Laboured protests

The workers and other protesters who gathered at the Group of 20 summit meeting last week in London were continuing a time-honoured European......

The workers and other protesters who gathered at the Group of 20 summit meeting last week in London were continuing a time-honoured European tradition of taking their grievances into the streets.

Two weeks earlier,more than a million workers in France demonstrated against layoffs,and in the last month alone,French workers took their bosses hostage four times in various labour disputes. When General Motors recently announced huge job cuts worldwide,15,000 workers demonstrated at the companys German headquarters.

But in the United States,where GM plans its biggest layoffs,union members have seemed passive in comparison. They may yell at the television news,but thats about all. Unlike their European counterparts,American workers have largely stayed off the streets,even as unemployment soars and companies cut wages and benefits.

The US certainly has had a rich and sometimes militant history of labour protestfrom the Homestead Steel Works strike against Andrew Carnegie in 1892 to the auto workers sit-down strikes of the 1930s and the 67-day walkout by 400,000 GM workers in 1970. But in recent decades,American workers have increasingly steered clear of such militancy,for reasons that range from fear of having their jobs shipped overseas to their self-image as full-fledged members of the middle class,with all its trappings and aspirations.

David Kennedy,a Stanford historian and author of Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War,1929-1945,says that Americas individualist streak is a major reason for this reluctance to take to the streets. Citing a 1940 study by the social psychologist Mirra Komarovsky,he said her interviews of the Depression-era unemployed found the psychological reaction was to feel guilty and ashamed,that they had failed personally.

American workers,even those earning 20,000 a year,tend to view themselves as part of an upwardly mobile middle class. In contrast,European workers often still see themselves as proletarians in an enduring class struggle.

And American labour leaders now often work hand-in-hand with CEOs to improve corporate competitiveness to protect jobs and pensions,and try to sideline activists who support a hard line.

Story continues below this ad

In the case of the Detroit automakers,a strike might not only hasten their demise but infuriate many Americans who already view auto workers as overpaid. It might also make Washington less receptive to a bailout.

Labours aggressiveness has also been sapped by its declining numbers. Unions represent just 7.4 percent of private-sector workers today. Unions have also grown more cautious as managements have become more aggressive.

American workers still occasionally vent their anger in protests and strikes. There were demonstrations against the AIG bonuses,for instance,and workers staged a sit-down strike in December when their factory in Chicago was closed. But the numbers tell the story: Last year,American unions engaged in 159 work stoppages,down from 1,352 in 1981,according to the Bureau of National Affairs,a publisher of legal and regulatory news.

Michael Kazin,a historian at Georgetown University,said that while demonstrations remain a vital outlet for the European left,for Americans the Internet now somehow serves as the main outlet with angry blogs and mass e-mailing.