The Saturday after this video is published is May Day, also known as International Workers
Day or simply Labour Day to most of the world — not here in the United States.
We observe Labor Day in September, because we want to celebrate the working class, but
not like a buncha commies.
So, I thought it would be fun to mark Labor Day — Labe-our Day?
La-bore Day?
I thought it would be fun to mark Lab-our Day by talking about an episode of Star Trek
that deals with issues of worker’s rights and labor relations.
I’m talking, of course, about an episode from the fourth season of Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine: “Bar Association.”
It’s the Bajoran Time of Cleansing and business at Quark’s is slow, which Quark is taking
out on his employees.
Rom’s feeling under the weather.
He pours some Alka Seltzer in his ear but it doesn’t help.
Leeta says, “I think Rom needs to go lie down.”
And Quark’s like, “Thanks for the suggestion — I think you should shut up and spin the
dabo wheel.”
“But nobody’s playing dabo.”
“Because you’re not spinning the wheel!”
“You get how that’s circular logic, right?”
“Circular like a dabo wheel?
Which you should be spinning right now?”
Anyway, Rom’s like, “Hey, I’m gonna pass out now.”
So Rom ends up in the infirmary and Bashir’s like, “Got yourself an ear infection there,
bud.
Pretty nasty one, too.
An ear infection like this could be fatal to a Ferengi, because, you know . . .”
Rom says he would have come in sooner, but he couldn’t get away from work because Ferengi
labor contracts don’t allow for sick time.
Bashir’s like, “Your contract sucks, you should get a new one.”
Rom’s like, “How am I supposed to do that?
Ferengi labor contracts are all the same.”
“What you need is a union to keep you and your fellow employees from being exploited.”
“But Ferengi workers don’t want to end the exploitation — they want to become bosses
so they can get in on the exploitation themselves!
Merciless exploitation of workers by bosses is literally the foundation of our entire
society.
I could never start a union.”
Anyway, three scenes later Rom’s like, “Let’s start a union.”
The other Ferengi who work for Quark point out that there’s this thing called the Ferengi
Commerce Authority that is basically this omnipotent government agency with the power
to ruin people’s lives, and they aren’t gonna be too happy that a bunch of Ferengi
unionized.
But Rom sells them on the idea by framing in terms of how much they stand to profit.
Collective bargaining could get them not only higher wages, but also benefits like paid
vacations and sick leave.
“When a Ferengi sees an opportunity, he seizes it,” Rom tells them.
And in a few seconds everybody is cheering and chanting!
Union!
[singing]
Well if ya want higher wages, let me tell ya what to do
You got to talk to the workers in the bar with you
Got to build you a union, got to make it strong And if we all stick together, well, t’won’t
be long You’ll get shorter hours
More latinum in your pocket Vacations with pay
Take the kids down to Bajor
Rom needs some advice on starting the union he just started, so he finds Dr. Bashir, who
is in sickbay with O’Brien debating whether to remove a cyst or paint a face on it and
pretend it’s a second head — that’s not my joke, that’s actually in the episode,
it’s delightful.
Anyway, Rom’s like, “Hey, I took your advice and started that union.”
And Bashir’s like, “Holy shit, what?
You did what?”
“I started a union, like you said.”
“Jesus Christ, Rom, I was only speaking theoretically!
I’m an intellectual — I just say stuff, I don’t expect anyone to actually act on
it in the real world!
Are you insane?!”
O’Brien is a lot more enthusiastic about Rom’s union.
He’s like, “Hey, did you know one of my ancestors led the Pennsylvania coal miners
strike of 1902?”
And Rom’s like, “No, because I have no idea where Pennsylvania is or what the number
1902 means.”
O’Brien tells Rom that the strike lasted for eleven months, and those coal mines stayed
closed until all the miners’ demands were met!
Rom’s like, “So, we should strike?”
And Bashir jumps in with, “Well, you might not have to.
Maybe Quark will agree to your demands.”
O’Brien’s like, “Shut the fuck up, bootlicker.
Rom, you’re totally gonna have to strike.
And when you do, you’ll have to be strong, like my courageous ancestor — who was shot
between thirty-two and thirty-four times and was fished out of the river like a week later,
by the way.”
Bashir says, “Well, at least your ancestor died a hero.”
And O’Brien replies to that with one of my favorite lines from the entire series.
He turns to Bashir and says, “He was more than a hero.
He was a union man!”
[singing]
You’ve got a union now and you’re sittin’ pretty
Put a couple Ferengi on the steering committee!
