[If we are to save our democracy, we must increase the influence
of everyday people, of the workers who make corporations run. Worker
power is the only counterbalance to corporate power.]
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TO DEEPEN DEMOCRACY, GIVE WORKERS MORE SAY  
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Desmond Serrette
May 12, 2023
Convergence
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_ If we are to save our democracy, we must increase the influence of
everyday people, of the workers who make corporations run. Worker
power is the only counterbalance to corporate power. _

,

 

In “Pro-democracy Organizing Against Autocracy in the United
States,” Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks
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out the type of infrastructure and mobilizations needed to respond to
an “authoritarian transition.” They rightly name the importance of
the labor movement in mobilizing working people and leaders in such a
crisis. In his follow up, “Hard Truths and Good Signs for Labor’s
Role in Defending Democracy,” Bob Master
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into more detail on the ways the labor movement is key to fighting
back against authoritarianism.

The experience of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
emphasizes the importance of the paths Master lays out. But the
implementation of workplace standards boards also holds great promise
for deepening democracy, not only at the workplace but across society.

While SEIU has played important parts in the fight against voter
suppression and anti-democratic forces in our economy for decades,
2021 was the year that SEIU built out its first ever, formalized
voting rights campaign. After experiencing in real time the ways that
President Trump and MAGA politicians deliberately sabotaged our
elections, SEIU’s leaders and members realized that the threats to
our democracy were only going to intensify and that SEIU and the labor
movement as a whole would need to have a more expansive role in the
voting rights space in order to defeat authoritarianism.

For SEIU, this meant developing a voting rights muscle within the
institution by engaging our members on voting rights, working with key
partners on the connection between corporate greed and democracy,
deepening our engagement in the national and state election crisis
spaces, and building out election protection apparatus within SEIU in
every state where we thought a threat was possible.

What we learned is that there are incredible organizations leading the
charge against voter suppression but that they cannot do it alone.
There is much work to do. We must develop a more sustained
pro-democracy infrastructure that doesn’t depend on stridently
racist and extremist opponents to make the case for a well-resourced,
accessible election system. We must make a stronger connection between
corporate greed and the gradual weakening of our democracy. All of
these forces were here before Trump; just ask unions, who have been
the focus of a steady assault on our democratic institutions by
corporations for the last half-century.

How corporate power erodes democracy

Corporations currently have outsized control over our government
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which means that ordinary people’s impact on our government
continues to be greatly marginalized. Over time, the public’s low
trust in our government
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be linked to the government’s inability to deliver the types of
policies that will improve the day-to-day lives of ordinary people.
This lack of trust certainly makes the electorate more susceptible to
the lies of authoritarian figures who can claim a unique ability to
deliver change.

One of the greatest preventative measures we can take against
authoritarianism over the long run is to rebuild the public’s trust
in our government and in our ability to have a say in that government.
One important way to do that is to deepen democracy in the workplace.
This means more unions. But it also means integrating working people
into our state and economic systems so that we are not solely
dependent on political actors, elected officials, or a misplaced faith
in corporate altruism.

Corporations have thrived in authoritarian states; they will not save
us. And even in the face of America’s most recent brush with an
authoritarian takeover on January 6, 2021, many corporations who
pledged not to support election deniers began contributing to those
same politicians just a year later.
[[link removed]] And
now we have over 200 election deniers in the halls of Congress, in
governors’ mansions, as attorneys general and secretaries of state.

One of the major lessons of the last half-decade has been how unready
our institutions and leaders are to combat an authoritarian takeover.
This is, in part, because much of our democracy has long been under
the heavy influence of corporations. Practically speaking this means
that real reforms that would help working people but limit the power
of corporations have been stifled over the last half century.
Increased corporate power has meant fewer policies that help working
people. This has created a self-fulfilling prophecy: The government
fails working people, so working people have begun to expect less out
of their governments. Many people feel disenchanted with the ways that
the government can help them improve their lives. A government so
disconnected from the populace will more easily fall prey to
authoritarianism.

While Chenoweth and Marks properly recognize the essential role of
unions and worker mobilization in the fight against authoritarianism,
it is mostly in response to authoritarian aggression. This makes sense
in the scenario where there is an attempt to take over our
government _right now_–our resistance will have to work with what
we’ve got. However, there is time to fortify the resistance, to
further root our institutions in worker power so that they are harder
to take over.

