An article by Dom DiMaggio that appeared in the November 27, 2023 issue of Jacobin under the headline "Unions Should Start Planning for a Mass Strike on May Day 2028" got little attention when it was first published. Today, however, my email basket is full of questions, projections and worries about the main points DiMaggio made in his article. The article, or recaps of the article, are apparently hits on Instagram/X, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Keith Naughton at Bloomberg News and Kim Kelly, writing for Teen Vogue, have picked up on the ideas behind DiMaggio's piece and run a bit with them. In fact, Bloomberg has been sounding the alarm since October, if not earlier. Hamilton Nolan at In These Times posed the possibility of a general strike and what it would take to prepare for one in the United States in an article in early November. Jenny Brown, also writing in In These Times, posted a forward-looking article with a related take on things last Sunday.
An Instagram post under today's date that may have come from the United Auto Workers union says“If we’re going to truly take on the billionaire class and rebuild the economy so that it starts to work for the benefit of the many and not the few,” Fain said on Facebook Live, “then it’s important that we not only strike, but that we strike together.” So what if a bunch of unions say they’re all going to walk out on May 1, 2028, unless their employers offer record contracts to make up for years of runaway inequality? What if they align some of their demands — like demands for an end to forced overtime and for the restoration of the eight-hour day? Or, hell, for workers to share in the gains of productivity with a thirty-two-hour week at forty hours’ pay. Or for a return to real pensions. What if newly unionized workers fighting for first contracts join them? Not only could it push the employers, it would also put some big pressure on politicians, in a presidential election year, to back solutions that help working people. Sure, it’s hard enough to even get a union to coordinate its contracts with the same employer: the Communications Workers of America Union have multiple expiration dates at AT&T; the Food and Commercial Workers International Union have more than a hundred different contracts with Kroger that expire at different times; and on and on. But maybe this bold idea is the push the labor movement needs."
The relevant hash tags given are @labornotes, @jacobinmag, #SolidaritySeason, #StandUpUAW and #UAW. The post makes it difficult to tell who is speaking here and who is being spoken to.
The post also points out some immediate difficulties in organizing a general or mass strike. Common contract expiration dates will be hard or impossible to coordinate, but getting there means starting to coordinate right now and being able to explain to people why a mass strike is needed. Besides that, common contract expiration dates do not make a mass or general strike by themselves. The "coincidence" of different union contracts expiring and different unions striking at the same time, even if possible, needs to anticipate what the balance of power might look like in 2028, what the levels of working-class action and leadership will be then, and where the coordination to carry out a mass strike will come from. Frankly, this will take some flouting of the laws and breaking some contractual agreements if this is going to work, and we can expect retaliation for doing that. And there is a nagging question in my mind---a mass strike, and then what?
That is not to say that the idea of a mass strike is necessarily idealistic or wrong. The Instagram blurb has it right in saying that "But maybe this bold idea is the push the labor movement needs." We have had a few mass strikes in the United States, and periods of time when it felt like mass or general strikes were underway, and May Day is a fully American labor day that we need to reclaim. We need a push, and this may be one of means of pushing us forward to do more and do better in organizing.
But will we still need a push in 2028, and isn't that question going to be decided in part by what happens in November of this year? If Trump or another Republican wins in November, can workers still approach going on an organizing offensive or will we be forced to play defense for four years? Where will our allies be---the women, the LGBTQIA+ people, the immigrants and immigrant rights advocates, the majority of people of color---and what will we need from one another then?
Any reasonable call for a mass or general strike involves talking about leadership and our capacity to take action. If this talk is for real, then we need to be all about honestly assessing our capacity to act and putting leadership in place right now.
I have participated in two general strikes, both in other countries. One was militant and confrontational and the other was more of a mass celebration. Immigrant workers here in the United States have much to teach us about how mass strikes are built and carried out.
What is the next step here and who is going to take it?
Please read the articles mentioned here and discuss them with others. Could we do a discussion group about this here in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties?
The opinions expressed here are not those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central
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