Union Perspectives

The 99ers have mostly got it right. They stand for about everyone, the 99%, and put anonymity to good use. On the other hand, Labor Unions have fallen into the trap of dividing themselves against each other. There is a horrible example of an army divided against itself in 1904 at the Chicago Meat Packing houses and a perfect example of Art of War’s Divide and Conquer. They split into 56 different unions and still more in 14 different national trade unions of the American Federation of Labor. This is still going on today with state, county and city unions, instead of one union there are hundreds. This has got to change for the employer can and do pit the one little union against the other to the point if one union goes out on strike, the other union will keep working so no one but the employer wins. This is not the way the 99% envisions winning. A change in the wage disparity between corporate CEOs and the workers, the 99%. The wages of some of the CEOs are unprecedented and to chan...

One thing that might help the 99ers and our countries workers get back to work is to not cut wages to keep work here. The corporations and the right say cutting wages stimulates job creation. This is a lie. Soon the 99ers will have no money to buy anything. What we can do to make our corporations more competitive in the world is have single payer-national healthcare or at least right now expand Medicare coverage (lower the eligibility age). This would take the burden off the corporations that provide healthcare which would drop the employee cost. Germany has high labor costs, but it is doing very well in the global economy. It is the most successful social democracy in the world right now. It has a large trade surplus and one reason for this is it has a whole different type of corporations with workers making up one half of the board of directions, and the workers have privileged positions in the company and real power and responsibilities. The Germans also have government sponsor...

Wall Street protesters are now nationwide and worldwide. There is no doubt that the 99ers are at last starting to realize that there is no one person riding in to save them. It will take all of the 99ers working together and, yes, some will do much more and some will do little for now, but as history tells us, the longer they hold out the more support will come in - people, money and political help. The 99ers are now starting to get support and advice from the ‘60s’ protesters, which, if listened to, can be of great help. They have been there and their lessons learned can teach the younger protesters a thing or two about options and pitfalls that happened to them. Recently, Tom Hayden let slip in a recent interview that 10,000 to 20,000 people sitting down on Main Street of New York or L.A. will bring on arrests and then each person demand a jury trial, which would literally shut down the city and court system. Just a hint from the old pros, some do have many options and if the cor...

It is time for the labor councils to join the 99ers who are the Wall Street protesters. For we all have the same concerns: shelter, food, health care, pensions and jobs. The 1 ‘percenters’ have crossed the line and not just in the USA. This is now a worldwide movement. It is reminiscent of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). We the working people have had opportunities before and did not take advantage of them. This time we, the 99ers, and unions now have no choice but to keep going for the 99ers are at the bottom of the financial ladder. If you are not in the top 1 percent on the economic scale, you’re a 99er. This is not the first time we've had to deal with corporate greed. Ralph Chaplin captured the 1 percenters' greed at the turn of the 20th century. “It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade Dug the mines and built the workshops endless miles of railroad laid Now we stand outcast and starving Midst the wonders we made, but ...

How will and how will the corporate GOP start demonizing our name 99ers? The 99ers are the people in the streets of New York and seventy plus cities across this nation. We are in a class war with the top 1 percent of the nation who owns 40 percent nation’s wealth, and the top 1 percent of Americans take home 24 percent of the nation’s income. They, the top 1 percent of Americans, owns half of the country’s stocks, bonds and mutual funds. They also have, with all that wealth, only 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt, and the top 1 percent is taking in more of the nation’s income since the 1920s. If this is not enough to infuriate us, the 99ers, then we only have to look at what the 1 percent, such as the Koch brothers and other billionaires are doing to us, such as buying entire states from governors to all elected politicians, attorney generals and judges. They then use these positions to break unions and deprive 99ers of their voting rights. They would like to get rid of child l...