It looks like Ukraine might be saved from Russia’s Putin by union steelworkers. One of the richest oligarchies in Ukraine has asked his union steelworkers to start patrolling the cities and forcing the Putin people out of the government buildings taken over shortly after Putin violated Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea.
Using the union members is working because it is working people taking care of working people, and not the government, who some in Ukraine don’t trust or agree with their handling of the situation. The union steelworkers are buying time for things to settle down and the Ukrainians to decide for themselves just what is best.
Unions seems to be the way to solve a lot of problems for the working people, such as getting a living wage, mine safety in U.S. and Turkey, which just lost hundreds of miners. Then there is the fire safety in the clothing sweatshops worldwide. The wages and safety for workers will not be solved by governments for they are controlled by the money people.
You only have to look at the Swiss who just voted down a minimum wage hike, which would have been the world’s highest paid minimum wage of $25 U.S. or 22 Swiss Franc. You have to wonder how much government and oligarchies’ pressure was applied to defeat the initiative for a high wage. As the economy accelerates it is just zooming past the working class. The oligarchies are getting richer by the day and the workers are not even out of the starting gate. In fact, most are not even at the gate.
The only way the workers can get in the race, they, the workers, will need the unions help. The oligarchies are underestimated the unions strength, which can be used to the workers advantage. The fast food workers will be deciding factor on the fight of inequality between the 1 percent and the 99 percent.
The workers will need all unions to come together to win this fight for $15 to $18 an hour. This will set the tone for years to come and accelerate union membership and further establish the unions’ credibility.
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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