Union Perspectives

It’s time for labor to go for something very big in the U.S., which always seems to lag behind other countries when it comes to workers. Labor is on a very big winning streak and it’s just like the snowball rolling down a hill. The farther it rolls down the hill the bigger and more powerful it becomes. But if it stops, it will just melt away. The union snowball today is still rolling and getting bigger so let’s go for the four-day work week. The four-day work week gives workers more time with their families, enabling them to do more together, which could, conceivably, improve marriages and reduce juvenile delinquency rates. This work week could be a huge lift to the lifestyle of all workers and their families and the social infrastructure of their communities. There are so many unrecognized benefits to a schedule like this. Benefits and pay would remain the same as a five-day work week. The workers would have more time to participate in their children’s activities, volunteer to be a f...

Our Social Security is now at risk thanks to the Republicans. As France has now had their retirement age increased from 62 years to 64 years of age. The people of France fought and are fighting hard, but not hard enough or in the right way, it appears. Their leader circumvented protocol to ram this retirement age higher. Is there anything else they can do? We, here in the U.S., must look hard at how the French lost because if the Democrats lose the next presidential election, the oligarch’s control of the Republicans will use the French’s playbook to raise our retirement age to 72 and possibly cut our Social Security pensions. We need to get ready for the fight to save our Social Security and retirement age as we have them right now. The Republicans have been trying to to destroy Social Security since we started receiving it. It was our old age safety net. They will never stop just like they didn’t stop trying to overturn Roe v Wade, which no one thought could ever happen. At least n...

The U.S. Labor Movement … “Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains. Demand your rights. All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites. Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave? Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?” Joe Hill Workers of the world, 1910 “When silence isn’t golden. It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where They trade, dug the mines and built the work shops; endless miles of railroad land. Now we stand outcast and starving, midst the wonders we have made; but the union makes us strong.” Ralph Chaplin Solidarity Forever, 1915 “The Revolution will not be televised. when you get too old to produce anymore, they hand you your hat and they show you the door. Too old to work, too old to work, when you’re too old to work and you’re too young to die. Who will take care of you, how will you get by when you’re too old to work and you’re too young to die?” Joe Glazer Too Old To Work, 1956 These a...

All workers need to have and study a book about labor history, what worked and what did not as written in the book “Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology” by Joyce L. Kornbluh. She outlines how workers fought for the right to unionize, and safe workplaces that the GOP are working overtime to erode. When I Was going to night school on the GI Bill, a person in my class, who was a human resource worker at Point Mugu Navy Base in Oxnard, CA, told me why the antiunion people were beating labor’s ass on most fronts in the work place was because the union-busting people studied labor history and used it against workers. They knew what worked and didn’t work and acted accordingly. Most labor people don’t know their labor history. If you don’t know yourself you will lose half of your fights. If you don’t know your enemy you will most likely lose all of your fights. In Kornbluh’s book, she shows how education of the workers during the 1800 and early 1900s on the tactics unions used, like direct ac...

Just watch what is happening in France to understand what is going to happen in the U.S. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, sold himself as a radical democrat for the people, but he is governing like a monarchy. He has culled the ranks of local authorities, slashed local budgets, and replaced the housing tax that funds local government with a promise of a block grant. French history teaches that when a monarch oppresses the people, the people revolt. France’s mayors gathered for a congress in Paris last week. They bristled at being labeled spendthrifts and set themselves in opposition to Macron. They will find allies in workers’ unions and the media, since Macron hasn’t held press conference since his inauguration. This is just some of the things that are happening in the U.S. Our people were promised things by our new occupant of the White House is now acting like a monarch. A lot of the people who voted for him are starting to see just what they really voted for and it was not jo...

The race for single-payer healthcare or Medicare For All it will be between the Bernie Sanders people, The GOP and the corporate Democratic Party. If the GOP wants to keep their seats in the Senate and Congress, they need something big, like healthcare that the people will be pleased with. The GOP is desperate, they have a loser of a president and they have failed to achieve any meaningful legislation. The GOP has said they want to replace the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare since it was passed with something better, but their definition of better so far was deadly for many. They just need to make healthcare for all ages and if they do this they will keep power for a long time. The U.S. pays more in healthcare than Italy, Britain, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, and many others. Our politicians have sold us out to the highest bidder, the insurance companies, and we need to make them pay for putting their pockets before our health. It is imperativ...

