When did unions lose the support and backing of the Democrats? It was after Reagan dismantled the air traffic controllers, who by the way voted for Reagan for president and donated to his campaign. After Reagan got into office it was open war against unions by the GOP, whose followers cared more about guns than their paychecks, unions or pensions. They voted against their own best interest.
With the decline in money to support unions, candidates (mostly Democratic) and even the ones who said before elections they would support unions, such as passing card check, when they were elected, but then reneged once elected. This really took off under Bill Clinton, who dragged the party to a centrist position to better serve his new contributors. He dumped the unions for Wall Street money and became a front man for Wall Street, big banks and corporations, such as Walmart. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz would never have gotten away with the biased and corrupt handling of the DNC that she has engaged in if more real Democrats were still in office.
As long as unions stay weak and ineffectual we will get no support from the Democratic Party. Unless we can elect Bernie Sanders, who is saying a lot of good things, but still not said anything about how he would help unions, like card check and with a new, stronger National Labor Relations Board, and labor laws. Still a lot of union members are spending $25 to $50 to support him.
I think the Democratic Party is wrong to exchange labor for Wall Street for labor is making a comeback, like with the fight for $15 an hour minimum wage, truck drivers at the Los Angeles port winning $6.9 million in lost wages and the right to join the Teamsters union. We could see 50,000 truck drivers nationwide go union. There are a lot of smaller, segments of larger companies, voting to join unions. They may be small, but they have more power than those not unionized or when we, unions, stand together.
We need to support true Democrats, and not the so-called Centrists, who owe their lot to Wall Street, corporations and big banks. Before voting, Google a candidate’s name to see where they’ve stood on positions in the past, and if their already in office, how they voted. This is how we take back our power.
Remember it is the Have Nots of the world who will win for there is more of us than there are of them, and we have very little to lose.
We will fight together for $15 an hour minimum wage, fight against lifestyle and wealth inequality, single payer healthcare, free education, and good pensions, compensation for the Commons, and fight to keep and improve upon Social Security while the 1 percent just fights to keep and take more money. We are only trying to get a share of what the wealthy has taken from all of us.
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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