Where are the thousands of low-wage workers? Why are they not in the streets? This is the time—it’s spring and the weather is nice for the offense of the Have Nots or the Have Very Littles. It is hard to justify not coming together here in the USA when we have the right to do so especially when we see Vietnamese Nike and Adidas shoe workers in Ho Chi Minh City fighting for their social gains for wages and pensions.
The Vietnamese workers organized 80,000 workers at the Pou Yuen Vietnam shoe factory. Why can’t we in the Free World put together that kind of number? This shoe factory is a subsidy of a Taiwan-based Pou Chen group, which employs more than 400,000 wage slaves in the countries like China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Last year 45,000 workers at its Yue Yuen Factory in Dongguan in southern China fought and won in 11 days for contributing that was owed to them. There were 300 strikes in Vietnam in 2014.
These are communist countries and the workers seem to be kicking ass and holding the corporations accountable and it seems the government is helping. Things will never change until the proletarians come together in large organized groups of thousands. Then the Walmarts, Home Depot, Target, McDonald and the list goes on will pay attention. At this time we have miners in Ukraine, Turkey, U.S., Mauritania, West Africa and oil workers in the U.S., railroad workers in British Columbia, Canada are all in the fight against inequality, and workers from all areas should come together to support each other in this fight.
These are just a few, but they all need to start talking to each other and when possible leverage each other to gain power. Remember it is a war between the Haves and the Have Nots and people power can win this inequality and $15 to $18 an hour minimum is just starting and we are gaining ground.
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...
Comments
Post a Comment