Skip to main content

Contractor Scam

It looks like the working people who used to think they were contractors were scammed by their bosses, who kept the workers from earning a living wage and having union representation. They convinced these workers it was better to be independent than "work for the man." Someone (Teamsters) ran this up the flag pole at the National Labor Relations Board and guess what—the NLRB ruled that the Port truck drivers were employees and that they had the rights of union representation. The truck drivers have lost millions of dollars these past years because of this scam of being contractors’ status, which was just pure unadulterated bull crap. Unfortunately, the workers believed the scam to be true. At this time about two-thirds of the 75,000 port drivers in the U.S. are misclassified as contractors. This is not the only place where bosses try to beat the system by classifying workers as contractors. I found while organizing for the sheet metal workers that on prevailing wage jobs, such as government work, people tried to use the contractor scam to beat prevailing wages. I always enjoyed catching them in the act. So, kudos to the port truck drivers and all the unions who supported them. We all must stand together as workers and support our toilers the word over just like the old International Workers of the World advocated. What is happening in the ports of California and Washington state does reverberate in other countries, like Ukraine, Turkey, Spain, France, UK, South America, and Hungary—all the places where toilers toil to eradicate inequality.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Post Workists and What it Means

To change the abundance of labor in the world is to put more money in the pockets of the laborer to buy the products their fellow workers are making. Otherwise, when there are more products than money, there is slump in the economy. Austerity policies, low wages and automation (robots) were also of concern in the 1950s when Henry Ford II, CEO of Ford, took Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers Union, on a tour of a new engine plant. Ford gestured to a fleet of new machines and said, “Walter, how are you going to get these robots to pay union dues?” The union leader turned to Ford and said, “Henry, how are you going to get robots to buy your cars?” This type of change in the labor has created a new type of working class that swings from task to task in order to make ends meet while enduring the loss of labor rights and bargaining rights. They are called “precariat” workers, a group of workers who live on the verge of collapse due to the instability of the nature of their job…
Read more

GOP To Pick-off Remainder of Unions

The last bastion of organize labor is now on the west and east coasts, like New York City, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Labor has mostly given up on the south and the middle of the U.S., is that because unions aren’t up to the fight? We have lost Detroit, Michigan and Wisconsin, which was the start of public unions. These GOP government control states, like govenors Synder and Pence have kicked our union butts. In California, labor has lost all of the rural counties, Orange and San Diego counties; and now San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles counties are our last strong holds. It would not take a lot to lose California. California has elected GOP governors before and with our new federal government now in place and with the Koch brothers, et al, and their money it could be done again. We, union workers, could lose it all. They have started on teachers’ union and they are still trying to break the postal workers union by forcing the pension funds to be funded 75 years ahead of pa…
Read more

Gig Economy

The Gig con, which sells people on a more flexible job without fixed hours. This sounds enticing to workers fed up with their 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs. Also, to people without jobs, and to people who have part-time jobs, and need more money. Gig jobs fill in many needs, but the rub is that these jobs or most of these jobs don’t pay into Social Security or Social Disability Insurance so when someone hits retirement age there is nothing to fall back on. Most have been told that Social Security will not have money for them because Social Security will be broke. This is a lie and a con job on the workers. Social Security will be OK if the federal government will keep its hands off the money we paid into it. They think it is their piggy bank. Then what if you get sick or injured on the Gig job, there is no healthcare. We know that we are running out of jobs here and worldwide. This is why we need the universal basic income and unions for all. At this time, the federal government estimates…
Read more