Bill Ayers speaks out! An In These Times exclusive.

Troublemakers Are Great—But Are They Enough?

By David Moberg

Greg Shotwell—a man of small stature and biting wit—is a troublemaker, a thorn in the side of his employer, Delphi Corporation, as it tries to slash wages, benefits and jobs, and degrade working conditions. Through meetings around the upper Midwest where the company’s factories are located and his lively e-mail commentaries—titled “Live Bait & Ammo”—Shotwell has organized a grassroots network… return to article

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    Until the fight is taken out form the workplaces and into the streets worker solidarity on the job (although very important) won’t be enough to win in the war that is being unleashed everywhere against working people.  The right to organise on the job is a concession that must be won all oveer again, and nothing is ever given away for free. We must make the political classes of every country in the OECD fearful for their priveleges if we are going to win rights that have been taken away everywhere. What we had was fought for and won, because the powerful feared the powerless,and because of teh ‘spectre’ of communism.
    Now that spectre has seemingly been laid to rest, the powerful believe they can act with impunity. Until they inderstand there will be consequences, we will never win.

    Isolated workers in industries and workplaces don’t make anyone frightened. Masses of people on the streets threatening civil mayhem will. It is as simple as that.

    Australia Posted by Jane Doe on May 25, 2006 at 7:25 PM

    Political action is, indeed, needed. I have argued for years that labor unions are limited by National Labor Relations Board legislation.  The laws permitting labor unions are based on the idea of large workplaces, with standard manufacturing lines, and life-long careers spent at one location.  From my own personal experiences, I have found it more necessary to have a union that will work as a human resource department beholden to the workers, not to management.  Most of the very bad work experiences I have had over twenty years of working relate to situations where HR staff agree there are major problems in a department, but since HR staff owe their jobs and salary to the same people causing the abusive, money-losing, and otherwise undesireable environments in which I have worked, the HR staff are very limited in how much they can help workers.  It is this disconnect between what unions can offer and what I need that makes me cringe whenever I hear politicians or political commentators note how much Labor and Democrats are joined.  One of the main reasons I will occasionally court the Green Party, as a voter, is because the party is less beholden to Labor and is more willing to look at the need of the workers.

    United States Posted by SillyLeftist on May 26, 2006 at 5:42 AM

    Surprising that G. Shotwell and others are still referred to as “troublemakers “ by people otherwise sympathetic to rank & filers who are reluctant to quietly shuffle off the cliff into post-union oblivion .

    While “troublemakers” as an ironic self-reference may have served as a kind of friendly handshake during the bunker/ incubator days of Labor’s latest creative upwelling 20 or so years ago...things have changed a little. Shotwell & others are publicly engaging in a tussle where actions have at least as much significance as provocative rhetoric.  “Troublemaker “ is not only wildly inaccurate , it signifies a certain sardonic distance from the actual situation faced by union members.

    That distance may be an unintended consequence of a kind of cynical protective armor once needed by outnumbered union dissidents...but it unwittingly sends many people a signal that “troublemakers” may not be dealt all the way in for the hand that has to be played by everybody else.

    In Shotwell’s case that would be precisely the wrong inference. Shotwell certainly brings as much or more to the table than many of the “significant officials” mentioned in Mr. Moberg’s article.  He doesn’t cede an ounce of gravity, insight , or resolve to any Labor leader out there.  Neither is he looking in on the storm from a well-stocked shelter.  As a participant he has taken his lumps & will undoubtedly be in line for more.

    You don’t have to be classified as “ skilled trades “ or “journalist “ to notice that it may be past time for “Troubleshooter “ to replace the misnomer “troublemaker” when it comes to branding engaged union members.

    - John A. Joslin ( IBEW Local # 58- Detroit )

    United States Posted by John A. Joslin on Jun 10, 2006 at 8:22 AM
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