The Time is Right For a Strike
Family Values @ Work, a network that works to secure paid family and medical leave for all, is supporting Strike For Our Rights, a nonpartisan grassroots organization, in their efforts to organize a general work strike that’s accessible to all and speaks to the various issues that people, workers and nonworkers alike, contend with daily. In the spirit of strikes in France, Panama and the Icelandic women’s strike, our goal is to get at least 3.5% of the US population, a critical mass, to participate so that when we state our demands, the US government listens.
We’re striking for many things, including a liveable wage, climate action, racial justice, reproductive rights, raising the minimum wage, and paid family and medical leave. Indeed, our list of reasons for striking is vast and long — because we understand that these issues are connected and impact each other. For instance, we know that the lack of clean water in cities such as Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, is an environmental issue. It’s the result of factories and other polluters contaminating water sources for years, something they were able to do because of a lack of environmental protections and government oversight. But we also know that these water crises are allowed to occur in places like Flint and Jackson — with no consequences for the perpetrators and their enablers — because their populations are largely Black and low income, making the continued lack of clean water also a matter of racial justice.
We also know that one of the best ways to maintain health is by resting. But rest is a privilege when egg prices and rent increase faster than the federal minimum wage does. When people are forced to work multiple jobs or more than 40 hours a week to make ends meet, rest is elusive and, eventually, so is good health. Yet even illness can’t justify calling in sick when those low wages have to cover not only the rising cost of groceries and rent, but also quality child care. Or when full-time employment is the only way to secure semi-decent healthcare. Not working, then, due to a worker’s own illness or the illness of a worker’s loved one, is simply not a choice for many US workers. This is especially true for Black and Latinx women, who are more likely than white women to be their family’s main breadwinner, despite the fact that they make 58 cents for every dollar a white male worker earns. So the economic issue of fair and equitable wages is also a matter of health, which is also a matter of economic justice, which is also about gender justice. It’s all connected.
Our organizations have joined together because we recognize that our demands are related and we want to ensure that the government passes legislation that addresses them. On Feb. 15 (8 pm ET/5 pm PT), Strike For Our Rights will host a conversation between FV@W’s policy manager Sammy Chavin-Grant and Christina Hayes of Mothering Justice to talk about what paid family and medical leave is and why we need it. During the discussion, which is free to anyone who registers, we’ll discuss the importance of family-friendly worker policies and how getting the federal government to enact national paid family and medical leave legislation can help us address the other reasons we’re choosing to organize a general strike.
To learn more about FV@W, Strike For Our Rights, and what we’re demanding, subscribe to our newsletter or attend a general strike informational meeting and please accept our invitation to join the first installment of our speaker series on Feb. 15.
Erica Clemmons Dean is the Program and Advocacy Director for Family Values @ Work, a movement network of grassroots organizers and coalitions in more than two dozen states working to win paid family and medical leave, earned sick and safe days, and affordable, high-quality childcare at the state and national levels.
Sarah Moe is a co-founder of Strike For Our Rights, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to helping organize a general strike in the U.S. that is accessible to all for the rights of all, and providing resources to individuals who need to strike but who lack the funds to securely do so.
