For about 3 years now, the United States has been seeing a resurgent labor movement, with more extensive, frequent, hard - line strikes and a growing number of workers moving to organize themselves in unions. Such a situation is seemingly far removed from that experienced by the working class in Italy, which remains in a state of passivity and resignation. But even in the US the labor movement is coming out of decades of deep decline, even worse than what we are witnessing in Italy, not having known the struggles that in various sectors - in the railroads, airports, trams, schools, hospitals, fire brigades, metalworking - gave birth to rank - and - file unionism in the 1980s and 1990s, and, after 2010, in logistics.

This comforts the militants of combative trade unionism, as it confirms that, in capitalism, the class struggle is irrepressible, and that even from the most difficult conditions the proletariat will be compelled to return to struggle and organize, out of the very necessity of defending their lives, and on this material basis will tend to know and embrace, at its most advanced, the party of revolutionary communism.

In recent months the US federal government has directly intervened to force an agreement and avert a railroad workers’ strike (“Among US Railroaders Grows Will to Struggle”) and a dockers’ strike. But there are many other categories which were or are still in ferment: school workers, healthcare workers, Amazon warehouse workers and couriers, railroad workers, metalworking factories (General Motors, Volvo, John Deere, New Holland, Ford, Stellantis), hotel workers, McDonald’s and Walmart workers, all the way to workers in the film and television industries.

The epicenter of this resurgent labor movement is the massive Californian city of Los Angeles.

At UPS

On August 1, the largest U.S. strike in decades, that of over 300,000 UPS workers, was supposed to begin. According to some commentators in the bourgeois press, it was not since the 1959 steelworkers’ strike that a mobilization on such a scale had occurred. By June, 97% of voting UPS workers, members of the Teamsters union, had come out in favor of a strike.

Our comrades wrote a flier to spread on the picket lines well in advance, so it could be printed and mailed to the cities where we are present - which was not easy, especially since the announcement of the strike had the effect of increasing and clogging postal traffic in anticipation of a stoppage.

In Portland, Oregon, where in the past few months our comrades, along with other union militants, have formed a committee to unite workers’ struggles called the Class Struggle Action Network (CSAN), solidarity action was also expected at the USPS, the United States Postal Service.

But 6 days before the start of the strike, UPS returned to the bargaining table and an agreement was reached. Thus, a national strike was called off for the 3rd time in a year. The contract was approved through secret ballot by 86.3% of voters, with 58% of eligible workers participating.

The leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) - which claims 1.4 million members among drivers, warehouse workers and other occupations in the logistics sector - called it a historic victory. The contract is ameliorative and was won without an hour’s strike and only the threat of implementation.

If one follows the principle of “maximum profit with minimum effort”, one can only agree with the Teamsters’ leadership. But this principle is valid for the bourgeoisie, not the working class, which will be forced both into an extremely hard struggle to maintain its achievements over time and to free itself from the increasingly intolerable oppression of capitalism. For this reason, for workers to struggle is even more important than the results achieved - or not achieved - by such struggle; however, these obviously cannot be neglected.

The UPS workers’ strike could not only have led to a better result than the threat of strike action alone, but more importantly it would have provided additional fuel for the revival of the labor movement in the US and internationally by giving an example of a strike of hundreds of thousands of workers to tens of millions of other proletarians, from the US, Canada, Mexico and around the world.

Of course, even so, the strength of the working class was demonstrated, if in far lesser terms.

UPS, Vote NO with the strike!

No worker must be left behind!

Teamsters

On July 25, the Teamsters union reached a tentative agreement with UPS. The agreement betrayed the UPS workers and did not keep its promises. The Teamsters’ opportunist leadership signed a contract that leaves behind not only part - time UPS workers, but workers in the entire logistics sector, including parcel services, FedEx and Amazon.

The IBT had a chance to raise wages and employment conditions across the industry, and blew it.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien promised that no workers - especially not part - time workers - would be left behind. The tentative agreement leaves more than 180,000 part - time workers without the option of moving to full - time, with relative wages. Only 7,500 will move to full - time. And yet, on July 16, in the Teamsters’ update webinar for UPS members, O’Brien declared that “this is unacceptable, UPS cannot give our part - timers crumbs, they must reward these people”.

What was the cause of this sudden change of pace from the IBT leadership? The answer would seem to involve President Biden, who apparently pressured the union to settle the dispute a week before the deadline, in order to “avoid economic shocks”. If true, this would be the third time the Biden administration has intervened to halt a major strike, following the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dockworkers’ strike and the railroad strike. One after another, the regime unions are acting as agents of the Democratic Party within the labor movement - a party that proudly proclaims itself “the true party of law and order”!

The concessions are truly unsatisfactory, and even these would not have been achieved without the workers’ preparation for a strike, particularly part - time workers. It is precisely these part - time workers - who, as O’Brien said, are so numerous that “UPS cannot possibly hire enough scabs” to replace them - who IBT management has left behind. The request for $25 as base pay was not met. There is nothing in the contract to eliminate forced overtime for part - time workers. UPS can still force part - timers to work nine and a half hours a day.

