I mean, I know I wouldn't be able to afford it. I think the US NEEDS a general strike, but too many people are in too much debt to participate. So here are some things that hypothetical people might do to contribute to a strike while still having to work. I for sure won't be doing any of these, because I will be too busy walking more than 500 miles to get to the nearest state where abortion is legal.
Strategy 1: A little gentle sabotage. A hypothetical worker might not be able to strike, but they could still contribute to the slowdown of labor. See this document from the OSS/CIA: https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=750070. it's a guide to simple sabotage meant for US sympathizers in enemy territory in WWII. Simple sabotage “is executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually… it is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal.” Some of the document isn't relevant to the US right now (anything involving bodily harm, for instance, or using a paper bag full of moths to ruin a showing of a propaganda movie), but some of it might be more widely applicable in the situation I'm thinking about. There are a million subtle things an angry worker could do to contribute, like letting tools be damaged, putting off reorders of supplies, or trashing/misplacing important information. The last few pages are dedicated to white collar sabotage by doing things like arguing, misfiling, starting pointless discussions and keeping them going as long as possible, etc. The theoretical goal here is plausible deniability and minimal personal consequences.
Strategy 2: Spreading awareness of labor laws. I think most people in the US don't know anything about their rights as employees. Is there anything keeping anyone from putting up a bunch of signs about how you're allowed to talk to your coworkers about wages? Or what breaks you're entitled to? If you carry a purse, it would be easy to print off a few pages saying “under federal law, unless you work for the government, you are legally entitled to talk about your wages with your coworkers,” throw them in with a roll of tape, and whenever you go to the bathroom in a Target/Walmart/McDonald's/grocery store/whatever, slap one on the back of the door in your stall. Pick high-traffic areas with a wide variety of people. If you speak another language, translate the message into that language and spread it in places with a lot of other speakers. This is ten times as important right now because I think we're all expecting these rights to get hit soon. The more people know about them before that happens, the bigger the backlash will be.
Strategy 3: Spamming. We've probably all seen news stories about scab job postings, etc. being forced offline by hordes of fake or unrelated submissions. We should expect that to get worse going forward, especially with this new strategy of asking people to snitch on each other about getting abortions. If you see one of these, spread the word. If you can put in a fake application or send them the Bee Movie script, do it. If you see a bot to help you do it faster, use it; if you can make the bot, make it. Sometimes we won't be lucky enough to have an obvious job listing, but if you hear about a particular corporation screwing around, take a look for other avenues. Some companies will have inboxes that have to be monitored for requests, like [email protected], or invoicing, like [email protected]. These email addresses might be findable online. A coordinated effort to flood these inboxes, if big enough, will end in their time and money wasted.
Strategy 4: Forcing others' salaries higher. Does your friend have a resume gap? No problem: they were working for you, in the small, defunct business you're about to make up. It just wasn't possible for your company to make it through the pandemic. So sad you can't keep them working for you, but since you can't, you're happy to give your best employee a great reference. Pick something you already know a bit about and talk over what their job was supposed to be like in detail. If the people they're interviewing with ask for proof of salary, you can mock up an offer letter and send that over. Drain them of whatever you can and help everybody else do it too.
Strategy 5: Pooling our efforts. So you can't afford to strike, go cold turkey, and lose out on all that money. If you can afford to do without a smaller amount, provide food/gas/a lift/help with childcare/etc. to your friends/neighbors who are striking. The longer the strike can go, the more desperate they'll get. If you put your energy into helping someone else stick it out, you are still helping your future.
That's what I came up with in the past day. I'm sure there's more that could be done. A theoretical worker I hypothetically know would really love some more ways to cause problems on purpose….