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.
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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