Care Workers on Strike

Abstract

This paper investigates a moral conflict that care workers, defined as workers who care for dependent others, confront when they go on strike. Care workers who confront decisions about whether to go on strike are, in my analysis, caught between impossible options: Should they prioritize the needs of those who are currently dependent upon them, and forego striking, or prioritize their long-term ability to provide the best possible care, and partake in strikes? I argue that care workers who confront these decisions are often caught in a tragic moral conflict where “moral failure” is inevitable. However, I argue that we should place blame for said moral failures not upon striking care workers themselves but upon employers and others responsible for creating the decision contexts in which care workers must morally fail. I also argue that those responsible for creating the decision contexts in which care workers must morally fail are guilty of various moral and material harms to care workers.