ABOUT THE SERVICE WORKERS VOICE

Corporate monopolies dominate their industries as a direct result of our labor and dedication to the job. Every day, we ensure our communities have fresh food for their pantries and meals available to them almost anywhere in the country. We stock the shelves, unload the trucks, prepare the food and drinks, keep the facilities safe and clean. 

But what has producing value for some of the richest corporations in the world gotten us in return? Low wages, weak contracts, and poor conditions. Our fellow workers across the US service industry are experiencing the same issues. High turnover, extreme stress, and very little hope for the future.

It’s clear that the working class can't rely on the government or the good will of our employers to make sure our interests are represented on the shop floor. Businesses run on the bottom line. The government is dominated by the rich and powerful who take money from the very companies we are fighting against. And without rank and file energy, our unions don’t have the independent power to fight and win.

When rank and file power on the shop floor is weak, the company is able to play hardball and negotiate aggressively at our stores and play politics with our livelihoods. Union power is dependent on our degree of unity, consciousness of our shared struggles as fellow workers, and most importantly, our independent shop floor organization. The old adage of “WE ARE THE UNION” rings true. When unions demand change, the first question the company asks itself is “Do they have enough power to force us?” 

The goal of Service Workers’ Voice is to inspire and develop a generation of union members whose demands are innately backed by that power. Historically, the improvements the labor movement has won for the lives of working people have always been built from the bottom up by the struggle of rank and file workers like us. No one will fight for us; we have to fight for ourselves and for each other. Unions are not services and we are not customers. Unions are fighting organizations and we are on the front lines of that fight every day.

We live in an era of deep cynicism that often crosses over into despair and hopelessness. It is easy to feel disconnected from or discouraged about the state of your union. We hear you. 

But hope doesn’t fall from the sky; it is built, like everything else, through the hard work and determination of people like us. Unions are invigorated when the rank and file is invigorated. Stepping up and taking personal responsibility for the strength of our own union builds hope, both within ourselves and on the shop floor for others. 

Service Workers’ Voice is a place for our union comrades to share, discuss, and critically engage in the process of improving our lives and workplaces. To join the process of rank and file revitalization also means developing beyond this newsletter, forming clubs that can meet on break or after work to strategize on our common project. By working together, we can empower the leaders who want to fight back and expose and replace the ones who don’t. Nothing will change for the better until rank and file workers are organized enough to force their employers, and even our unions, to put people before profits. That mission begins here.