An Open Letter To Young Union Organizers

By Timothy Sheard

Young union leaders bringing the fight to the bosses at Starbucks, Amazon, Chipotle, REI and other bastions of corporate power across the country are inspiring millions and breathing new fire into the labor movement.

They’re meeting in parks and pubs, in backyards and union halls, highlighting the many benefits that come with unionizing: better pay, job security, reasonable shift allocation, health benefits —and most important of all — respect on the job.

While these arguments for signing union pledge cards address vital issues, young union leaders may be in danger of falling into the same trap legacy unions fell into in the 50’s and 60’s ─ letting the bosses control the social order narrative.

We’ve all heard that narrative. It goes like this: A bold, innovative entrepreneur borrows money from investors and builds a new corporate entity. When the company turns a profit, the CEO and the investors reap all the rewards and rightfully become rich.

The workers, meanwhile, who toiled to produce all that wealth in the form of products and services are paid a wage that the bosses call a “cost.” In this narrative, workers are simply debits in the loss columns that cut into the company’s profit margin — and nothing more.

But workers are not “costs.” They are disenfranchised investors — as deserving of a share of the company profits as any CEO or financial investor. Perhaps even more deserving.

Consider workers who toil for 25-30 years for a company. At the end of their work lives they retire, if they are healthy enough to have survived. During those working years, they provided institutional knowledge that was critical to the running of the company. They trained new hires and solved immediate problems on the shop floor. They invested their lives in the company.

But the corporate class writes the rules of business, so they mis-classify workers as “costs” rather than as “investors.” And at the same time the bosses are paying off the political class to write laws codifying the company’s right to further disenfranchise workers, they steal from the public by under-paying or not paying taxes. These companies utilize public services — from paving and lighting the streets, providing fire and police protection, and health inspectors for food — but too often duck paying their fair share of the taxes that pay for it all.

What’s more, the bosses consistently overcharge consumers. Even though they could sell their products or services at a lower cost and still turn a reasonable profit, they insist on high prices. Maximizing profit is their core philosophy. When consumer demand is high, they raise prices higher, even if their costs have not changed. If companies are awash in profits, they never provide financial relief to customers who are pinching pennies trying to cover the cost of food, medicine, rent, and the like.

Young union leaders need to deliver the message to rank and file workers that they are investors deserving a cut of the profits, and bosses are crooks. Delivering this message will raise worker awareness and heighten their commitment to fighting for their fair share of the pie. By finally realizing they are investors, workers will soon demand their place on the board of directors and have an real voice in how the company is run from then on.

Maybe one day they will even own the company.

Timothy Sheard is a retired nurse and founder of Hard Ball & Little Heroes Press, a labor & social justice imprint.