Chiquita, Northrup, Dow, Nestle, Intel, Kraft, General Electric, Shell…

It was five years ago that I was fired from my job at Target for trying to organize employees at one of their stores in St. Paul, MN. I could see it coming; a multi-billion dollar corporation versus a Clouseau-esque provocateur. Even with the clandestine help of a local labor organizer, the fight was onesided. After a fruitless meeting with an NLR B official, I had to concede. But I willingly drew the last weapon in my arsenal: the boycott. Since that December day, I have not entered any Target store.

The term “Boycott” is taken from a campaign launched by midnineteenth century Irish farmers against an English landlord named Charles Boycott. But in American history its roots go back to colonial times, when John Adams and John Hancock led a strike against the British East India Company (an event culminating in the Boston Tea Party). Noteworthy efforts since then include abolitionist campaigns directed at the Southern slave economy, the United Farm Workers’ boycott of California fruit growers, and the fight against bedding maker J. P. Stevens.

…Nike, Wal-Mart, Trillium, Kraft, Exxon, The New York Times, Nabisco…

Economists describe the boycott as a component of “moral purchasing,” potentially motivated by antecedents such as consumer anxiety over high prices, outrage over corporate fiscal behavior, or support for unionizing efforts at a particular company. According to a revised 1998 article in the Journal of Consumer Research, a boycott is typically undertaken in pursuit of “specific ethical or socially responsible actions,” and is reflective of a “tension between social and personal interest.” Boycott participants, in other words, should be willing to dump overboard their favorite box of tea.

Success or failure of a boycott essentially hinges upon two factors: the size of the objective, and the ability of the organizers to marshal support in their favor. Quite often the former will bear upon the latter, although once an action has been announced, individual unions are generally the first to offer help. “We have supported boycotts to effect social justice for farmworkers and immigrant rights,” said American
Federation of Musicians Local 99 representative Ken Shirk.

OregonAFSC ME’s Don Loving wrote that his union is most commonly asked to renegotiate health insurance costs—a factor in two recent job actions. “We [also] urge our members to adhere to the AFL-CIO ’s official ‘Do Not Patronize’ list, which is an officially sanctioned list of ‘bad guys,’” he added.

Portland’s Jobs with Justice branch is a prominent face on the regional labor scene. JWJ’s 84 members, which include churches, grassroots advocacy groups, and labor unions, are active on many fronts, and have been instrumental in providing much of the heavy lifting required to get job actions off the ground. “We do not help people organize,” said JWJ organizer Eliana Machucha. “We don’t have the capacity to do it. But if people call, we will refer them to the correct union.”

Machucha acknowledged an obvious fact: “Boycotts are hard,” she said. “Employers have all the resources. You need to get people behind you and to support you.” Federal and local labor laws are supposed to be enforced by the National Labor Relations Board, and even though employees have the right to organize, companies are skilled at manipulating and even firing workers who try to unionize. “The NLRB system is totallybroken,” she said. “There is no real penalty when an employer violates labor law.”

…Archer Daniels, Circuit City, Northwest Airlines, Dole, Union Carbide…

Despite its reputation as a blue town, Portland has seen its share of labor-management battles. Who would not wander into Powell’s, for example, and think that the store’s variety of titles must certainly reflect management’s belief in enlightenment and knowledge? Yet from 1998 to 2000, the company and its workers engaged in what JWJ’s Machucha described as a “rough fight” over unionization. Powell’s is hardly the East India Company, but when its workers voted to join the Longshoremen—a leathery, old boy’s outfit that cut its teeth in the 1930’s San Francisco dock fights—the bookstore countered by retaining veteran employment attorney Larry Amburgey. There were marches, demos, and confrontations with the police. The boycott of the store lasted for several days, before the two sides negotiated a contract.

This past May, after an eightmonth walkout, members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees finally reached a contract agreement with the downtown Portland Hilton. UniteHERE organizer Eryn Slack was a waitress in the Hilton dining room at the time of the strike, and served as boycott coordinator. “We had been negotiating for four months with minimal progress,” she said. The primary issue was the number of rooms assigned to each housekeeper, but the underlying goal was to demonstrate union commitment.

UniteHERE announced a boycott for October 2007, and with JWJ help began a media drive to spread notice of the action. When the union asked for pledges of support, local politicians and organizations found themselves suddenly faced with the equivalent of choosing whether or not to dump their tea. "We got a mixed reaction," said Slack. "A lot of people didn’t understand how safety for housekeepers depended on lowering the room count."

The union's ability to reinforce its contacts with regular hotel patrons helped immensely. Slack estimates that combined total economic losses for the hotels involved (including hotels in Vancouver, WA, and Tacoma, WA) amounted to about $1.8 million.

…Coca-Cola, Greyhound, Tyson, Maxxam, United States Sugar.

The last time I checked, the St. Paul UFCW local was planning its annual informational picket at Target. Some shoppers will stop and listen, but if the norm holds, most will probably have their eyes and wallets fixed on one of the store’s bargains, an action perfectly consonant with what the 1998 Journal of Consumer Research article described as a "social dilemma." That is, "Each individual is best off acting in her self-interest, but in doing so all individuals are worse off than if they had cooperated in the collective interest."

That sounds like another way of describing the free-market economy. But if it means striking a blow at the economy, I will gladly dump my tea—or, in my case, my coffee. Eryn Slack summarized things perfectly: “I’m proud to have been a part of the Portland Hilton boycott,” she wrote. “It showed me that if we organize together, we can win.”