The wage slaves who are fighting for unions to better their lives, such as ending inequality, new contracts, benefits, end of outsourcing, firing workers for striking, and being locked out of a work place, also fighting for safer working conditions. They now have a place to get their word out and a place to compare notes on strategy and tactics. This has been offered by Maggie Trowe, who writes a column for the Militant newspaper, which every working toiler should have access to.
Trowe will help you with your struggles with bosses. Contact her at 306 W. 37th St. 13th Floor, New York, New York 10018 or 212-244-4899 or the Militant@mac.com.
It would be very helpful if all union members and nonunion people would subscribe to the Militant. This week the newspaper is talking about the Los Angeles, California, area grocery workers; farm workers fighting union busting in the U.S.; garment workers in Bangladesh; movers in Illinois in the U.S. strike for first contract; phone workers in New England in the U.S. walked out over job concessions; locked out uranium workers; Howard University workers fighting outsourcing; postal workers in the U.S. fighting for their jobs.
The U.S. farm workers in California are fighting for a raise from $9 to $11 an hour. They just took a kick in the gut from a Democratic governor Jerry Brown, who was just re-elected to another four years. He vetoed a bill, which would have required prompt enforcement of worker contracts imposed by binding arbitration.
What the hell, Jerry, is it you got yours and screw the farm laborers? I hope you have a plan to make this up to the workers. Maybe kick up the minimum wage to a living wage like $15 an hour and to take California back to a free education state up to a bachelor’s degree. Then you would be the labor Democrat that we had hoped for. Inequality is the GOP elephant in the room.
There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...
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