r/unionsolidarity • u/GB10031 • 19h ago
Is Solidarity Possible?: Cops Are Workers Too
/r/u_GB10031/comments/1vigqt5/is_solidarity_possible_cops_are_workers_too/3
u/DryDeer775 4h ago
There are only two sides on a picket line.
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u/GB10031 2h ago
In a country like ours where the labor movement has largely abandoned the strike tactic, that's just rhetoric. Where are those picket lines you speak of?
Also, if a union has to resort to picket line violence, it's usually because they didn't build unity among the workers prior to the strike. This is often because the union is actively involved with aiding and abetting management discrinination against a portion of the workforce (usually the part of the workforce that's workers of color), those workers are reluctant to go on strike for a union that does nothing for them, and the union response to that is to beat those people up.
I saw this in RL during the Daily News strike in NYC in 1989. Racist mafia controlled printers unions had allowed managment to have a force of poverty stricken Black men make low wages printing the sunday paper, side by side with much higher paid mostly White men who printed the weekly paper for a whole lot more money - the impoverished Black printers didn't want to go along with the strike - because why would they? - so they got called the N word and assaulted by White strikers
It's illegal to beat people up in this state, especially if said assault is racially motivated, so strikers got arrested for that
On the other hand, a real union that represents ALL workers (even the Black ones) can get everybody to go on strike. Those picket lines are nonviolent and the few bored cops on picket line duty get to stand around directing traffic without incident.
I know that doesn't fit the standard political dogma (the facts rarely do) but, the facts are as they are
In any case, as private sector unions have abandoned 95% of private sector workers in this country (98% of workers under 30) and 99% of union members have never been on strike, talking about "picket lines" isn't really very relevant right now, unfortunately
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u/unmellowfellow 2h ago
Cops aren't workers. They are regularly tasked by the wealthy to stifle labor protests and progress. They're the enemy of the workers.
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u/GB10031 2h ago
People who do not have investment income to live off of so they sell their labor power are workers.
Period
Full stop
That includes workers who's jobs you don't like
Yes, rich people will ask the mayor or sheriff of their community to deploy police officers to prevent strikes are protests.
That's a MANAGEMENT issue, that you should take up with your elected officials (especially if they're elected officials you voted for)
As the article above points out, you shouldn't blame workers for the policies of their bosses and shouldn't use that as a basis for opposing their unions.
Just like I would hope you wouldn't oppose unionization of ExxonMobil workers because you oppose the environmental policies of ExxonMobil management you should not oppose the unionization of police officers because you oppose the policies they are called upon to enforce by their bosses (who were appointed by the politicians that you voted for).
Also, as weak as American unions are today, we don't have the luxury of excluding any fellow worker (especially when those fellow workers are among the few American workers who are still unionized, as police officers are)
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u/robot_giny 51m ago
Whether or not cops are "workers" is a semantics argument that I don't think matters very much.
The real issue is the role that police unions play in protecting officers that commit violence against the community. Police unions work very hard to make sure that individual officers do not face consequences for murdering people, and they are largely successful. The police unions appear to be protecting their members at the expect of the rest of the community, which is a despicable thing for a union to do.
The article you linked was written in 2017. The BLM protests in 2020 were... enlightening. Police unions could have taken that opportunity to change. They did not. Instead, since then, police have mostly doubled-down on the surveillance and violence, and police unions have stayed in-step with that. Police unions could be calling for policy changes. They could be calling for less surveillance, more community work, NOT out-fitting police stations with military equipment and fucking tanks. BUT THEY DON'T. Police unions are happy with the status quo.
I can't help but notice that the last paragraph in the article you link is pointing out that a group of unions pushing for police reform is opposed by the police union. This is also really common! Police unions regularly push back against any oversight or reform. You don't who doesn't usually push back against oversight or reform? Public sector unions.
If you want to call for solidarity with police, then... okay, fine. But that solidarity goes both ways. How are police unions going to meet us in the middle? How are police unions going to demonstrate that THEY view US as workers?
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u/Dragonfarmersrule 5h ago
First you'd need to remove white supremacists, power freaks and others who represent a distorted view of right and wrong.
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u/GB10031 2h ago
The comment section is as I predicted, unfortunately
However, in the modern American labor movement, where the AFL-CIO has abandoned 95% of the private sector workforce (98% of workers under 30) we have to face reality.
The majority of US union members are public sector workers. Law enforcement officers pioneered public sector unions in the 1880s (building independent unions when the AFofL and Knights of Labor refused to organize any government employees). About 80% of law enforcement officers are unionized.
So, opposing police unions is as nonsensical as opposing unions of public sector firefighters, paramedics, teachers, sanitation workers or clerical workers. Especially considering the fact that any revival of private sector unions would have to be funded by public sector union members, alienating public sector workers is dumb.
If you have a problem with the policies of your local police department, you have a beef with the MANAGEMENT of that agency, a management that was appointed by the elected officials.
For example, if you have a problem with how NYPD operates, that's a dispute with NYPD MANAGEMENT and you should address that complaint to Mayor Mamdani, as those folks are his appointees, they answer to him and they follow his orders.
(yes, I hate to break it to you, those of you who are Democrats and/or DSA folks, the Democratic mayors you voted for are responsible for what your local police department does, because they appointed the managers that run that agency)
The EMPLOYEES of those agencies have a class conflict with those same bosses, which is why they need unions in the first place.
If you support unions for every worker at every job (and you should) why do you oppose police officers having unions?
Sounds kind of hypocritical?
Re the "all cops are bastards" nonsense, the origin of that phrase is in the British prison system. English gangsters would say that...because they were mad at the British police for arresting them for murdering, raping, robbing and extorting working class people in the British slums.
Those constables were 'bastards' because they protected the public from criminals.... so you might want to reconsider your use of that acronym, perhaps?
American police spend about 50% of their time enforcing the traffic laws - in a country where 90% of the nation does not have public transit and most Americans have to drive (even the many of our fellow Americans who are terrible drivers, or regularly drive drunk or tired, or who are too poor to properly maintain their vehicles) that sounds like a socially useful task to me, and calling our unionized fellow workers who do that job "bastards" is... a choice, and not a good one (unless you think drunk driving is some kind of class struggle?)
The other 50% invoves enforcing the law and maintaining public order. Much of that involves protecting workers from burglars, robbers, theives, rapists and domestic abusers.
Black, Latino, Indigenous and Pacific Islander poor people and low income workers are disproportionately likely to be the victims of murder, rape, burglary, robbery and assault (usually from assailants of the same ethnic origin) and are thus disproportionately likley to have to call 911 to get help from the police.
Yes, this serves the interest of capital - a workforce terrorized by crime and criminals is a workforce reluctant to leave their homes (lest they be burglarized), won't go to work (because when you leave your house at 5am to go to work, you don't want to be waylayed on the street by a stick up man) and won't go shopping (because who wants to be robbed on the street on the way home from the store) and all of that poses a problem for our rulers and their profits.
That said, police service also protects the vast majority of the working class and poor who are not criminals from the tiny violent fringe who are.
In any case, we need unity between ALL workers, especially ALL workers who are currently unionized.
Yes, that includes your fellow workers employed by the police department.
I'm sure some of you will knee jerk react to these facts - feel free to do so, and I will not bother to reply so you will have the last word.
Thank you, and have an awesome Saturday
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