen. When fast-food barons announced they were going to pump another $200m into a ballot initiative to kill fair wages for food service workers, they got a hell of a surprise. #SEIU - a union that has long struggled to organize fast-food workers - collaborated with progressive legislators to introduce a pair of new, even further-reaching bills.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

One bill would have made the corporate overseers of franchise businesses jointly liable for lawbreaking by franchisees - so if a McDonald's restaurant owner stole their employees' wages, McDonalds corporate would also be on the hook for the offense. The second bill would restore funding and power to the state #IndustrialWelfareCommission, which once routinely intervened to set wages and working standards in many state industries:

https://www.gtlaw-laborandemployment.com/2023/08/the-california-iwc-whats-old-is-new-again/

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The California IWC: What’s Old Is New Again

In a significant development for employers, on July 10, 2023, California Governor Newsom revitalized the Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) by allocating

GT L&E Blog

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

Fast-food bosses fucked around, and *boy* did they find out. Funding for the #IWC passed the state budget, and the franchisee joint liability is set to pass the legislature this week. The fast-food bosses cried uncle and begged Newsom's office for a deal. In exchange for defunding the IWC and canceling the vote on the liability bill, the industry has agreed to an hourly wage increase for the state's 550,000 fast-food workers, from $15.50 to $20, taking effect in April.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

The deal also includes annual raises of either 3.5% or the real rise in cost of living. It keeps the labor-management council that the original bill created (the referendum on killing that council has been cancelled). The council will include two franchisees, two fast food corporate reps, two union reps, two front-line fast-food workers and a member of the public.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

It will have the power to direct the state Department of Labor to directly regulate working conditions in fast-food restaurants, from health and safety to workplace violence.

It's been nearly a century since business/government/labor boards like this were commonplace.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

The revival is a step on the way to bringing back the practice of #SectoralBargaining, where workers set contracts for *all* employers in an industry. Sectoral bargaining was largely abolished through the dismantling of the #NewDeal, though elements of it remain. Entertainment industry unions are called "guilds" because they bargain with all the employers in their sector - which is why *all* of the Hollywood studios are being struck by #SAGAFRTRA and the #WGA.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

So what changed between 2020 - when rideshare bosses destroyed protections for workers by flooding the zone with #Prop22 disinformation - and 2023, when the fast food bosses folded like a cheap suit? It wasn't changes to the laws governing ballot initiatives, nor was it a lack of ready capital for demolishing worker rights. Fast food executives weren't visited by three ghosts in the night who convinced them to care for their workers. Their hearts didn't grow by three sizes.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

What changed was the *vibe*. The #HotLaborSummer was a *rager*, and it's not showing any signs of slowing. Obviously that's true in California, where nurses and hotel workers are also striking, and where strikebreaking companies like #Instawork ("Uber for #scabs") attract swift regulatory sanction, rather than demoralized capitulation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/30/computer-says-scab/#instawork

The hot labor summer wasn't a season - it was a turning point.
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Pluralistic: When the app tries to make you robo-scab (30 July 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

Everyone's forming unions. Think of #EquityStripNoHo, the first strippers' union in a generation, which won recognition from their scumbag bosses at #NorthHollywood's #StarGardenClub, who used every dirty trick to kill workplace democracy.

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Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

The story of the Equity Strippers is *amazing*. Two organizers, Charlie and Lilith, appeared on @adamconover's #Factually podcast to describe the incredible creativity and solidarity they used to win recognition, and the continuing struggle to get a contract out of their bosses, who are still fucking around and assuming they will not find out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fgXihmHIZk

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How Strippers Unionized with Equity Strippers Noho - Factually! - 227

YouTube

Cory Doctorow Sep 14, 2023

Like the fast-food bosses, the Star Garden's owners are in for a surprise. One of the most powerful elements of the Equity Strippers' story is the solidarity of their *customers*. Star Garden's owners assumed that their clientele were indiscriminate, horny assholes who didn't care about the wellbeing of the workers they patronized, and would therefore cross a picket-line because parts is parts.

Instead, the bar's clientele sided with the workers.

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Lot⁴⁹ Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic Great thread with some good news for working people, finally.

Steffen Christensen Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic Man, Cory.
This tells you *exactly* how important to the spreadsheets liability for franchise-running firms in franchisee operations is.

Veirling | #MMIWG #LandBack Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic Friends of labor, please check out this brilliant thread. Thanks!

dark was the night 🌚Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic wow wow, I did a spit take. Wow!!

ErnstGucker Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic Wow. Thank you very much for sharing this. It is a lot to stomach. I learned a lot and it gave me food for thought.
Since it is already 10:20 p.m here, I am in for a long night of thinking and hopefully understanding.
I already know that the system here in Germany is not really better.

Alex Lubertozzi 🇺🇦Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic Among other takeaways I wasn’t expecting from your essay is a newfound respect for North Hollywood strip club patrons.

Dixzy Sep 14, 2023

@pluralistic Delicious thread. Scrumptious all the way through