General Strike in Support of Black Lives Matter Planned for Monday, July 20

A nationwide general strike has been called by a raft of labor unions and racial and social justice groups in support of Black Lives Matter for this upcoming Monday, July 20. Called “Strike for Black Lives”, it’s expected that tens of thousands of working people in 25 cities will walk off their jobs as part of a nationwide walkout to confront systemic racism in America.

Fast-food, nursing home, rideshare and other workers will go on strike Monday and will be joined by thousands more who will walk off their jobs for eight minutes, 46 seconds to remember George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain and other Black people killed by police.

The protests represent actions to demand corporations and governments do something to confront what’s called the “triple threat of white supremacy, public health emergency, and broken economy.” Some of the sponsoring organization include:

• Service Employees International Union,
• the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
• the American Federation of Teachers,
• United Farm Workers,
• Amalgamated Transit Union
• Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
• the National Domestic Workers Alliance
• the Fight for $15 and a Union
• the Movement for Black Lives,
• the Poor People’s Campaign.
• U.S. Youth Climate Strike Coalition
• Center for Popular Democracy
• Jobs with Justice
• One Fair Wage
• 350.org
• Greenpeace USA
• MoveOn
• Indivisible
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Climate Justice Alliance
• New York State Nurses Association
• Center for Biological Diversity
• MomsRising
• Sierra Club

In PR released by strike organizers, Angely Rodriguez Lambert, an Oakland McDonald’s worker is quoted:

“Companies like McDonald’s cannot on the one hand tweet that ‘Black Lives Matter’ and on the other pay us poverty wages and fail to provide sick days and adequate PPE.  We’re going on strike because McDonald’s and other fast-food companies have failed to protect us in a pandemic that has ravaged Black and brown communities across the country.

We’re going to keep joining together and speaking out until McDonald’s and other companies respond with actions that show they really value our lives.”

Lambert is also a leader in the Fight for $15 and a Union. She said she and several co-workers tested positive for the coronavirus after employees weren’t initially provided proper protective equipment. “Our message is that we’re all human and we should be treated like humans — we’re demanding justice for Black and Latino lives,” she told the AP. “We’re taking action because words are no longer bringing the results that we need,” she said. “Now is the moment to see changes.”   LA Times

There’s more than simple walkouts.

• Striking workers in Missouri will rally at the McDonald’s in Ferguson, followed by a march to the memorial for Michael Brown, who was killed by police in 2014.
• In Detroit, striking McDonald’s and other fast-food workers will rally with nursing home workers from across the city who will walk off their jobs to call out the industry’s failure to protect its largely Black workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and respect workers for the essential work they perform.
• In the Twin Cities, where Floyd was killed, striking nursing home workers will participate in a caravan that will include a stop at the airport, where they’ll be joined in protest by airport workers including wheelchair attendants and cabin cleaners who are demanding $15/hr and a just and safe plan to bring people back into public and travel spaces.
• in Los Angeles, striking fast-food and nursing home workers will join with Uber and Lyft drivers and Postmates workers, janitorial, security and other workers in a car caravan that begins at a McDonald’s, with stops at the LAUSD and the University of Southern California, where they will demand the nation’s second-largest school district and the University drop their use of the LAPD on campuses.

Strikes and protests will also take place in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Durham, Harrisburg, Hartford, Houston, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, New Martinsville, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, Sacramento, Scranton, Seattle, St. Paul, Toledo, Yakima and more.

Specifically striking workers and the organizations sponsoring the mobilization are demanding:

• Justice for Black communities, with an unequivocal declaration that Black Lives Matter, as a necessary first step to winning justice for all workers.
• Elected officials and candidates at every level must use their executive, legislative, and regulatory authority to begin to rewrite the rules and reimagine our economy and democracy so that communities of every race can thrive.
• Corporations take immediate action to dismantle racism, white supremacy, and economic exploitation wherever it exists, including in our workplaces. This includes corporations raising wages, allowing workers to form unions, providing healthcare, sick leave and expanded healthcare coverage to people who are uninsured or have lost coverage as the result of losing their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, child care support and more, to disrupt the multigenerational cycle of poverty created by their anti-worker attacks.
• Every worker must have the opportunity to form a union, no matter where they work. “We cannot achieve economic justice without racial justice,” said Mary Kay Henry, president of SEIU. “From our nation’s founding, white supremacy and economic exploitation have been inextricably linked. Today, in this national moment of reckoning, working people are demanding fundamental changes to America’s broken system. They’re coming together in the Strike for Black Lives to declare that until Black people can thrive, none of our communities can thrive.”

For more testimonials about the strike, go here.