Union Perspectives

In a small town in San Francisco’s East Bay, the 22,000 workers, 2,227 of who are minimum wage workers, received a bump in pay. Emeryville, CA, is home to the highest minimum wage in the county at $15 an hour. Emeryville’s wage hike went to $14.44 overnight where Los Angeles’ $15 will make an appearance in 2020. Seattle’s wage hike to $15 is also being slow walked to 2017, but the genie is out of the bottle and the workers have gotten a taste of what a living wage can afford them and others see their gains and now know it can be done—done without having their wages slow walked. Now eight cities in San Francisco's South Bay are contemplating raising its minimum wage. What some of the wage slaves, who make more than $15 an hour, don’t understand is when the people earning $9 an hour wage that goes to $15 it will push all other wages up, and they probably will not even after ask for as raise. Case in point, dishwashers now make $15 an hour and then the cook, who has always made $15 t...

The offshoot of the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC is the American City County Exchange or ACCE. ALEC operates at the state level while ACCE is at the city/county and both are the product of the Koch brothers, etc., to create legislation for these government levels. This is where the low-wage corporations expect to beat back minimum wage hikes. If the wage hikes do become law in cities, then ALEC will pass laws to stop the wage hikes at the state level and these laws will supersede city laws. This type of strategy will also be used against unions. To write Right to Work laws, they will take away the cities’ local control and right to protect themselves against ways to save their water, air, and environmental laws, such as Austin, Texas’ plastic bag ordinance, which was overrule by the ALEC-controlled state government. At this time in the U.S., of the 10 most populous cities, only San Diego, CA, has a Republican mayor, all the rest are Democrats. But the anti-workers, ant...

We are adding thousands to the rolls of “pauperdom,” by the greedy, which should inspire labor unrest and all manners of social upheaval. Of the two—broken cities and low-wage jobs due to manufacturing being sent overseas—the only thing happening so far is the social upheaval being perpetuated by law enforcement killing black men, and labor is reacting very timid at this point. We must get people working again at living wages because unrest always follows loss of jobs, which increases inequality and lifestyle changes. When this happens, wage slaves or used to be wage slaves will do desperate things, and rather than look to the root of the problem the blame is laid at the feet of the people at the bottom of the economic ladder. In order to fix the wrongs we must follow the dots backward all the way to the money people: the oligarchies, bankers, Wall Street, and hedge funders. These greedy law breakers started the economic downfall with total disregard for the workers and their families....

City councils are where the power truly is found. The city councils and mayors are who will solve the problems that we face. These people cannot afford to be ideologues. Their job is to pick up garbage, keep hospitals open, to ensure fire and safety services are available, and that law enforcement and teachers do their jobs. How many times have you or even heard a person say, “If I just was in charge things would be better.” Well, local governments, such as school boards, water districts, fire boards, city councils and county board of supervisors are as close as the average proletarians can get to being in charge or at least at the decision-making table when decisions are made that affect your life, your family’s life and that of the community you live in. Also the higher up one goes in government the slower things happen and the more money it takes to get elected. This is where ideologues take over and the nation stalls and nothing gets done that is worthwhile. A city can raise its mi...

In all wars the battles decide who wins so you must win the most battles and the most important ones and the battle to unite the working class against the divide and rule strategies of the capitalist class upon which their domination rest. It is a battle the wage slaves must win. If you don’t fight, you don’t win—period. If someone you know doesn’t understand why the minimum wage needs to raise, wait until the end of the month and then ask again. The cost of everything is going up; some of the costs are understandable, but some are not and corporations are using any excuse to raise prices, but not workers’ wages. How the hell are we supposed to survive> The employers try to turn workers who are black, female, gay, Mexican, or immigrant into scapegoats as distraction for the lack of good jobs creation along with the strategies the oligarchies blame Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act and the minimum wage, but the minimum wage raises are coming and the spending power of the toilers w...