You probably haven't heard of the battle pitting BCTGM Union Local 390G against International Flavors (IFF) in Memphis, TN, USA. But with workers who are mega-exploited and a company that refuses to stand down, it has become one of the most relevant for the working class.
What is IFF and what do these workers do?
You probably haven't even heard of the company, IFF. But IFF is a key company that has a yearly revenue of multiple billions of dollars and is ranked as one of the biggest in America. In this case, the involved workers produce a type of soy protein that's an essential component of many food products.
And it's dangerous work. "Because the stuff in there, it only takes a split second for something to go wrong and you’ll be missing a foot, a toe, a head", a worker stated in a report by More Perfect Union. "And if you don't know what you're doing, you'll get hurt [...] or lose your life".
What conditions do the involved workers face?
To briefly name a few of the issues:
- Often required to work 12 hours in a day
- No overtime pay for 12 hour days
- Decrease in (or company attempt to decrease) real wages, healthcare benefits, paid breaks, retirement
"They don't want us to get the crumbs that fall on the ground", said the same IFF worker, among this heavily black workforce. "We're going back to slavery times."
What has been the response of the company so far?
The workers have hit a brick wall when it comes to expecting anything from this company. That's why the strike has lasted so long -- it refuses to give in to their demands. The company hopes to exhaust the workers, who aren't being paid any wages. It's banking on poverty and a bad quality of life forcing them to return to work and accept horrible conditions.
Why is this strike so important?
The IFF strike has barely got any press coverage, and it may not involve a very large worker count like some more well-known strikes. But many of these strikes involve workers who already have some extremely basic guarantees -- like a maximum 8 hours of work in a day.
In the case of the IFF workers, they lack even that. They're facing extreme exploitation of the kind that has grown increasingly common in the USA, a country where the 8 hour day keeps getting more historically distant -- which has been met with little resistance so far. This strike represents the beginning to that resistance.
And so this strike is a key front in the battle of whether companies will succeed imposing these extreme conditions. If the workers win, it will represent a blow to their ability to do so and set back their plans. But if this battle fails, things may end up much worse for everyone.
How can people help the workers win this strike?
- Donate to the strike fund so that the workers can keep the strike up for longer and force this company to stand down.
- Publicize this strike as much as possible.
Let me interject for a moment,
What you are referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux. Thank you for taking your time to cooperate with with me, your friendly GNU+Linux neighbor, Richard Stallman.