Get Strike Ready! And Build a Better Future

by DL Staff - May/June 2023

It’s already a hot labor summer, and the heat is turning up as DSA chapters across the country make themselves Strike Ready. The stakes are high, the opportunities many!

At press time, the Writers Guild of America, representing 11,500 writers, is standing up for fair pay from residuals and more. Chapters from Los Angeles to New York are out supporting the picket lines. Workers at Maximus, a federally contracted call center, have walked off the job in several Southern states. Black and Latina women make up nearly half of Maximus frontline workers. And, as we go to press, over 340,000 Teamsters are negotiating their contract and preparing for a possible strike. If they go out on the picket lines, it will be the largest strike in U.S. history! 

That’s why DSA Labor is working with chapters to get Strike Ready. Chapters and members have signed the pledge. We’re here to support the Teamsters if they decide to strike.

The Strike Ready campaign is goal-oriented labor solidarity work that builds our skills, strengthens our connections within the labor movement, and can win life-changing victories. This kind of work is not new to DSA. As National Political Committee chair Kristian Hernandez points out, during the PRO Act campaign, DSA members made over one million phone calls and swung two senators’ votes.

And chapters have worked in coalition to make major labor wins. Just this spring, New York DSA chapters, together with labor and environmental group allies, had a huge win with the passage of the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA). The BPRA taxes the rich to win a state-level Green New Deal, which will create well-paid union jobs across the state as part of this shift toward publicly owned renewable energy.

So, what can you do to get involved with DSA labor solidarity work? Reach out to your chapter to find out! Take the Strike Ready Pledge at dsausa.us/ strikepledgeSD — you can find picket line support tips there as well.

We’re supporting the Teamsters in their contract negotiations now, and we’ll be there if they strike. And there’s more to come. For example, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has negotiations at three automakers this summer, with contracts expiring in September. Building our strike capacity will help us support them if they need it. We’ve been there for Starbucks workers, teachers, nurses — anywhere workers are on the picket line, we have their backs!