What will happen now? With SAG - AFTRA ready to strike for months to come and smaller strikes spreading like wildfire across the nation, it is time to strike while the iron is hot. UPS workers have an opportunity to set an example for all workers in the United States. For consistency, but also from a tactical standpoint, we support an immediate strike through a vigorous campaign to override the opportunists and their methods. Staying on the offensive and using the same bargaining tactics as the bosses by playing hardball not only guarantees gains for workers, but also sets an example for the struggles of others. This builds working - class unity and greater strength.

Of course, we realize that the conditions of the labor movement are such that it remains normal practice for strikes to be put to a vote. Under the current system, voting takes place online, where the voter remains anonymous and isolated.

Workers, organize with your comrades, demand that open discussion take place in the workplace and that voting take place in assemblies. Do whatever you have to do, and do it en masse!

Remember that the “best and final” offer is a bluff. They will not share their accumulated wealth without a fight. It was only through class struggle, in fact, that the victory of the 1997 UPS strike could be realized. Are you willing to participate in the battle to decide the conditions of your work and your life? Or will you let UPS and its opportunist leaders keep you stuck “in your place”?

The United Auto Workers

In mid-August, 97% of voting workers of the United Auto Workers (UAW) came out in favor of a 10 - day strike in the factories of the country’s three largest auto companies - General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis - beginning September 14, if an agreement deemed satisfactory by the union was not reached beforehand. An agreement was not reached, but in the first few days UAW management limited itself to calling only 13,000 workers at 3 factories to strike: Wentzille, MO; Toledo, OH; and Wayne, MI.

Since September 25, it has extended the strike to some 40 logistics warehouses of the three automakers, bringing the number of strikers to 18,300. But in the entire American auto industry, the UAW numbers about 146,000 workers.

The union’s demands are appreciable, but not as radical as the bourgeois press wants them to appear: for example, a 46% average wage increase and a 4 - day work week.

UAW workers move for class unionism!

The International Communist Party salutes the United Auto Workers unionists who have decided to strike against the three major auto companies in the country.

In the early days after its founding in the 1930s, the UAW distinguished itself by radical strikes. Recall the struggle at GM by thousands of workers in Michigan, who occupied the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland, repelling the scabs for weeks. When the bourgeois State used armed force, wave after wave of workers pushed them back. But their real strength was the spread of the struggle beyond the confines of the factory. The strike spread to 17 GM plants within 44 days. As a result of this generalization of the struggle, the company was forced to capitulate.

Then, as now, our strength lies in acting as a united class, taking action beyond the boundaries of individual workplaces, companies, trades, and sectors. It was by these methods that workers historically wrested a decent standard of living from the hands of our class enemies.

However, after World War II, opportunist union leaderships, in collaboration with the bosses and the capitalist State, transformed unions into pathetic associations similar to corporate human resource offices.

Auto industry workers, once held up as an example of middle - class American comfort, have now been driven back to distinctly proletarian living conditions. Everywhere the vacuous “American dream” has given way to the depressing reality of a rotting capitalist society.

The ruling class is increasingly pushing workers around the world toward a new world war, a new chauvinist bloodbath, in an attempt to save its social and political order from ever - deepening crisis.

Around the world, however, the working class is beginning to wake up, to question the collaborationist union leaderships, resuming the use of its great weapon - the strike. We salute the over 18,000 UAW workers currently on strike!

But the strike must keep growing in order to give workers the strength they need to win this battle. Some unions, such as Teamsters Section 299, have pledged to instruct their members not to violate picket lines. UAW workers must demand and force the union leadership to call all 146,000 members in the auto industry to strike.

We call on the workers not to accept a compromising agreement obtained without the full mobilization of their forces.

The UAW leadership claims that auto workers should receive a wage increase of 46% over a period of 4 ½ years, bringing wages to $47 per hour from the current rate of $32. But with such a long - term contract, given the current rate of inflation, at the end of its validity the real value of wages could very well be insufficient once again. Therefore, a reduction in the length of the contract must also be demanded.

Throughout the 1930s and ‘40s, the UAW fought for the reduction of the work week to 40 hours. Now the union leadership is claiming a reduction to 32 hours per week for equal pay. A reduced work week and an increase in overall wages are essential for workers to improve their standard of living. But in order for them to even maintain their current living conditions, a struggle of the appropriate strength must be deployed by extending the strike now!

The working class must overcome an approach to unionism which organizes only 10% of workers in the United States today. The need for a class union that unites all workers in common defense under “one big union”, beyond individual trades and jobs, has been the great aspiration of the labor movement, which recognized the need to centralize unions in order to make concerted attacks on the capitalist class.

Today, we need to promote a practical unity of action among existing unions to achieve this goal. We need a united front of all the forces of class unionism, uniting the masses of workers in a common struggle, a necessary step toward a future class union.

As an immediate practical step, we call on workers to join other militants of class unionism within the Class Struggle Action Network in the effort to build a pole of class unionism within the labor movement.

For the class union!