For months now, there has been speculation in the media regarding the possibility of a rail strike. The rail workers are under a multi-employer bargaining contract and the leadership of 12 unions negotiated for months to come to an agreement that a majority of union workers rejected. However, because railroad workers are governed by the Railway Labor Act, they were unable to strike and are rather subject to the arbitrary intervention of Congress and the President, a problem that would persist and intensify if the railways were nationalized, as some have proposed. This Act was designed to strip unions of their chief weapon – the strike – and to subject the organizations of the working class to the tyranny of the capitalist state. Here are the results of that: the so-called leaders of the railroad unions collaborated with the railroad bosses to cobble together a bad deal that workers rejected, the state under the leadership of Biden decided to use their power to shove that bad deal down the workers throats, and then all of the so-called “progressives” and so-called “socialists” in Congress decided to back the bosses, too.

This year, we have witnessed the rise of independent unions in many industries and across the US: Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island, NY; Trader Joe’s United in Hadley, MA and in Minneapolis, MN, Chipotle Workers United in Augusta, ME; Geico United Labor Union in Buffalo, NY; Home Depot Workers United in Philadelphia, PA; New Seasons Labor Union in Portland, OR; and T-Force Social Care Alliance. The existence of these new unions has changed the landscape of the labor movement. Just a year ago, hardly anyone knew what unions were, let alone independent unions. Today, independent labor unions are leading a revival of worker organizing.