A Petite Retrospective
In 2016, the FSWA was new to advocating as we fought for free and flexible schedules. We didn’t know much when we started. Terms like “bootlicker” and “astroturf” and other union slurs were hurled at us from die-hard activists. Whenever we spoke at a hearing, published an article, or commented online, our passion and support for our jobs and industry were called fraudulent and fake. We didn’t know much then, but one thing quickly became evident: we were the only “real” workers in the room.
Attending a hearing often included witnessing a carousel of activists repeat slogan after slogan in the microphone in front of a semi-interested Seattle City Council. These so-called service workers would show up at 8 a.m. at city hall, well before anyone else, to make sure they would get to speak first. We were surprised. How many service workers are willing to get up at 8 a.m. to do anything, let alone attend a hearing at city hall? Even more flabbergasting were the coordinated t-shirts they wore and the professionally printed signs they waved. Where did those come from? Who was paying for all of this? These were the first questions we asked that pulled back the curtain on a surprisingly sinister political world.
Paid Disruptors
It wasn’t long until we understood that these people were not workers but activists whom union labor groups and special interests paid to show up at these hearings to make it seem like workers were asking for the legislation that the union had created. Often, these actors were heard discussing what they were paid or being coached by politicians not to let anyone know that they were associated with whatever labor group brought them there.
From Olympia to Washington DC, at every hearing we have ever attended, this same dog and pony show was present: Paid activists, labor-supported politicians, t-shirts, signs, and slurs.
Whether it was secure scheduling, minimum wage, or big coffee unionization efforts, it became clear that paying activists to disrupt workplaces, craft victim narratives, and sue employers was the goal.
At the beginning of the Secure Scheduling fight, Darrion Sojquist became the champion of the cause. The minimum wage battle brought us Terrance Wise and the union efforts against Starbucks have introduced us to Jazz Brisack. These people who claim they have a passion for fast food, don’t want to work for nine hours or feel sympathy for co-workers during the pandemic are coached, paid, and used as operatives to form anti-work, anti-capitalist narratives and disrupt workplaces, all for the goal of unionization.
(Ryan O’Leary claimed to be a service industry worker when pushing for tip credit elimination in Washington, DC)
Modern Day Syndicalism
Sadly, this is nothing new. History tells us that efforts like these have been part of the Labor V. Industry fight since the days of Woodrow Wilson. Industrial Workers of the World at the time were the most prominent agitators in the country, disrupting railroads, commerce, and industry to push their version of the Fascist Syndicalism that was exposing itself in France a few years earlier. The difference today is our sympathetic government leaders, both locally and federally, who support such efforts and build the platform for these actors and labor groups to be supported. In the 1900s, there was an effort by the federal government and governors of many states to stomp out big labor syndicalist efforts by crafting anti-syndicalism laws. These laws prevented the elevation of paid labor activists from disrupting industry. Over the years, the criminal syndicalism laws have been chiseled away and battled into the ground in courts nationwide. Because of this, labor has once again propped up disruptors, making them rockstars of the Progressive movement.
For example, in 2018, during the Raise the Wage hearing in the House of Representatives, a large group of bartenders, servers, and other tipped service industry professionals were not allowed to sit in the House gallery to watch the hearing. The Democrats in control of the House and the hearing filled the gallery with paid union activists in the same red t-shirt sported by Terrance Wise. Industry workers were stunned as the progressive politicians they championed suddenly had disdain for them, sneering at them for wanting to participate in the process constantly being called for from their offices.
Falling For It
In many ways, our progressive government entities, both locally and federally, are linked at the hip with big labor. The procession of paid “workers” in t-shirts, waving their signs at city councils or federal hearings that support mandated scheduling and high minimum wages are the real “bootlickers” doing the bidding of big labor and special interests. The tactics to persuade unsuspecting workers and employers to get on board some altruistic cause is the epitome of “Astroturf.” And for the time it seems to be working as more industry employers cave to compliance and workers run off to labor attorneys and unions.