Detroit’s Fight
Detroit is going through it.
GM’s bankruptcy is but a flashpoint in a long stretch of post-industrialism that has lasted many years. Recently the New York Times Magazine ran a story on what’s happening to Black folk in the D, given that unemployment here topped 22% back in March and all of the Big Three are in big trouble. Of course, you can’t talk about black people and the auto industry without talking about the unionization that made it possible for so many people of color to enter the middle class. The Times piece reads like a lament as those foundations crumble away.
But while eulogizing the death of the auto industry may be appropriate, it can’t be the only thing we do. The flip-side of post-industrialism is the rise of a local service economy. Many laid-off autoworkers have joined thousands of servers, bartenders, retail associates and hotel employees in Detroit’s hospitality and gaming industry. And let’s be clear: the fight to unionize these industries and create good jobs in this city is already lighting up…with unexpected opponents.
With all that quality reporting on CNN you may have missed it, but there’s currently a nasty fight between two major unions seeking to represent service industry employees: SEIU and UNITE HERE. The likes of this fight may not have been seen since the major labor battles of the 1930s. Detroit happens to be one of the battle-ground cities, and there are lives at stake.
In this corner, you have SEIU, a purple-and-yellow behemoth whose numbers top two million. Their president, Andy Stern, is well known in Washington, DC for all of his lobbying and other political work. For many, Andy Stern has become the face of the contemporary American labor movement. In the other corner, you have the smaller UNITE HERE, formed in 2004 through the merger of the former textiles and needle-trades union (UNITE) and the hotel and restaurant workers’ union (HERE). SEIU has a habit of growing its ranks by assimilating other unions (rather than organizing un-organized workers and increasing the number of represented workers overall). In the last year, Stern courted UNITE HERE co-president Bruce Raynor to secede part of UNITE HERE and affiliate it with SEIU.
So what does it have to do with Detroit? And what does it mean for working people of color?
Well, the collusion between Raynor and Stern was profoundly undemocratic, and turned into a plain old take-over on the ground. UNITE HERE Local 24 was raided in January, and SEIU attempts to steal members have continued ever since. I’ve been in Detroit talking to workers for two months now about what is going on, and it’s pretty clear that the model on which SEIU operates is a threat to the possibility of racial justice through the labor movement. Workers feel besieged, lied to and left out. They want to know why another union would try to take them over without their permission. They want to know how this disempowerment can ever translate into justice for everyone. They want, most desperately, to grow and challenge the companies that disrespect them and pay them less than they are due. They want to have full, supported lives, self-determination and economic possibility for themselves and their families… and they’re willing to fight to get it. UNITE HERE will by no means bring the racial revolution, but it seems much closer to that ideal than the purple business union.
So I’ll pour one out for the death of the auto-industry, but let’s take a cue from those country homegoings. Right on the heels of a loss must come a celebration of what remains and what is to come. Though the shit around them is falling down, Detroiters make you wanna shout the praise of the life that still lives here. What was can still be, because the fighting spirit still burns Michigan, and nobody can put that fire out.
Look out for more posts from Detroit and the UNITE HERE/SEIU battle over the next few weeks. Check this video in the meantime.
