Yeah I agree this word has a negative connotation but I’m not sure if another one.
They’re trying to collectively quit working at the same time (and use government power to force the company not to actually terminate them) as a way of pressuring a company to raise their wages.
It feels like holding a company hostage? Like for instance a protection racket: this feels identical (pay us or you lose your business) is engaging in the same thing, but feels “worse”.
I think the thing that makes this extortion for me is the government involvement. If it was just “we aren’t willing to work for that wage anymore”, that’s just bargaining.
If you decided to extend the argument then allow me to extend it even more: any legislation or agreement or marriage or just anything applies - once you have two parties then one is holding the other "hostage". Sounds ridiculous right? Well, because it is. Once you have some leverage - by sake of having money or unions - you use it. Just like Tesla holds "hostages" his employees, they hold "hostage" the company for contract conditions. Hostages everywhere, if you want so, because neither the company nor the employees live in a void.
I feel like your outlook implies a commitment to an American ideology where the company and capitalist has all the power, and the worker has almost no rights but to conform. People don’t exist in a vacuum, and they’re free to work together to collectively bargain for better terms and conditions. It’s not extortion or hostage taking, and even if it were, the company is also hostage taking by having that worker commit their life to fulfilling their obligation to the company by turning up every day and working for that company’s cause, in return for a small share of the revenue generated. I feel that ultimately your metaphors are being slightly mixed by thinking in terms of hostages and extortion. If you think in terms of communities of people and mutuality then the metaphor doesn’t work as well. If Tesla can’t get people from that locale to want to work for them, then they’re not going to be able to operate there. If they break the strike in the name of profits, workers at the city and the power company will see their friends and families made unemployed, and become reluctant to keep the lights on or the street free of debris. You’re dealing with a country and situation that has strong worker rights, and the reason they’re strong is that they keep solidarity with their values in the face of such profit-driven capitalistic behaviour, and there’s a finite resource of people who can be shipped in by Tesla to break this strike even though right now it’s a small issue. Happy workers don’t want to strike and not get paid, and discontent spreads much more rapidly than quiet contentment.
