The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Highlight

Marks studied her union handbook and then met with her shop steward. He was one of the plant’s few Black men and had worked there for decades. Instead of helping her file a grievance, he cautioned her against making waves: “You’re making good money. Keep your head down. Just do your job.” This was a formative experience for Marks. “He got treated any kind of way,” she says of that shop steward, who struck her as a pitiful figure. “He came from a different era. I didn’t come from that era.” Though many people might have concluded at that moment that the union was a waste of time, Marks did just the opposite. She had the union hold a new shop steward election, campaigned for the position, and won.