Reports are coming out of the government saying the economy is good, but tell that to the people who are working at Lowe’s, a retail giant company, which is scheduled to layoff thousands of workers from the assembly lines to janitors. Many of these employees have worked full time for the company for years putting together girls, wheelbarrows and other products.
The company plans to outsource the assembly of products to the companies that pay lower wages and fewer if any benefits. Lowe’s is in competition with Home Depot to boost its profits off the backs of workers. The company has already closed 140 stores during the last year. The workers will not get severance pay instead they will get up to two weeks pay.
The loss of jobs within the retail industry is just beginning. Some workers are being fired as 7,500 stores are closing this year. Many have depleted once thriving shopping malls. The rising dominance in retail sales of Amazon and Walmart turning to robotization instead of employees has sped up the competition against each other for the few remaining dollars. This accounts for much of the job losses.
Sears declared bankruptcy and Payless is closing 2,500 stores in the U.S. and Canada. More than one third of workers are paid less than $15 an hour, 4 million are working with no benefits of any kind. So what can change this? It would be up to all workers to organize a union in all of these retail stores that are still in existence. We cannot stop companies from producing their products in another country with cheap labor, but when these companies bring the products back to our country to sell it. This is where the workers need to have good pay to sell the companies’ products, and with a union they could get good pay, healthcare and a pension.
If the workers don’t stand together and fight, we will see more plant layoffs in towns and rural areas that will continue to devastate workers in places like Fayetteville, Tennessee. The Goodman Manufacturing air conditioning plant, which will lay off 700 employees by September. They are the largest employer in town. With the loss of jobs comes credit care debt. In 2009, U.S. households owed an average of $8,390 on credit cards.
We need unions and leaders elected to support workers. Vote smart and vote for the candidate you think will most benefit you and other workers, for me that candidate is Bernie Sanders in 2020, and vote in all primaries. It is the unions last chance to make a comeback in the U.S.
Current and retired union workers should not forget the people of Hong Kong, who are fighting for their rights. The workers are seeing 220,000 layoffs and unpaid wages. There is a growing economic inequality worldwide. In Hong Kong, the workers experience the world’s longest working hours and live in an area with the highest rent so the workers live in cages that are 15 square feet.
And the fight goes on.
Unions’ long game is to get all union contracts to expire on the same day nationwide. The United Auto Workers combines contracts ends on April 28, 2028. This could then result in a mass national strike starting on May Day beeginning that year. This could then put enormous pressure on employers, but also on lawmakers. It’s the muscle and sweat of the workers that keeps this country great, not the individual company or corporations. This May Day strike would be the time to change the workers’ world for the better by negotiating for a 32-hour week with the same pay, and the U.S. adopts a healthcare for all with no out of pocket costs. This would also help the employers as they would no longer have to provide healthcare. By striking, the UAW won same pay for new workers, all UAW contracts will end on the same date, a 25-percent pay increase, a cost of living adjustments, a guaranteed right to strike over potential plant closures, and also the right to vote to unionize through the card che
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