By Steve Brier
Following more than a decade of working-class militancy and organizing successes in the 1930s, one of the first targets of the anti-union Taft-Hartley legislation in 1947 was the solidarity strike, what the great labor leader and Socialist Eugene V. Debs once characterized as the “Christ-like virtue of sympathy” among workers. Class unity expressed in sympathy and solidarity strikes that extend beyond narrow occupational categories and specific union organizations is the indispensable element in building and sustaining a strong working-class movement. And we are starting to see the first expressions of labor solidarity emerge in local struggles by low-wage workers who are fighting for better wages and working-conditions.
A recent Labor Press article reports that a group of rank-and-file fast-food and airport workers expressed their solidarity with striking Brooklyn “car washeros” by joining their picket line. “What we are doing here today is supporting car wash workers,” said one of the demonstration organizers, “but we have all kinds of workers here, from airport workers to fast food workers, and there are going to be many more activities coming up where worker solidarity between different unions is going to be the whole idea.” New York City Central Labor Council President Vinnie Alvarez summarized the critical importance of such collective actions: “We stand in solidarity with you in the fight for rights on the job, for benefits, and for the protections that each and every one of you deserves.”
Dr. Steve Brier is a Murphy Institute Consortial Faculty Member and Prof. of Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center.
