Resignation Spring

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

During the height of the COVID quarantine, over 9.6 million Americans lost their jobs (Pew Research Center). Restaurants, theaters, and other public venues were forced to close immediately, but every sector of the economy was eventually affected—and still is. After schools closed, many working parents had to stay home to care for and to educate their children, adding to the problem.

The U.S. government (for once) responded swiftly to the crisis, issuing stimulus checks and extending unemployment benefits to families with no means of support. And, with the help of food banks, charities, and other community support groups, we managed to hang on until the vaccines arrived, and—we hoped—our economy would experience a return to normalcy—which hasn’t quite happened. People in the post-pandemic workplace, for a variety of reasons, are deciding not to return to their former jobs.

As of last August, there were approximately 10. 4 million job openings in this country. Although some businesses are so desperate to add employees, they are offering bonuses, higher wages, and extended benefits, applicants are choosing not to return to the workplace. According to CNBC Online, 3.4 million more people quit their jobs last August. The service sector took the biggest hit. They’re calling it The Great Resignation.

Experts speculate workers may feel that low paying jobs are not worth their while, as costs of transportation and child-care are barely covered by their small paychecks. Restaurant workers, airline attendants, and retail workers have also been subject to a recent increase in verbal and physical abuse from customers. In a recent incident, one flight attendant had two teeth knocked out by a passenger after asking her to put on a seat belt during taxiing.

Some Republican lawmakers believe that this reluctance to work is a result of workers being coddled, that after receiving a couple of stimulus checks and a small extension on their unemployment, Americans have been brainwashed by the socialist practices of a Democratic Administration. 

Last May, after a disappointing jobs report, Republican House Representative Mo Brooks tweeted, “The government pays people big bucks NOT to work so they don’t! DUH! Socialism seems nice but in fact is destructive. America: learn or lose!” Mr. Brooks is wrong. Dead wrong.

American workers have not become lazy. They’ve become enlightened. They’re beginning to realize how badly corporate America has been screwing them for the past forty years. A 2018 Pew Research Center report stated wages have been stagnant since the Regan Administration and that most consumers have roughly the same buying power than they did in 1978. The American worker is sick of being chiseled.

They’re also sick of being put at risk. They’ve seen companies ignoring COVID-19 restrictions and deliberately exposing their employees to infection so they can start turning a profit again. Workers have also seen that working from home has been demonstrated to be efficient and effective. This begs the question of why would they endanger themselves in an unsafe workplace when they can do their job just as well—or better—from home? American workers are beginning to understand that—for the first time in a long time—they’re in the driver’s seat.

There has been a recent burst of labor union activism in this country. According to The Guardian, over 1,400 workers walked off the job at Kellogg’s last October. Ten thousand John Deere workers, citing inadequate pay raises and reduced pensions—during a year of record corporate profits—have also gone on strike. Kaiser Permanente unions have also threatened a walkout that might involve more than 30,000 workers. 

This is long overdue. The wealth of the American middle class has been eroded by corporate interests for decades. Wages have stagnated while the cost of living has gone through the roof. College tuition has increased by over one thousand percent. Health insurance premiums and prescription drug costs have also skyrocketed. Some people must work two or even three jobs simply to make ends meet. And all this has happened while the American economy has enjoyed record growth and CEOs and other corporate officers have been awarded seven-figure incomes and million-dollar-bonuses—and some of our richest citizens have the means to build their own space programs.

The pandemic has opened the eyes of American workers. They are asking themselves why they should work for next to nothing? Why shouldn’t they be able to support their families on one income? Rather than go back to minimum-wage jobs, many are opting to go back to school or to look around for better work. Some are retiring early. Others are unionizing. Strikes and labor unrest are currently sweeping the country. People are waking up.

In Tunisia in 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor, set himself on fire to protest government mistreatments, sparking a series of insurgencies called Arab Spring, a spontaneous insurgency that ended up toppling the Tunisian and Egyptian governments. The protests were spontaneous expressions of years of frustration, anger, and resentment by people trying to make better lives for themselves.

Perhaps in 2021, thanks—ironically—to a world-wide pandemic, America seems on the cusp of perhaps experiencing its own rebirth—a Resignation Spring if you will, a spontaneous surge to reject the current labor culture and gain back the rights and standard of living that every American worker deserves. We’ve been repressed and stifled by corporate interests—and our own government representatives—for far too long. It’s time for the middle class to rise up.

It might be November, but Spring is in the air.