The Grassroots Are Growing—And Reimagining What’s Possible

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/12/04/grassroots-are-growing-and-reimagining-whats-possible

The only problem with waging a decade-spanning campaign for fair wages is that the baseline is always shifting. While economists and politicians and labor experts have gotten on board, the economy has changed. The pandemic exposed how reliant Americans are on underpaid essential workers, as well as the disproportionate harm they suffer when crisis hits. Now, inflation has soared to its highest level in 40 years and $15 an hour is no longer enough.

The good news is we have the tools and the momentum to do more. Unions have attained their greatest popularity in decades. Workers all over the country are demanding unions at once-unthinkable giants like Apple, Starbucks, and Amazon. Earlier this month, hundreds of service workers across the south joined together to launch the Union of Southern Service Workers, pledging to fight for higher pay and a seat at the table in a region of the country with the lowest union density in the nation. In California, half a million fast-food workers won a seat at the table following two years of pandemic-era protests when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Fast Recovery Act on Labor Day.

The boldness, vision, and solidarity of today’s workers is palpable—and so are their critiques of massive income inequality, chronic student debt, inaccessible healthcare, and more. Since 2012, the consensus has shifted on how much one needs to make in order to live and save for the future. And more and more, workers are demanding unions as the solution.

In this age of innovation, the true disruptors are those who can turn pie-in-the-sky fantasies into reality. Workers in the Fight for $15 and a Union have shown what’s possible when they organize. Now, let us dare to imagine what’s possible in the next 10 years.