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Some days the world is on fire and you just want to read a story about a sweet kitty with a militantly pro-union agenda, you know? Let's get into it. 

By Allison Morrow

🧶 MEET JORTS

An orange tabby cat named Jorts has become something of a mascot of the labor movement in America. 

And if none of that charms you, you might as well stop reading now. 

For the uninitiated: Jorts, along with his feline comrade Jean, became internet famous in December when an anonymous author posted a very sweet story on Reddit about the two workplace cats. Long story short, Jorts is cute but a little dumb. Jean, on the other hand, can open doors and doesn't fall into the trash bin all the time like Jorts does. The story evolves into a dispute with a co-worker who accuses the author of "perpetuating ethnic stereotypes by saying orange cats are dumb." 

Like so much on the internet, the post took on a life of its own. Battle lines were drawn, pro-Jorts alliances formed, and Jorts got his own Twitter account. (Or mostly his own, anyway — Jean helps him.) It now has nearly 139,000 followers.

 

And it wasn't long before Jorts revealed himself as a union cat. A prolific tweeter, Jorts has devoted himself to propping up pro-labor accounts, pushing back against inequality and decrying corporate greed. Also, birds. And naps. And knocking over glasses of water. 

 

Jorts' mix of practical organizing advice and pure goofiness seizes on America's renewed fervor for unions and the internet's enduring love of cat memes. 

 

WHY IT MATTERS

Organized labor in the United States is enjoying a renaissance under Joe Biden, the most pro-union president since at least Lyndon Johnson, or perhaps ever, depending upon whom you ask. A survey by Gallup last fall found that 68% of respondents have a positive view of unions — the best reading for that question dating back to 1965, and up from only 48% in 2009. 
Younger workers are even bigger backers of unions, with 77% of those 34 and younger having a positive view.

Over the past year, unionization efforts and strikes (and managers' efforts to quash them) have captured national attention.

• In December, a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, became the first US location to unionize despite the company's deployment of a phalanx of executives trying to dissuade the workers. Since then, dozens of Starbucks stores across the country have begun their own efforts.
• Meanwhile, Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama, have renewed their organizing efforts following a defeat last spring.

Against that backdrop, Jorts is at once a purely cute presence and a staunch pro-labor advocate, armed with practical advice and links to resources at the National Labor Relations Board, among others. In a thread posted in January, Jorts offered up a cute photo of himself alongside a sober thread about the legality of discussing wages among co-workers. 

 

In some ways, Jorts is reminiscent of another ginger icon of leftist Twitter: the Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty. That 7-foot googly-eyed monster is also an internet sensation who became the star of countless anti-fascist and anti-capitalist memes since he was introduced in 2018. The key difference, apart from their obvious size disparity, is that Gritty himself is apolitical — his big dopey face just happens to work really well in liberal memes, for reasons that don't make any logical sense but need no explanation on social media. 

I talked to the human behind the Jorts Twitter account today to find out more about Jorts' political ambitions and how he's coping with life as a celebrity. 

 

"I would like to claim that Jorts and Jean are unaware of their fame, but I almost swear Jean knows," the person told me. "She has gotten extra elusive about spending time anywhere she can be photographed.

Ah, Jean. 

One of the most endearing elements of Jorts' Twitter presence is his tenderness and affection for Jean, a kind of wise elder sibling who is guiding Jorts in their campaign for justice and equality.  

In one particularly tender post, Jorts tweets a photo of Jean with the statement: "A lot of things are stacked up real unfair right now. Jean says once we name the unfairness the next step is planning how we fight it."

Despite Jorts' articulate messaging and progressive views on workers' rights, he's not interested in political office at this time, according to the person behind the account. 

"Jorts is too young to run for office," the person said. "Also,  Jorts and Jean both agree that running for office that would impact human law is best left to someone who has direct experience with being a human."

  #️⃣ NUMBER OF THE DAY

622

The Dow just had its worst day of the year, falling 622 points as a Russian invasion of Ukraine looked increasingly likely in a matter of days. Stocks dropped at the opening bell and remained in the red throughout the day.  The S&P 500 ended the session down 2.1% while the Nasdaq fell 2.9%. 

 

CNN is tracking live updates of the standoff in Eastern Europe here. 

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