Union Perspectives

Has labor forgotten the past or has it just been sleeping or both? For what is happening today had already happened in the years between 1919-1929. Overproduction in general, as a matter of fact, was one of the largest micro organizations whose poisons were set free by the economic crash of 1929. We prided ourselves on being the most productive nation on the planet. More and better goods were produced at greater speed and efficiency during the 1920s than at any time in our history. This was a good thing only if the producers could sell what they made or grew, and during the ‘20s they could not. They could not sell enough at home, wages were low and falling because of the loss of union power and membership so workers could not afford to buy the very goods they were producing. The triumph of the industrial Republicanism after the end of World War I had nearly killed the labor movement. But, after World War II, with the help of the New Deal and some new labor laws, labor fought back and ...

The fight for $15 is not just a fight for money or even the equality of life. In all wars there are scrimmages and in these scrimmages is where momentum is won, which usually puts the opponent on the defense and is hard to overcome. The fight for $15 is now worldwide and gaining ground. Labor is on the move and with each win they are and will get stronger. Also, labor is winning strikes across the U.S. and the world. But we are fighting an uphill battle with a long road to go and labor needs all wage slaves and unions to stand together just like all those hard hat union construction workers did for the fast food workers not too long ago. We need to understand that the fight against labor started long ago, and also who we are up against. The “Art of War” says that you must know yourself (your history) and your enemy to have a chance for victory. Labor’s enemies are the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Koch brothers’ American Legislative Exchange Co...

This could be the year of the Have Nots, Have Littles and even the Used to Haves. The year 2015 will have some good things moving for them, such as in many places the $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage has or is being adopted and other wages hikes are being slow walked. Gas prices have put a little extra money in the pockets of U.S. wage slaves. Finally there is talk of free junior college education for everyone, even old people! There is healthcare for more people than ever before. There is a pushback against law enforcement brutality against blacks, poor and anyone recording them. And it looks like Anonymous has our backs. It also looks like workers the world over are talking to each other and supporting each other, like Hong Kong, Ukraine, France, UK, Turkey, Greece, Africa, Canada, Mexico and South America; but, we need to get ready for spring and the fight ahead. The wealthy are going to fight back with everything they have and they are experts in convincing the average person to...

The oligarchies do control the world with money. They have bought and paid for our elected politicians and entire governments. What we usually see is the one person at the top who we then direct all our attention to, but we should look at this oligarch control as an iceberg, as the really destructive danger is not seen. The unseen, larger portion of the iceberg is under the water and this is why we, the 99 percent, get blindsided by people who we think are running our country, like presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and in Russia Putin. They are all just figureheads controlled by the 1 percent oligarchies and their corporate money, which is all part of the underwater part of the iceberg. The oligarchies formed organizations, such as American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC to usurp our country’s political process. The ownership of countries by the oligarchies has never worked out or lasted long. After they have all the money and power th...

Nonunion employers’ feel they own their wage slaves and today it is the same as it was in the 1800s when the boss lined up the wage slaves and marched them to the polling places to cast their vote and told the employees who to vote for. If they did not vote the way the employers dictated they would be fired. Another insult that wage slaves were not paid for that day. Here it is, the 2012 election, and the employers are using this same tactic: coal miners marched out and made to stand behind a GOP presidential candidate and told to donate to the candidate’s campaign and weren’t paid for the time they had to stand behind that candidate. Companies are many who force their workers to do what they want even when the wage slaves are on their own time. The employers tell or have the slaves sign contracts that dictate what the employee can say or write on social network sites or letters to newspapers, agreeing not to join a union or dropping out of a union in order to get a job with a compan...

The oligarchies, which back ALEC, are just kicking our butts. They have, by the way of legislation put our unions on the defensive, and we, union working people, are not helping ourselves by voting Republican and local unions raiding each other’s membership. What we need is more membership, not just recycling our old members, which is just a waste of time and weakening unions. The money and time should be spent on new members or trying to get more public support for our existing unions, policies and ideas. The oligarchies’ power of wealth distorts and is outflanking the democratic power of participation. We have to find a way to counter the oligarchy-funded plutocracy government that we are entering into or we will all become proletariats – wage slaves to the oligarchies. They are only worried about how to keep all their money and power to continue to buy politicians and appoint judges, who enforce the laws, which are written by the lobbyists for the politicians who vote to enact ...

In 1973, 300 corporations banded together to form a group called American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its mission was and is to declare war on the working people. In 2009, ALEC wrote 826 bills throughout the U.S. and saw 115 of those bills passed. ALEC receives 81.7 percent of its funding from corporations. I just do not understand why corporations want a war with the working people when we are the ones who support their businesses. It like eating the seed corn. With that aside, how is it that most of us have never heard of this group. Were we just not paying attention or were we working too hard and did not see what they were doing to us, like what happened in Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan. They are now 27 states controlled Republican governors and legislatures that subscribe to ALEC’s mission. Now that we understand what they want to do to our jobs and rights may be we, union and nonunion, workers will start collaborating. Members of ALEC worked together to...