Why Black Union Workers Matter In This Year's Super
Bowl Showdown

By Jamilah King
Colorlines 
February 2 2012
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/02/super_bowl_2012.html

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was not supposed to be among
this year's Super Bowl story lines. This year's
contenders, the New England Patriots and the New York
Giants, should instead be taking center stage. Yet less
than a week before America's biggest sporting event of
the year kicks off in Indianapolis, Gov. Daniels'
fight with the state's unionized workers over
legislation that could curtail the power of their
collective bargaining rights has given a new national
platform to the right wing's bitter, decades-old war
against unions.

Yet the NFL's Player's Association, which is the union
that represents the league's athletes, has also jumped
onto the national stage and come out in opposition to
the proposed Right to Work legislation. In doing so,
the league's union is taking an important, albeit
symbolic, step to publicly bridge the gap that exists
between the NFL's multibillion dollar teams and its
increasingly marginalized fan base. And it's proof that
sports is a powerful cultural art form that can help
elevate some of today's most controversial political
issues.

On January 6, 2012, the NFLPA released a damning letter
in opposition to the Indiana's bill, which has since
moved quickly through the state's legislature.

"'Right-to-work' is a political ploy designed to
destroy basic workers' rights. It's not about jobs or
rights, and it's the wrong priority for Indiana," the
statement read. "It is important to keep in mind the
plight of the average Indiana worker and not let them
get lost in the ceremony and spectacle" of the Super
Bowl.

The statement was hugely important, considering what's
at stake for Indiana's workers, particularly black
ones. Black workers are disproportionately union
members. They're more likely than whites, Asians, and
Latinos to be in public-unions, and make up 15 percent
of total membership, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Historically, unions have been crucial
gateways for black workers to earn higher wages and
break into the middle class.

While supporters of Right to Work argue that the laws
are needed to foster a "pro-business" atmosphere that
helps generate desperately needed jobs, research has
shown that the laws can have disastrous effects on
workers. The Economic Policy Institute released a
report in January showing that workers employed in
Right to Work states makes less money and are less
likely to be offered health care.

DeMaurice F. Smith, executive director of the player's
union, pressed the point even further in an op-ed
published a week later in one of Indiana's most widely
read newspapers. " An indisputable lesson of our
American history is that none of those workplace
protections came as a gift from corporations," wrote
Smith, who'd previously made a name for him self as a
hard-nosed litigator. "Rather, all of them resulted
from the ability of workers to stand united and demand
change when it would have been easy to fire or silence
the voice of a single worker."

There are currently 22 states in the country that have
the law, mostly in the South and in western states like
Wyoming and Utah. Indiana's bill, which the state
Senate passed this week and Gov. Daniels has already
vowed to sign into law, is unique because it will be
the first the law that's been put into action in an
industrialized area with a large, unionized workforce.

"I don't think it was surprising, but I think it's
important," said Washington State University professor
David Leonard about the NFLPA's statement.

And for some observers, the reason why it's important
is because there's been an growing divide between the
league and its average fans, many of whom are people of
color.

Professional football in America gained popularity as a
uniquely working class sport in which teams (think the
Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers) were named
after regional manufacturing economies. These days, as
ticket prices have risen to the tune of hundreds of
dollars for a single game, the game has become an
exaggerated expression of wealth in America when many
fans are struggling financially.

Larry Solomon is a longtime professor at San Francisco
State University. He's also a lifelong football fan,
and has noticed that biggest enclaves of football fans
are often in the most historically disenfranchised
communities.

"They're not cheering for the owners," Salomon says of
most fans. "They're cheering for their cities, they're
cheering their friends and for people like them who
identify around that team."

For Salomon, that sort of ferver carries with it the
potential for raising people's political awareness.
"When I go home and watch the Super Bowl with my family
this weekend, I hope the NFLPA and the Indiana stuff
comes up, but last year we talked about abortion during
the Super Bowl because of Tim Tebow and his ad.

"You have these moments where sports intersects with
politics, intersects with race, and you can have
conversations with people who might not normally have
those conversations."

And this year is certainly one of those moments.

"The Super Bowl is a staging ground for American
Exceptionalism," said Leonard, the professor at
Washington State, noting that the Navy spends millions
of dollars to do fly-overs before the game. "It's a
celebration and festival for the wealthy that's done
because of the labor of disproportionately men of
color."

That, Leonard suggests, is a macrocosm for how other
industries work.

"Yes, the money is different and the stage is
different, but that doesn't mean that the lessons that
we can learn aren't there."

Indeed, the 2011 NFL season was mired in political
discussions from the start. It began with a protracted
labor dispute between owners and players which lead to
a lockout that lasted well into training camp. The
NFLPA repeatedly emphasized how damaging a prolonged
lockout could be not just to players and coaches, but
also for the concession stand workers and ticket agents
who work at the league's stadiums and whose livelihoods
often depend on fans showing up and spending money at
games.

Another key issue that was brought up by players during
the lockout is one with which many workers in other
industries can relate: occupational safety.

While professional football is an admittedly physical
sport and the allure of big hits has drawn in many fans
over the years, the eventual price of that brutality
has recently become apparent. New research has shown
that players who suffer multiple concussions stand at
far greater risk of developing severe depression and
early onset dementia.

"I'm not sure players overall have really 'gotten it'
with respect to the extent to which the money they make
can be fleeting, but I think they're beginning to get
the idea that their health, their vibrancy can be
fleeting," said N. Jeremi Duru, a professor at Temple
University and author of the forthcoming book
"Advancing the Ball: Race, Reformation, and the Quest
for Equal Coaching Opportunity in the NFL." He
maintains that players' increased awareness has made
them more willing to protect their physically
interests, and thus has created a climate in which
their union's support of other worker's struggles isn't
all that surprising.

"The unanswered question is whether any of the players
participating in the Super Bowl will say anything,"
says Dave Zirin, a columnist at The Nation and author
of "Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We
Love." Though Zirin cautions that it's not something
fans should expect, he also thinks that if players do
participate, the issue of worker's rights in Indiana
would get attention that's "out of this stratosphere."

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate