“As California goes, so goes the nation.” This saying is proving to be true more and more every day as I read headline news.
The promise of the middle class is a myth and is now squeezed everywhere–not just here in California. Our labor force is squeezed. Wages are tight and the tensions are just as high as the rent. This isn’t a one presidential term issue. This is a worldwide labor and working class issue.
While traveling this summer I spoke with women who had to leave their homes and families to make a living wage and send money home. When I followed up with one of the women, she missed her son’s graduation because of a storm that locked down the island she worked on. While the Bay Area contends with our commutes across nine counties, there are people who can’t see their children for months because they work in another country.
A year after hot labor summer
Labor unions have increased their membership in recent years, and the number of work actions has also grown. A report by Cornell University and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign counted 470 work stoppages in 2023 alone.
Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed a statewide tax incentive for California. Closer to home, Oakland has approved a movie industry incentive. I can only hope proponents of this tax incentive in Oakland and beyond paid attention to the labor issues the film industry has had.
The 2023 strike by actors with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike lasted nearly four months. The Writers’ Guild of America strike lasted five. The motion picture industry averted a director’s strike when it reached a deal in July 2023. “Hot labor summer” indeed.
These strikes all intersected with video game, music industry, and other production-related industries. Any industry that pays people to splash water on other people doesn’t need tax breaks. But that worker splashing water does.
In addition to low wages, there’s the high cost of housing. The federal minimum wage is still only $7.25 per hour. California’s minimum wage is $16 per hour. The median price of a home in Oakland is $825,000. Texas, which still pays the federal minimum wage, now has a median home cost $243,000. Rent prices there have now reached $1,100 a month. There’s nowhere in the country left where the minimum wage is considered a living wage.
However useful Democratic VP hopeful Tim Walz’ online car maintenance reminders are, they only help me understand Ethan Hunt’s character in the movie Leave the World Behind. He has no skills to repair his own vehicle and can’t navigate anywhere without the assistance of GPS. Hunt’s fictionalized character is a jarring reminder of the value in trade skills education. However, the cost to be a certified locksmith or heating, ventilation & air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance worker requires an out-of-pocket expense that many people can’t afford.
Frontline workers face scrutiny while serving public
And while we’re at it, why aren’t we concerned with the safety and well-being of frontline government workers who have to bear the brunt of news reports about police misconduct, missing benefits and fraud? Reminder: Breonna Taylor was an on-call emergency technician and first responder.
Oakland is in the middle of an audit of Oakland’s 911 emergency system. Meanwhile 911 dispatchers will have to deal with the public’s reactions, which can at times become threatening or aggressive. In addition, frontline government workers like bus drivers face scrutiny for working overtime while serving the general public in their cities.
In 2020, a public employee at BART reportedly earned $200,000 in overtime pay. BART board director Bevan Dufty publicly stated that applauding overtime as “above and beyond” wasn’t a good thing. Duffy pointed out the decision to pay overtime rather than hiring more employees was a reflection on the agency’s choice not to focus on filling the pending applications it has in queue.
Workers are tired of not having our needs met
And don’t get me started on the future of journalism as outlets go behind paywalls. Freelance journalism was a hobby for me, not a career. I had resigned myself to understanding that the only way anyone can work and be creative at the same time anymore was by having a completely unrelated full-time job. I’m not sure about you but I am exhausted with not having the minimum needs met.
I remember in 2020 when people began announcing they were quitting their jobs online. Other people congratulated them. We are a long way from then, but longing for the ease of a better option. There was once a time when people could be actors, writers, and painters full-time. That’s no longer the case.
In order for a future Kamala Harris administration or any future administrations to succeed, they must acknowledge the exhaustion of the working public. Worldwide burnout is real–and has been for a while.
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