Why doesn’t President Obama have a labor secretary like Frances Perkins in his Cabinet? Perkins was the first female Cabinet member under President Franklin Roosevelt, and there has never been a better labor secretary since. If the Obama administration does not start working for labor, then why will labor work for them, the Democrats, then why should labor spend its money on federal elections?
At this time the trend seems to be spending and working on carpeting the state legislation and government offices. This is working well for the GOP, and the labor people are seeing the results, which is detrimental to union labor. By working the states it can be more grassroots, which can more easily show our dues paying members results in their towns where the jobs are and could result in more union jobs and dues paying members. With this success then it could be transferred to the federal level of government.
Frances Perkins understood what the working wage slaves needed, which was federal labor laws. Laws that helped labor organizing for a better life. Now we do not need another election, we won and all we need now is another Frances Perkins to get us card check and tighten up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules, which have been shot full of holes and do not work for labor in this day and age. We need a prompt and honest hard debate about what is happening to our wage slaves working men and women.
Looking at our NLRB rules will begin the debate. All we need is the will from the Obama administration. Hell, Washington, D.C., loves hearings so why not this one? Now is the time to put the plight of the working people on the open stage where all can see and hear what has happened to wages and the trend toward part-time worker, which deprives wage slaves of benefits, health insurance and pensions.
If we do not address this soon we could be looking at another Jan. 13, 1874, when in New York City’s Tompkins Square when workers were told to attend a meeting, but, instead, were lied to and beaten.
The survival of American democracy requires the existence of a flourishing union work force. In a survey, 68 percent of Americans approve of labor unions. So, as an old sheet metal organizer, I say we need to go all out in organizing while the soldering iron is hot, to use a sheet metal workers tool. We should organize all workers no matter where or what kind of work they do. All workers have the right to belong to a union and all should support each other. If you, in your work place, do not know how to form a union, then do what Napoleon’s military adopted adage, ‘Jump into the battle and then figure it out.’ One of the best ways to organize is worker to worker and plan it out over a meal or coffee and talk to other union workers to see what would work best for you and also what unions are winning at this time. Just go for it. When things are in disarray, like the shit show in Washington, D.C., they might not even know what you are doing until it is too late for them to push back aga...
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