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**SEPTEMBER 18, 2023**
On the Prospect website
* Harold Meyerson on how unions built the middle class
* Luke Goldstein interviews Tim Wu
on
**U.S. v. Google**
* Kenny Stancil on the Fed's role in fighting climate change
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Labor'
**s Militant Creativity**
The UAW builds on a tactic-selective strikes-pioneered 30 years ago
by the Flight Attendants.
Many observers have been impressed with UAW President Shawn Fain's
astute strategy of using selective strikes, rather than calling all of
his members off the job. The strategy has three significant tactical
benefits.
First, it conserves the strike fund, which would only last about 90 days
if all workers were out. This in turn lets management know that the
union can take a longer strike and increases the UAW's bargaining
leverage.
Second, it also allows the union to inflict the most damage for the
least cost by taking advantage of supply chain vulnerabilities, as when
a key parts supplier or a plant producing popular cars in short supply
is shut down. Already, the shutdown of facilities that supply other
facilities has led GM and Ford to temporarily shut down two assembly
lines
.
(The companies are denying laid-off workers the partial pay they
normally offer when idling plants, which the UAW has called a strategic
attack. The union has guaranteed those workers some income.)
And third, management not knowing which plant will be struck keeps the
companies off-balance.
As it happens, this original idea is not quite original to the UAW. It
was pioneered by the Association of Flight Attendants in 1993, in a
strike against Alaska Airlines, where negotiations had been dragging on
for three years in the face of huge company profits.
The flight attendants named their strategy CHAOS
, which stands for "Creating Havoc Around
Our System." They even trademarked the name.
I write about this tactic in more detail in a forthcoming
**Prospect** feature piece on the Flight Attendants. Here are the
basics:
Because labor relations in the airlines are governed by the Railway
Labor Act, the union can call intermittent mini-strikes, with no warning
to management, designed to inflict maximum damage. If flight attendants
walk off the job just as a flight is boarding, the entire system backs
up, because of the airlines' profit-maximizing strategy of getting rid
of all of the system's slack-no spare planes, no extra crews.
The first CHAOS strike took place at Sea-Tac Airport in August 1993,
when three flight attendants abruptly left an Alaska Airlines flight
just as passengers began boarding. Three days later, attendants walked
off the last Alaska flight out of Las Vegas. In September, AFA targeted
five flights simultaneously in San Francisco.
The 25 striking flight attendants all were summarily fired. But Alaska
could not withstand the chaos and the passenger loss of confidence. It
soon caved. So did AirTran, US Airways, America West, and Midwest
Airlines, on the eve of threatened CHAOS strikes. All the flight
attendants got their jobs back as part of the Alaska settlement.
Today, Alaska Airlines is again making record profits and is again
stonewalling the union. In August, there were picket lines at all of the
major airports served by Alaska. Flight attendants were joined by their
brothers and sisters from dozens of other union locals and allied
progressive groups.
The signs read, "Pay us or CHAOS."
The UAW doesn't have quite the same leverage. Under the National Labor
Relations Act, it cannot call intermittent strikes; the plants currently
out must stay out until an agreement is reached. But the premise of
keeping management guessing and using selective strikes that cascade
through their systems is familiar.
In today's economy, the unions are going to need every bit of this
kind of militant creativity and solidarity, from airlines to autos to
trucking to warehousing to fast food.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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UAW Strikes Built the American Middle Class
Today's strikers are seeking to renew the broadly shared prosperity
that earlier UAW work stoppages created. BY
**H**AROLD MEYERSON
Q&A: Tim Wu on the U.S. v. Google Trial
Google claims its product is just superior. Says the former White House
competition czar: 'We now can see that a lot of those arguments are
horseshit.' BY LUKE
**G**OLDSTEIN
The Federal Reserve Could Be a Powerful Weapon Against Climate Change
Activists are pushing Fed vice chair Michael Barr and his deputy Kevin
Stiroh to force the financial sector to take climate change seriously.
BY KENNY STANCIL
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