I knew wildcat action was unlikely but it still makes me sad. More, makes me wonder just what in the fuck it'll take for American workers to actually fucking stand up for themselves.
Getting flashbacks to the times I organized unionization meetings that fucking none of my coworkers showed up to.
They would need some assurance or expectation that they aren't just throwing away their livelihood. They'd need class consciousness, solidarity, and a well-defined common cause and large-scale strategy to follow.
They might not be striking, but don't rule out sabotage. And even if they're not sabotaging for real, overly stressed workers with low morale tend to make more mistakes. The question will be whether they're mistakes or "mistakes."
Remember when UAW sent workers back into the factory during the 2021 strike and shit kept "accidentally breaking?" until finally the company offered a 10% raise?
A slowdown is still possible, hopefully they're just smart enough to not announce it
I think there are more productive ways to think about this. Organizing isn't like a movie where someone stands up on the stitching table, gives a speech, and everyone walks out. It takes years of one-on-one conversations, it takes the development of contract negotiators, shop stewards, strike captains, etc. It takes creating habits of taking action, and traditions of mobilizing each other. It takes door knocking and phone banking and fundraising and building connections to community organizations.
This is groundwork that I guarantee was not present in the rail unions yet. This is not a product of worker cowardice, but of insufficient organizing. Fortunately, some of that groundwork is being laid. Railroad Workers United, the cross union, rank and file, socialist org gained a huge amount of publicity and is likely to grow. Progressives are Running for Leadership in the IAM. RWU is planning on organizing toward rolling strikes in order to get around the RLA's strike prevention.
If you want American Workers to stand up for themselves, then go work for the railroads, join SMART-TD, join RWU and start organizing towards rolling strikes, or sabotage, or wildcat, or whatever makes sense. This shit doesn't just happen.