Workplace standards boards can bring workers’ voices into the public
square

There is one critical way we can begin this work of
democracy-deepening in the workplace right away: workplace standards
boards. Workplace standards boards are a way for workers, government,
and employers to come together and set standards for workers across an
entire sector. This would ensure that workers at one chain have the
same working conditions and benefits as other chains. Workplace
standards boards are a real-life example of workers sitting as equals
with corporations and government to create better working conditions
in their industry. In other words, their participation in our
government will create a direct positive impact on their lives. There
is no better way to improve faith in our government and make it less
susceptible to authoritarian takeover.

In addition to fair pay and benefits, workplace standards
boards “create a forum for workers and employers to discuss a range
of industry issues.”
[[link removed]] While
labor unions are more popular than they’ve been since 1965
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with over 71% of Americans approving of unions, they currently only
represent around 11% of the workforce. American corporations are
behind the times, and we need them to catch up if we are going to
create a stronger economy in the best interests of working people.

Here’s why this matters for our democracy. For much of our history,
corporations have lobbied, union-busted, and debased their own
workforces in the name of profits. In fact, they’ve done this by
weakening the institutions that monitor workforce conditions, like the
NLRB, and weakening the institutions that provide oversight of the
market, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Every year
citizens turn out to vote with the hope of electing politicians who
will make their lives better, and behind the scenes corporations have
been acting to ensure that they are exempt from those electoral
outcomes.

Now imagine a fascist, funded by billionaires and corporations, takes
over our government institutions–in addition to the other crises
this will create, how will we protect workers from seven day work
weeks, from forcing children out of schools and into factories, or
reducing an already inhumane minimum wage? This is not beyond the
realm of possibility: we are seeing in real time the weakening of
child labor laws across the country as part of a corporate plan to
roll back labor protections for workers
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Our nation works at its best when corporations are held in check. So
we must create a government that protects against corporate blindspots
and greed. If we do this, we can rebuild trust in our government. One
of the most powerful ways to do that is by giving workers a voice on
the job, a way they can sit at the table with corporate executives and
engage in real dialogue as equals, and yes, hold them in check.

The good news is it’s already being done in some states. Governor
Newsom just signed a bill to create a Fast Food Sector Council for
fast food workers in California
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With fast food workers at the table, workers won’t have to depend
solely on fast food executives to create better working conditions
that they’ve neglected to do for decades.

(As has long been the case, corporate interests are not just standing
idly by while their influence is being redirected into the hands of
working people and voters. In California, fast food companies are
exploiting the state’s referendum process to overturn the Fast Food
Sector Council bill. In response, labor and progressive allies are
pushing lawmakers to pass a referendum reform bill that would put
limits on use of paid signatures and make the wording more clear for
voters.
[[link removed]])

Defend democracy by making it work better

If we are to save our democracy, we must increase the influence of
everyday people, of the workers who make corporations run. In the
absence of those voices–of worker power–corporate actors will work
in the interest of profits. Worker power is the only counterbalance to
corporate power.

As Master writes, “The existence of pro-democracy state governments
in places like New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New
Jersey and Washington must become a powerful resource for the
movement.” In California, we have an opportunity to implement one of
the most powerful answers to corporate overreach and a weakened state:
workplace standards boards. Imagine if workers were able to sit at the
table and create the conditions for a vibrant workplace and in the
process restore workers’ belief in the positive role of government
(and employers) in their lives. We can destroy authoritarianism by
simply giving it fewer places to take root.

With workplace standards boards we can fundamentally change the way
our markets and government interact, so that working people get a say.
If we can do that, we’ll deepen democracy and create sturdier
foundations that are harder to knock over. 

_Desmond Serrette was the Interim Political Director at the Service
Employees International Union (SEIU). He has worked in the labor
movement fighting on behalf of working people for most of his career.
Prior to working at SEIU, Desmond was the Deputy Political Director at
UNITE HERE Local 25. He grew up in Oxon Hill in Prince George’s
County, MD, and now lives in Adams Morgan, Washington, DC._

_Convergence is a magazine for radical insights. We work with
organizers and activists on the frontlines of today’s most pressing
struggles to produce articles, videos and podcasts that sharpen our
collective practice, lift up stories from the grassroots, and promote
strategic debate. Our goal is to create the shared strategy needed to
change our society and the world. Our community of readers, viewers,
and content producers are united in our purpose: winning multi-racial
democracy and a radically democratic economy._

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* democracy
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* voter suppression
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* SEIU
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* corporate power
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