What ‘Workaholics’ Got Right and Wrong About Going on Strike

The Law360 Union decided to start its ULP strike closer to Two-Thirds-Christmas, also known as "Labor Day." (Image courtesy of Comedy Central)

When it comes to shows that thoughtfully engage with current social and economic issues, this category likely wouldn’t include a sitcom like “Workaholics,” where the main characters once attempted to build a pool slide out of scraps of wood. But “Workaholics,” which features a trio of call center employees, tackles labor unrest early in its first season — and with more nuance than may initially appear.

The episode, aptly titled “The Strike,” aired on Comedy Central in 2011 — an important year in recent labor history because of the Wisconsin protests against then-Governor Scott Walker’s attempt to break public sector unions. The show’s three main characters — Adam, Blake and Anders — face resistance from management when seeking time off from work to celebrate a holiday they created called Half-Christmas. Adam and Blake eventually lead the workplace in a strike, while Anders crosses the picket line.  

While largely played for laughs, the episode reveals both common misconceptions and surprising accuracies about federal labor law and employee rights under it. As my fellow Law360 union members and I continue to stand in solidarity against management’s refusal to sufficiently increase our wages and cap healthcare costs, among other things, now is a good time to revisit what “Workaholics” got right and wrong about strikes.  

Strikers are Freeloaders: FALSE

Early in the episode, the trio encounters a group of retail workers who are already on strike for more pay and better hours, among other issues. Anders refers to the strikers as “freeloaders.”

The notion that strikers simply do not want to work is inherently false. My coworkers and I would love to return to our legal news beats, but management’s ULPs and bad faith bargaining tactics have given us no other choice but to play the ultimate card of withholding our labor. Although we are not currently showing up for work, we are actively picketing in person and online to help build solidarity around our efforts. Anyone who has ever been on strike can tell you that this is a lot of work — and good, important work at that!

Anders’ view on strikers is also in part informed by his father, who ran a plastics factory. According to Anders, his family “fell on hard times” when his father’s employees went on strike. The family even, gasp, had to leave the country club!

While the classism of this remark seems lost on Anders, there are often notably disparate levels of wealth between upper management and employees. For example, Mike Walsh — CEO of LexisNexis, Law360’s parent company — recently bought a penthouse in South Beach, Miami for $5.9 million.

Striking is the Same as Quitting: FALSE

Inspired by the retail workers, Adam and Blake mobilize their workplace to go on strike in response to management’s refusal to give them time off in recognition of Half-Christmas. Anders continues to show up at work.

Alice, the call center manager, tells Anders that as far as she is concerned, Adam and Blake have quit.

While managers like Alice may enjoy falsely equating striking with quitting as a technique to encourage workers to cross the picket line, these two actions are not the same. Both economic and unfair labor practice, or ULP, strikers — and to be clear, my Law360 coworkers and I are the latter — retain their employee status.

Union Leaders are Bosses: FALSE

At one point, Blake and Adam confront the striking retail workers and accuse them of giving the call center workers bad advice. One of the retail workers responds by asking Blake and Adam what their “local union boss” told them.

The notion of a “union boss” is a pernicious and deceptive anti-union talking point. It is also an oxymoron. Union leaders are not bosses because they cannot, say, fire employees, unlike the Law360 bosses who illegally laid off 10% of our coworkers during contract negotiations.  And, unlike our true bosses at Law360, union leaders are democratically elected by the members.  

Economic Strikers Can Be Permanently Replaced: TRUE

In response to the labor action, Alice brings in workers to join scabs like Anders in replacing the strikers. Technically, because the call center workers are on an economic strike — specifically, they want paid time off to celebrate Half-Christmas — they can be permanently replaced.

The rule that economic workers can be permanently replaced was articulated in the 1938 U.S. Supreme Court case called National Labor Relations Board v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co.

Other pop culture examples of economic strikes include workers who withhold their labor for better pay, such as when Kramer on “Seinfeld” went on strike from H&H Bagels for higher wages. Karmer ended his 12-year strike when the minimum wage was increased to the amount he’d been demanding, only to go back on strike shortly afterward when the company wouldn’t recognize Festivus, another invented holiday and likely television relative of Half-Christmas.

My Law360 coworkers and I are not on an economic strike. Rather, we are on an open-ended ULP strike, which means we are protesting specific illegal practices committed by management. In particular, our union, the NewsGuild of New York, has filed multiple ULP claims challengingmanagement’s actions, including their decision to illegally lay off 10% of our workforce — the same day they bragged about record profits and Relx, LexisNexis’s parent company, announced £1 billion in share buybacks.  

Because we are on a ULP strike, we cannot be permanently replaced. We also want to thank the MLex Guild for its solidarity and refusal to cross our picket line during our ULP strike.

Management Tries to Divide and Conquer: TRUE

Throughout the strike, Alice provides a series of sticks to the strikers and carrots to the scabs in an effort to divide and conquer the workplace. In one scene, she tells Anders to give his friends their last paychecks to “show them what team you’re rooting for” and then indicates that Anders may see quick advancement up the corporate ladder.

Management often tries to sow division in the workplace in an effort to break down solidarity. For example, in 1997 management at John Deere created so-called tiers for their unionized workers. Those tiers, which drew a line between those hired before and after 1997, offered lower wages and benefits for the latter group in an effort to pit workers against each other. Workers went on a monthlong strike in late 2021 after rejecting a proposed contract that created another tier that would have denied pensions to new hires.

A 2021 Labor Notes article reported that John Deere workers “strike as [the] company rakes in record profits” — a dynamic that is not unlike the one currently playing out at Law360.

–Editing by Emily Kokoll and Katie McNally.