Recently there has been a rise of worker strikes happening throughout the country. Throughout Western Washington construction workers have been on strike. Construction workers have been striking unsafe working conditions for decades. Teachers are striking in Tumwater and have been striking for years about their inadequate wages. Recently I saw a documentary that highlighted NFL cheerleaders and the oppressive conditions of their work environments. The increase of striking workers in our country has everything to do with the fact that we allow dehumanization as a regular part of our work practices. Dehumanization tactics like belittling, underpaying, devaluing and manipulating workers has become a normal part of the corporate environment in this country. These techniques are used as a way of controlling the employed population.
I want to draw the connection between these two jobs, NFL cheerleaders and incarcerated workers, that seem worlds apart because in showing the direct comparisons we can see how protecting prisoners’ rights does go a long way in protecting all workers. We must recognize that there are certain freedoms and privileges that outside workers have that aren’t a reality behind bars however when we allow the treatment of human beings to be degraded on the inside than this type of work culture bleeds out into the free world. I want to make the argument that the working rights of incarcerated individuals is a struggle that we should all be getting behind because when we choose to set the bar for the way that incarcerated people are treated at a higher level and when we choose to protect their rights, then this sets the bar higher every single industry in the United States working market. It’s important that we understand that we can only protect the people in our community as much as we protect the most vulnerable populations in this country. And the most vulnerable working populations in our country are those of incarcerated citizens and detained immigrants.
Dehumanization Used as a Control Tactic
A way that an employer can know that its employees are dependent on them is by making them feel as though they aren’t qualified enough to get another position elsewhere or making them feel like they’re trapped in their current work situation. In some cases, with more vulnerable populations, the workers are may actually be trapped due to their citizenship status or due to the fact they don’t have a certain amount of credentials to make them competitive and in the in the open market or even because they’re in a highly competitive industry. For example, NFL cheerleaders work in a competitive market in which their spot as a professional cheerleader is highly sought-after by hundreds of individuals seeking to take their place. What I found interesting while watching the documentary, The Dark Reality of NFL Cheerleading is that there are several parallels between the way that these workers are treated and the way that incarcerated workers are treated.
NFL Cheerleaders complained of their regularly being told, “There are hundreds of girls who will take your place” when they didn’t want to engage in certain behaviors or attend specific events. Kristin Ann Ware shared with Refinery29 that cheerleaders were regularly told, “You’re only special in the uniform” as they were constantly critiqued for having the perfect smile, body and hair. They were told, “Your opinion doesn’t matter” and “Your voice doesn’t matter” if ever they had the boldness to raise concerns about their working conditions. We see this exact same treatment of workers in the prisons were humans are completely devalued regardless of how valuable or dangerous the work they do is, like the fighter fighters in California ill equipped for fighting fires while putting their lives on the line for $2 a day. In the same way that cheerleaders describe, prisoners voices are completely suppressed as their told in many ways from the mouths of the officials to the lack of oversight from the courts that their voice and their opinions don’t matter. It should never be the case that a group of workers should feel that their voice isn’t important especially when the work that their doing is an irreplaceable part of their companies success. Cheerleaders are the reason why a lot of people enjoy football, stay for halftime and keep energy up during the game. Prisoners are the reason why the state can save millions of dollars on additional staff members for cooking, cleaning and maintaining prison grounds, prisoners also contribute to billion dollar profit margins for countless companies that exploit their labor for pennies an hour.
Pay Don’t Match the Stay
NFL cheerleaders like incarcerated workers are not paid the wage necessary for an individual to fully support themselves. The living conditions of workers should be carefully considered when setting the wages for those workers. Employers should continuously be looking for ways to support their their employees so that they can be financially stable. It is inconsistent for an employer that cares about their employees to under pay them to the point where they are unable to survive. As an NFL cheerleader the women are required to cover certain costs associated with maintaining the appearance to the standard of the NFL’s needs. Cincinnati Bengals’ cheerleader Alexa Brenneman shares that after paying for their nails, hair, gym memberships, event tickets and other costs cheerleaders were left with less than $3/game. In the same way prisoners have mandatory costs associated with their incarceration. They are required to pay for hygiene products, shoes, jackets, hats, mailing supplies, books, feminine products and other costs like cosmetics, phone calls, email messages and music. There is absolutely no way that a prisoner can support themselves on their wage. On average prisoners make 20 cents and hour and after 8hrs of work they still can’t afford to make a $3 phone call to their mother or wife at the end of the day.
For a company to choose to devalue its workers by underpaying them is a complete disregard to employees humanity. Companies like the NFL and those that exploit prisoners labor are making billions of dollars each year and should be more than willing to contribute to the lives of their employees, who contribute so much of themselves to the company, through adequate pay. The choice to strike is bold and brave for workers that are dependent on their employer, however it is even more brave for incarcerated workers to choose to strike in their violent and oppressive conditions. Many of which have already suffered from retaliation. Striking prisoners like David Easly, James Ward and Malik Washington have been moved into solitary confinement and cut off from outside communications. Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson has been moved across state borders in retaliation and prisoners striking in New Mexico’s Lee County Correctional Facility have been on lockdown and forced to undergo daily strip searches since the morning of August 20th. These strong men and women deserve to be heard and after their persistent striking in the face of constant retaliation more than deserve to have to have their demands heard by the legislators who have the deciding choice in the outcome of their lives. These men and women are depending on us to relay their demands and as supporters it is our responsibility to do so.
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
While Cheerleaders and striking workers have been able to secure certain rights through the courts, its obvious that case by case protections of human rights isn’t sufficient. How many people are we going to allow to be abused, mistreated and even killed due to inhumane and unjust working conditions before we take a stand? The prisoners rights fight is fight for all of American workers. Its impossible for us to continue to ignore prisoners in the workers’ rights conversation because if we allow incarcerated workers to be mistreated then we are opening the door for mistreatment of all American workers. Our caged communities are a valuable part of our communities: raising their wages raises all of our wages, uplifting their voices amplifies the voices of all workers, making their working conditions safe protects the conditions of all workers and protecting their rights protects us all.
In the above quote Dostoevsky sums up the reasoning behind my argument, we cannot expect the way laborers to be treated to be improved in this country without directly addressing the way that incarcerated workers are routinely abused in our nations prisons. Prisoners have been striking at much higher stakes than any striker would be in the free world. They have been able to grasp the attention of the mainstream media and change the narrative surrounding mass incarceration. Prisoners are risking their lives every day of the National Prison Strike in order to raise awareness about their 10 demands and it is our responsibility as supporters on the outside to amplify their demands to our communities and most importantly, our legislators so that we can educate and hold them accountable for bringing each demand into fruition. If you’re committed to seeing this happen this year join the prisoners’ human rights coalition under the guidance of Jailhouse Lawyers, the incarcerated organizers behind the strike.
