Labor Thots
Labor Organizing w/ Seo Yun Son
substack #27
Hi, I’m Bianca. Queer - Mixed - 1st Gen - Muslim(ish) - Spoonie - Artist, Professor, & Creative Strategist living in Los Angeles. In case you’re new here or a reminder could help, this newsletter began as an exploration of figuring shit out, one day at a time. If you look forward to these newsletters and want to support my ongoing work you can upgrade to a paid subscription.
Things helping me figure shit out:
Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. The holiday is also meant to recognize the American labor movement.
Anything and everything I know about labor or labor organizing I’ve learned from my sibling, Seo Yun Son.
Seo Yun’s spent the last ten years in the labor movement and is currently the Organizing Director at LA College Faculty Guild (AFT Local 1521), the largest community college district in the United States. I’ve seen Seo Yun move mountains, for example:
🪧 She organized restaurant workers who fought wage theft in LA Ktown and won (business were cited for $2.1 million in labor violations)!
🪧 She organized faculty who reached a historic settlement that gave 4,000 LACCD part-time faculty ongoing, accessible, and quality healthcare benefits
This season we saw the continuation of “hot labor summer” - from WGA, SAG-AFTRA, Trader Joes, Medieval Times, Starbucks (350 unionized locations and counting!) - you name it, we have seen strike after strike show us that organizing works.
This week, Seo Yun is my first newsletter guest! We sat down for a quick labor 101
BNN: OK let’s start at the beginning, What is Labor Organizing?
SS: Put simply, labor organizing is a coordinated struggle by workers for workers to improve material conditions and advance common interests (wages, benefits, safer working conditions, etc).
BNN: How did you get involved with the labor movement?
SS: My grandma and aunt were garment workers and after graduating college, I became one too. As undocumented immigrant workers in a low-wage industry, we faced worker exploitation - wage theft, discrimination, and harassment. I knew my family didn't make sacrifices for me to just bow my head and accept what was going on.
I knew I had rights, but I had to find out what they were.
I started talking to co-workers and connecting with different worker centers until a friend brought me to KIWA (Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance). That is where I first saw Korean and Latinx workers coming together to organize and change their material conditions. I knew this was the solution to my problems.
BNN: Thoughts on hot labor summer?
SS: It's no coincidence that we are seeing this wave of labor activity across the country So many essential workers were exploited during the pandemic. This wave has me hopeful for what’s to come - organizing is cool! Unions are hot right now! It is so exciting!
Kitchens, Sex Work, and Megastores
Over the last few years we have seen more “eat the rich” themes begin to trend in TV and movies as people feel class divides more and more. In my last letter, I shared about the power of pop culture organizing. Seo Yun and I talk about how and where labor is being centered in TV and film.
The Bear
BNN: I chose The Bear because even though technically the main character is a white guy, the entire second season is held up by the narratives of working-class people of color in Chicago.
SS: I do appreciate the diverse cast, and the show does a good job of portraying the hustle and anxiety of restaurants/service industry. My favorite character has to be TINA (Liza Colón-Zayas)! We see her feeling suspicious of this middle-class white guy making all these bougie changes to the restaurant, but we also see her realize she can do fine dining too!
BNN: Ya, loved it when Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) invested in Tina with training instead of hiring a new classically trained sous chef.
SS: Yes! We even see worker solidarity when Tina goes looking for Ebraheim, making sure he isn’t left behind as he navigates these changes. At the end of the day, this restaurant is contributing to gentrification and we know work isn’t going to love you back, so all you can lean on are your co-workers.
BNN: If you want to support a rad worker-owned abolitionist restaurant, started by a Palestinian-Syrian chef - check out Reems. They made headlines this week when they refused to serve cops. They are, and have been, experiencing a lot of hate and attacks from zionists. So please support them!
White Lotus
SS: I chose White Lotus because the tension between the working-class hotel employees and the wealthy elites who stay at the hotel is a reflection of our current reality. America has historical amnesia, so I love to see a show where greed is portrayed as a sickness in public conversation. I want these conversations to be commonplace.
BNN: I also love that the second season pushes the audience to root for sex workers Lucia (Simona Tabasco) and Jack (Leo Woodall). We often see a lot of stigma and shame around sex work.
SS: MLK gave a speech in support of the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike two weeks before he was assassinated where he said “all labor has dignity.” I want to see more dignified depictions of labor.
Superstore
SS: I want to mention Superstore! It’s a sitcom about megastore employees experiencing poor benefits, short staffing, racial and gender discrimination, and even retaliation due to their immigration status. I was initially excited to see a mainstream show present these everyday struggles. But as I watched, I became disappointed.
There’s an episode where the employees decide to strike because their manager got fired. They all walked out without a plan and didn’t know what to do afterward.
It painted a really patronizing picture of workers and their struggle as if a decision to strike is made impulsively IRL. This was a missed opportunity to show how workers build and utilize their power. In reality, a walkout takes so much careful planning and coordination.
BNN: Yeah and that’s the trap of representation right? Seeing a strike on TV is not enough, we need stories and tools to really empower people. Power mapping is such a foundational and important organizing tool. Remember how rad it was when saw Bam at the Bootleg and he pulled out a whiteboard to powermap in the middle of his show?
SS: Right. It’s fun to consume pop culture but so many of these stories are often stripped of reality and context and not as nuanced as we’d like. So the best thing to do is learn these histories yourself and get involved.
BNN: How do people do that?
SS: I’d say start learning about the history of the labor movement! join a picket line! Talk to workers! Talk to your coworkers! Building solidarity is always the most effective tool.
If you don’t know where to start Seo Yun put together this list of labor-related movies for you to dive into!
🇸🇳 Black Girl (1966)
🏭 Norma Rae (1979)
🪧 At the River I Stand (1993)
🇰🇷 Cart (2014)
🏳️🌈 Pride (2014)
☎️ Sorry to Bother You (2018)
🚺 Support the Girls (2018)