One of the last things unions can get or have gotten for their members is job protection for 10 years or for life like France has, but this security is under assault. The French government has a bill which will, in the words of the anti-labor government, make France more competitive globally by extending the work, create less jobs and make layoffs easier. All this will do is enrich the companies and their greedy bosses.
These French protests were as much against the political status quo as the labor bill. There’s no difference between the right-wing French Republicans and the left-wing Socialists parties. They are both the same just different names. Both are in the service of big business, which is just what is happening here in the U.S. with the Democrats and the GOP. But in France, the hard-left flank of the General Confederation of Labour, a national trade union, is holding nationwide strikes, which the government is saying it won’t back down.
If the government wins in France, the U.S. labor force will be next in line to fight for our existence, and with all the instant communications available we have the capability but not the wherewithal to hold a nationwide strike. At this time unless we can elect Sanders or at least keep the revolution alive to bring about change that is needed to neuter the corporations’ greedy lust for money.
The workers must be thinking ahead for if the French workers lose and the GOP wins the 2016 election, they will come after workers’ rights, the remainder of the unions, $15 an hour minimum wage, pensions, healthcare plans and safety laws with a vengeance. This fight between the 1 percent and the 99 percent has just begun so pick a side before it’s too late.
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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