Gabrielle Bussell recently completed her Master’s Degree in philosophy at Eastern Michigan University. She is also a labor organizer with Service Industry Workers of the Ann Arbor Area (SIWA3) and the Ypsilanti Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
What type(s) of civically engaged or public philosophy (CE/PP) work do you do?
I am a labor organizer. In particular, I am co-chair of the strategic organizing committee of the Ypsilanti Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). I meet with workers who are interested in organizing their workplace, help them assess their grievances, build social maps of their workplace, train them in the art of the “organizing conversation,” and help them build an escalation plan for addressing workplace issues.
Give an example of a successful project.
In addition to my work in the IWW, I helped form Service Industry Workers of the Ann Arbor Area (SIWA3), a group dedicated to organizing workplaces, mutual aid work, and service worker advocacy. In March of 2020, before the initial shutdown, I reached out to several of my fellow local service workers who expressed their concerns about risking their lives to put food on the table during the pandemic. I started a social media page to help facilitate this discussion which spawned a group of core organizers working to demand workers’ safety and dignity. We met with local representatives and led campaigns to bring awareness to the exploitation that workers in our industry were facing. We also raised over $10,000 during the holiday season for service workers in need, organized a free KN95 mask distribution, organized two public demonstrations demanding workers’ safety, and currently have multiple organizing campaigns with local service workers. Our overall goal is to form an industry-wide union for service workers.
How does this work benefit the public(s) you engage with?
Service industry workers have long been regarded as disposable and unworthy of respect by bosses, customers, and the general public. This was especially made apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of our workforce is made up of members of marginalized communities: Women, BIPOC, LGBTQ workers, and immigrant and undocumented workers. Service work, the tipping system especially, is historically founded on blatantly racist and exploitative conditions. Bad bosses often take advantage of those who are most vulnerable in order to turn a profit. SIWA3 and the IWW are dedicated to giving these workers a voice and helping them build power in their workplaces.
In what ways does the work inform your philosophical reflection?
Labor organizing has motivated me to read more social political theory and consider new avenues of research and philosophical inquiry. I want to learn more about the history of labor, various methods of organizing, and understand the proletarian struggle more deeply.
If someone wanted to take on public work like yours, what steps or resources would you recommend?
I would recommend reaching out to local organizations—and if there are no such organizations in your area, it is worth taking the time to build them. You can reach out to organizations in other cities, many of which are still hosting online meetings and workshops, to learn about how to build local chapters of the IWW, for example. Building solidarity with your fellow workers is also incredibly important. Reaching out to your coworkers, getting to know them, and talking about your workplace issues is the first step in forming a labor union.
What motivates you to do this work?
I have worked in the service industry for fourteen years, from fast food, to bars and breweries. I have witnessed and experienced the horrors of working in the industry: Wage theft, sexual harassment and assault, racism, manipulative and abusive management, abusive customers, and gross negligence of workers’ health and safety. Like many of my fellow workers, I am mentally and emotionally scarred from the lack of basic dignity I was afforded in the service industry. I feel passionate about building a labor union for service workers because they deserve so much more than what has been given to them.
What has been your biggest obstacle in doing your public work?
The biggest obstacle that exists in organizing the service industry, in my experience, is simply convincing workers that they deserve better. After years of being told that what you do isn’t “real work” and that the harassment and abuse you experience is “just part of the job,” it’s incredibly difficult to get out of the mindset that you and your labor are worthless. Many service workers claim their workplace trauma as a badge of honor, something that shows how tough and resilient they are. And don’t get me wrong, service workers ARE some of the strongest people I know. But things can be so much better. I feel confident that one day they will be.
What’s the philosophical grounding of your public work?
Unsurprisingly, I am a Marxist. I think Marx’s analysis of the exploitation of the working class rings especially true for the service industry. I dream of a day when workers of all industries can truly claim the fruits of their labor without having to answer to bosses who have no concern whatsoever for their dignity, autonomy, or safety.
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