Labor’s Future

A response to “Why Uber must be stopped”

Some days it feels like Labor has forgotten its’ soul. Deep down, somewhere, sometimes, some people remember that the world runs because of our work, our hands and our toil. It’s the job of capital “L” Labor to preserve that heart of our heritage, to preserve the stories that now seem like tall tales — of how men, women and children stood up and said ‘No More’ and fought for protections and recognition on the job.

It’s about time those Tall Tales felt real again.

And why don’t they? Within the labor movement there’s been a forgetting. A buying into a debate that pits unrestrained capitalism against regulation, as if Ayn Rand had a chance of succeeding. As if regulation is a good in itself.

And with that forgetting, we’ve lost sight of Labor’s goal in the first place. The goal isn’t to get a Democrat elected, it isn’t for FDR to rise from the grave.

Labor’s goal was, has been, and will be to win full and fair employment for all.

This isn’t a Utopia that’s being proposed, it’s not some crazy progressive dream. It’s a simple proposition that relies on the radical notion that all work has value, and should be treated as such — and the proven theory that in a society with capital to spend, job creation happens.

We’ve lost sight of this goal, as its obscured by thoughts and words and ineffective actions that have narrowly redefine what’s ‘reasonable’ and that limit what we call ‘power’ to money and bought influence.

The Salon article “Why Uber must be stopped” by Andrew Leonard captures where, depressingly, we currently stand — and how far away from the ideals of Labor we’ve strayed.

The fight is over drivers.

Andrew Leonard begins by posing a question:

What is Uber? A paragon of free market efficiency and technological innovation serving the greater convenience and comfort of the general public? Or living proof for why capitalist societies require regulation?

What’s missing here? Quite a bit. But glaringly, the convenience and comfort Uber has brought drivers.

As Leonard goes on to decry the cut throat tactics Uber is using against Lyft, he misses the point that it’s over driver recruitment. That taxi companies aren’t afraid of losing customers to Uber (or Lyft) but are afraid of losing the men and women who they’ve been exploiting for decades.

Outrageous rental fees, regulations whose costs and fines are passed on to drivers, inefficient dispatching — and that’s just the beginning. Is Uber the cure? No, absolutely not. But Uber’s disruption of the market is already leading to improvements for taxi drivers, from reduced rental fees to fee and fine reimbursements.

By describing drivers as passive players, Leonard forgets the fundamental fact that Labor is about recognizing agency — the power we have to choose who benefits from our work. He forgets that drivers are actively, not passively, choosing Uber.

Who “lets drivers unionize”?

But what if, as Leonard says, Uber “ends up winning it all” and becomes a giant, omnipresent monopoly? While this hypothetical is, in itself, unlikely (the number of cases where a large company succeeds in constantly evolving and continually succeeding, leaving no room for competition or disruption are slim to none), it entirely forgets that there are still people, driving, making Uber’s success ride by ride and day by day.

Leonard says, “The more powerful Uber gets, the more leverage it will have over labor” and that

A company with the street-fighting ethos of Uber isn’t going to let drivers unionize, and it certainly isn’t going to pay them more than it is required to by the harsh laws of competition.

Why wait for Uber’s permission? Since when is it about a company ‘letting’ workers unionize? Doesn’t this betray a lack of faith and lack of confidence in what Labor can offer?

It does. And why? Fear and disbelief. People fear for their own jobs, their own livelihoods and do not believe they will win. And for too long we’ve let those feelings win. We have let stories of success become old timey tall tales, let stories of modern day wins fall by the wayside while defensively decrying boogeymen like the Brothers Koch.

We forget that Labor is about building people up, having winners tell their stories and share their paths to victory, helping others follow in their footsteps. Labor is about common goals and common hopes turning weak ties into the strong bonds of brother and sisterhood.

Prove the strength and numbers, create unity, and a union is won. No corporate permission needed and corporate opposition bested.

self-driving cars

A final thought. Leonard poses, deep in his hypotheticals, that Uber “will also dump [drivers] entirely in a nanosecond when self-driving cars prove that they are cheaper and safer.”

A sentence easy to cast aside as fantastical and far off, it poses a complicated question. What is Labor’s role when innovation strikes, when a trade’s need for workers shrinks? Is it to advocate for a return to the past, to a former status quo?

No. Why would we want to stand opposed to cheaper and safer in favor of more expensive and more dangerous?

Capital “L” Labor is about workers actively standing together to win what they want and need, not just in the moment, but also into the future. Labor should be peering around the corner, consistently aiming for that attainable goal of full and fair employment not just for today’s workers, but for tomorrow’s.

Labor isn’t static, people are never static. We can be unified for a common purpose and in common cause and stand together, all of us, across trades and ages, or we aren’t Labor after all.