Quark don’t pay attention when poor Rom squawks
But he’s got to listen when the union talks He’d better!
Promenade’d be awfully quiet Everybody decided to walk out on him
Rom and his fellow employees meet with Quark and Rom’s like, “Hey, we’re a union
now and we have some demands — just reasonable stuff like wage increases, shorter hours,
paid sick leave.”
Quark says, “Oh, sure, I hear you.
I do have a counterproposal: eat shit and get back to work!”
Quark’s counterproposal is rejected, so the union goes on strike!
Quark comes back to Rom a little later to offer him a bribe to end the strike, but Rom
bows up and quotes Karl Marx right in Quark’s face: “Workers of the world, unite!
You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
Quark’s like, “I smell a rat — a big commie rat!”
[singing]
Now Rom, you’ve come to the hardest time ‘Cause Quark’ll try to bust your picket
line He’ll call out security, the FCA
He’ll tell you it’s a crime to want vacation pay
He’ll take a beatin’, he’ll wind up left for dead
He’ll blame you that those Nausicaans busted his head
Disloyal brother Weak-lobed fool
Corrupted by the Federation
So, yeah, liquidator Brunt of the FCA shows up at Quark’s and he’s like, “We need
to end this strike, so I’m gonna have my Nausicaan goons kick the shit out of someone
Rom cares about to convince him to break up the union and get back to work — and guess
who won the pony?”
“Is that a Jim Cornette quote?
You’re Jim Cornette now?”
“I’m waaaaay less problematic!
Anyway, let me introduce you to my associates, Loverboy Dennisek and Beautiful Bobbanigar.”
The Nausicaans kick the shit outta Quark as promised, he ends up in the infirmary, and
Rom comes to see him.
Quark’s like, “They beat me up because of you and your union.
Are you happy now?”
Rom’s like, “Kinda.
Also, I’m not ending the strike until you give us what we want.”
Quark says, “Don’t you get it, dipshit?
Next time they won’t go after me — they’ll go after you!
End the strike!”
“You end the strike!
Agree to our terms!”
“If I do that, then the FCA will kill me!
How is that better than them killing you?”
“Well . . .”
Finally, Quark’s like, “Okay.
Look.
Here’s my offer: you dissolve the union and get everybody back to work.
That’ll get the FCA off both our asses.
You do that, and I will meet all of your demands.”
“All of them?
Even paid sick leave?”
“Yes, even sick leave.”
“Even higher wages?”
“I mean, sure, we’ll talk about it . . .”
“I feel another Marx quote coming on.
‘All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy—’”
“All right, fine!
Fine!
Jesus.”
And Quark was as good as his word.
The workers got their higher wages and benefits, and with the Bajoran time of cleansing having
come to an end, business was booming at the bar once again!
And Rom?
Why, Rom resigned as a waiter at Quark’s and got a job as one of the station’s diagnostic
and repair technicians.
This is one of my favorite episodes of Deep Space Nine, and because of the subject matter
it’s a favorite of a lot of people, including many who aren’t otherwise big Star Trek
fans.
It’s not perfect, and I’ll get to some of the reasons why in a minute, but let’s
focus on the positive first.
Even by today’s standards — in fact, especially by today’s standards — this is an extremely
progressive episode.
It’s a sad marker of how little certain things have advanced in the last twenty-five
years that it’s difficult to imagine a show taking such a bold pro-union stance nowadays.
The power of labor unions in the United States has been steadily diminishing for decades,
and we see the results in our economy, with wages remaining stagnant while wealth inequality
continues to increase.
“Bar Association” not only shows us Rom and his fellow employees starting their own
union — through the example of O’Brien’s ancestor, their struggle is explicitly tied
to the real life struggles of striking workers in the early 20th century.
Through this episode, Star Trek acknowledges the difficult and often violent history of
the labor movement, the fight for workers’ rights, and tells us, when we consider that
history and when we see similar events happening in the present, we should be on the side of
the workers.
The exploitation of Rom and the other employees by Quark, their employer, is shown to be unambiguously
bad and inexcusable, and the formation of a union and the use of collective bargaining
by the workers to get Quark to meet their reasonable demands is shown to be good and
even heroic.
There’s a small amount of attention paid to people other than Quark and Brunt who have
anti-union beliefs, but the tone and perspective of the episode makes it pretty clear that
we’re not supposed to be on their side.
There’s a scene with Odo and Quark where Odo’s like, “You know what?
I don’t like unions, either.
They’re a threat to order.”
