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“Bar Association” is one of the best DS9 episodes, and deserves to be remembered as one of Star Trek’s greatest allegory episodes. It’s amazing the way the story manages to hit all the major stages of classic historical labor struggles.
THREAD!
THREAD!
1. Workers are experiencing workplace safety issues (Rom’s infection), pay cuts, and work-life balance issues (Leeta and the others). Desire for increased pay is almost never the primary issue.
2. Past victories of organized labor inspire the leaders to the present struggle. (Rom learns about O’Brien’s ancestor from PA coal strikes.)
3. Workers meet to form a union (Rom’s quarters), and confront management with their problems (in the bar).
3. Workers meet to form a union (Rom’s quarters), and confront management with their problems (in the bar).
4. Management attempts to dismiss worker problems as insignificant or funny, provoking a strike. (Quark literally tries to laugh it off.)
5. Union begins to picket.
5. Union begins to picket.
6. Management attempts to replace striking workers with scabs, but the scabs are not satisfactory replacements. (Quark’s holographic waiters)
7. Management (Quark) approaches law enforcement (Odo) to force workers to end the strike. Law enforcement expresses broad support for management’s goals, but laments that the workers *technically* have the law on their side.
8. Members of the public are deeply divided by the strike (Worf, O’Brien and Bashir). This causes the strike to become an annoyance to the government (Sisko), which has tried to ignore the strike until now.
9. The government (Sisko) asks management (Quark) to make reasonable concessions to end the strike. Management refuses. Government reminds management how much they benefit from government’s business-friendly policies, and applies pressure (Sisko threatens to collect back rent).
10. Management (Quark) attempts to bribe the union leadership (Rom) to end the strike and sell out the other workers for personal gain. Union leadership refuses.
11. Management is divided by worker and government pressure. Moderate faction (Quark) considers making concessions. Hardline faction (Brunt) brings in thugs (the Nausicaans) to intimidate and terrorize workers.
12. Moderate faction attempts to “reason” with union by claiming safety concerns over what the hardline faction may do (Quark and Rom).
13. Hardliners use violence as terror tactic (Brunt targets Quark, ironically). Law enforcement, once sympathetic to management, is pushed into labor camp (Odo arrests Brunt and Nausicaans). Tactic backfires, and moderates feel more pressure to give in.
14. Management gives in to all worker demands, except for the most important one – recognizing the union. At this stage, management has historically been *very* generous in order to avoid giving the union permanent input in decision-making going forward.
15. Successful labor movements press their advantage, because they know union recognition is the most important thing. Rom, however, caves in at this moment -- an error common in 19th century labor movements.
