Listen: ‘We Have Very Few Options But to Join Together to Organize for a General Strike’

Political Organizer / Journalist Pat Bryant (pat46@yahoo.com) provides a synopsis of general strike history: The term “General Strike” is being used by trade unionists and supporters to describe work stoppage and economic cessation to achieve a political objective.

It was a general strike in 1886 that began after the brutal repression of The Great Railway Strike of 1877. While the general strike organizers were framed and executed on false charges, the strike won the 10 hour work day in the United States. In America, Europe and the Caribbean the general strike has been used to increase wages, better work conditions, oppose war and much more.

Recent DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) cancellation of TSA contractual agreements have inspired union leaders to debate “general strikes” in which coalitions of unions, religious and social organizations would resist authoritarian changes of the Trump administration.

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By Joe Maniscalco | Arguably the most potent and powerful figure in the labor movement today has just declared that American workers—no matter what you do or what sector you’re in—now have “very few options but to join together to organize for a general strike.”

“What we have to understand is the people in charge, the people doing this, are doing this to make the federal workforce miserable—to make us all miserable and demoralized, and shrink into our own space—to inspire scarcity and competition among workers so that we don’t rise up together to stop them,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA-AFL-CIO, told “What’s Going On?” host Bob Hennelly over the weekend.

Nelson made her comments following the Department of Homeland Security announcement on Friday that it is stripping Transportation Safety Administration [TSA] workers of their collective bargaining rights.

“The attrition of the workforce will continue at TSA and anywhere else as long as workers do not have their pay and benefits and collective bargaining rights that gives them the ability to actually do their jobs,” Nelson said.

The AFA president further warned that the DHS’ move is all “about authoritarian control” and that her biggest concern is that the airline industry will experience a “tragic event” because of it.

“We cannot just allow this to happen and think this is someone else’s problem,” she added.

Nelson, of course, successfully pushed back on Donald Trump in 2019, and helped end the longest government shutdown in American history when she threatened a nationwide airport strike to reopen the government.

You can listen to Bob’s entire interview with Sara Nelson below. This week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour on WBAI also includes a conversation with Aaron Lascano, senior bookseller at Barnes & Noble’s flagship store in NYC, who talks about the historic first contract workers organized with RWDSU just won which includes higher wages, better benefits and layoff protections.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams also gives his assessment of Donald Trump’s recent speech before a joint session of Congress, Rep. Al Green’s [D-TX] subsequent censure—and more.

To read more visit:

https://www.work-bites.com/view-all/nelson-strike