And there’s a scene where Worf crosses the picket line to go to Quark’s and ends up
in a fight with proud union man O’Brien over it.
We don’t really get any specifics about what Worf is thinking, though presumably he
crosses the picket line because he’s hungry or thirsty and doesn’t give a shit about
the strike one way or the other.
Odo’s objections to the strike are rooted in his narrow worldview that prizes order
above pretty much everything else, and while it’s consistent with Odo’s character to
have that be his opinion, the episode doesn’t do anything to argue in favor of that opinion.
Before the FCA shows up, the first third-party to intervene and attempt to end the strike
is Captain Sisko, who put the pressure where it belongs: not on Rom and the union, but
on Quark.
Sisko tells Quark flat out: “You’ve got a sweet deal here with the Federation as your
landlord.
We don’t charge you rent, or for repairs, or for your use of the station’s power.
So either you and Rom get together and settle this strike or I’m sending you an invoice
for five years of back rent and bills.”
It doesn’t work — right after that is when Quark offers Rom the bribe instead of
even trying to reach an agreement for a new labor contract — but Sisko, as the lead
protagonist of the series, is depicted as recognizing whose responsibility it truly
is to end a labor dispute: the employer who has been profiting from exploiting his employees
— they’re the ones who should be pressured to compromise, not the striking workers, who
are just advocating for their interests in the best way they can.
“Bar Association” works for reasons beyond how it dramatizes a labor dispute — it’s
a great episode for Rom, really important for the development of his character, his
relationship with Leeta, and one of the most significant turning points in his relationship
with Quark — second only to the time he stands up for Nog at the end of “Heart of
Stone” in season three, I’d say.
Throughout “Bar Association,” Rom exhibits the characteristics that will come to define
his character over the second half of the series: compassion, conviction, and a willingness
to reinterpret Ferengi tradition and doctrine so they don’t conflict with his evolving
principles.
Rom is one of Deep Space Nine’s most appealing characters, and the key to that appeal, for
me, is the way he evolves and changes throughout the show’s run, in ways that are surprising
but also consistent with his established personality.
And of course, it doesn’t hurt that his character evolution is accomplished through
excellent episodes like this one.
But, like I said, the episode’s depiction of labor relations isn’t perfect — the
resolution of the strike is too neat, and Rom agreeing to dissolve the union feels short-sighted
— yes, Quark agrees to meet their demands this time, but what if there’s another labor
dispute in the future?
The threat of the FCA being able to ruin the business if the union isn’t busted feels
legitimate, and I don’t blame Quark or Rom for being concerned about it, but Quark winds
up getting his business license revoked by the FCA at the end of this same season anyway,
so nobody really gains anything in the long run by dissolving the union.
The episode where Quark gets nuked by the FCA, “Body Parts,” is a good one, but
its ending, where Quark thinks he’s ruined only to be rescued by his friends on the station
helping him to reopen the bar, would have worked just as well if not better as part
of the conclusion to “Bar Association,” with Quark losing his FCA license for recognizing
the union, instead.
That’s a relatively minor quibble, though, all things considered.
This is a really good episode, with an admirably unapologetic pro-union message — which is
a big deal, because I cannot overemphasize how uncommon that is in popular culture.
Like, in the first episode of Superman and Lois, Lois has one line where she attacks
Morgan Edge for predatory business practices, including paying low wages and engaging in
union busting, and I was like: [delighted smile] It just doesn’t happen that often,
and for a show — even a show as progressive as Star Trek typically is — to produce an
entire episode about the importance of labor unions, is a rare and wonderful thing.
So yeah, I like “Bar Association” because it’s a good episode dramatically speaking,
but I also like it because it’s pro-union, and so am I.
And I’m pro-union because I think unions are the most effective way for workers to
protect their rights and fight for fair treatment and their best interests.
We need more unions, and stronger unions, because a society where the owners and bosses
don’t have all the power, where people can expect a fair wage for a day’s work, and
where workers don’t have to sacrifice their health or their quality of life for their
jobs, is a better society for everybody.
It’s nice to see my favorite sci-fi franchise unashamedly sending that message.
[singing]
‘Cause there at Quark’s, here’s what they found,
And at the Klingon restaurant, here’s what they found,
And at the Celestial Cafe, here’s what they found,
And at the jumja stick kiosk, here’s what they found:
That if ya don’t let bribe-offers break ya up,
And if ya don’t let Nausicaans break ya up,
And if ya don’t let Ferengi tradition break ya up,
And if ya don’t let the FCA break ya up, You’ll win!
What I mean, take it easy, but take it