Why single-payer/Medicare for all would save money and help the capitalist system. One, if no business or corporation, like the auto plants did not have to pay health insurance, they could sell their vehicles overseas cheaper. If all the people had health insurance, a person could start a business and not worry about having to provide health insurance for themselves, their families and their employees, which would put more people to work and their jobs could be backfilled by another worker. People who could retire, but must keep working until Medicare covers them could now retire without worrying about their healthcare. They could retire and open a job up for someone new.  Countries with universal healthcare are: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Solvenia (where Trump's current wife is f...

The workers are losing while our labor leaders sleep or hide out, hoping they can hold onto their position until they retire. Our labor leaders appeared to have given up the rural areas and pulled their efforts into the big cities. This is like having a fort with a moat around it and think they are safe. We all know forts can be conquered in the long run. It’s as if labor leaders learned nothing from the Clinton era. We, at this time, are losing with the Right to Work laws being passed in 27 states, and now there is legislation in Congress for a national Right to Work law. Couple this with legislation in Congress to ban the Davis-Bacon Act on prevailing wage law, and the attacks on union pensions. These things will drive the nail into the heart of unions. This is happening in other countries, like the UK and France, who are electing leaders, such as Marine Le Pen, a far right leader. We, here, in the U.S., cannot just depend on the Bernie Sanders-types. We need new, strong unions wi...

People who receive Social Security, Medicare, government and union pensions and healthcare now, and the people who hope to receive these same benefits have an opportunity to show the politicians and oligarchies who want to take all of this away, this includes the minimum wage. To send a clear message on Jan. 20 to these greedy individuals, you must hit them where it hurts most—their pocket books. Call in sick from work, don’t spend any money any where, and don’t watch the Donald Trump show otherwise known as an inauguration had he been legitimately elected by the people and not the electoral college. Yo can buy whatever you need the day before and you know the media and social media will be all a buzz about the Trump show the next day so you won’t miss anything. This is a do or die situation we’re in. Trump, the Tweeter in chief, has lined his cabinet with the worst possible people he could find and they are going to rape and pillage this country for their own gain. If you thought G...

Elections come and go, but nothing changes, and the masses continue to take it in the shorts. Our Democratic president just negotiated a deal with Israel to give that country $38 billion in military aid to “protect” themselves from the carnage they stir up against the Palestinians, stealing the Palestinians land and killing them, and then acting outraged when they fight back. Those billions could help our students with their educational debts, or pay for single-payer healthcare, or rebuild our infrastructure. Then consider these endless wars, which will not end. Why? Because it’s big money to be made in killing people. The costs in lives seems to be ignored by our government, both parties benefit from payoffs and have done nothing to resolve or end the wars. Both parties are at fault so nothing will change with the 2016 election. We are being forced to choose between two lousy candidates. The corporate media pays its part in not reporting on this or any other relevant topic. In the 2...

Laborers of the world over must stop depending on governments to look out for their interests. At this time no political party is working for or defending workers. Government policies now are pitting people against each other by promoting and establishing wars resulting in millions of refugees. The refugees flood host countries for safety, but end up being used as cheap labor by those benefitting from the wars the refugees are fleeing. This cheap labor is used to break the unions and labor laws and drives wages and benefits down. Nothing can stop this but the people. The governments and the oligarchies make their profits off the misery of others. Labor has always won when they were in charge. Labor laws were not put into place to help the workers, they were established by President Franklin Roosevelt to stop strikes, which were beating back the nonunion workers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules were to replace the decisions that were being made from fighting for rights...

There are other alternatives to banking with the corporately owned big banks that screw over the little guy. Some of these alternatives are being used around the world and in a couple of places in the U.S. Alternative currency keeps local cash locally. Some foreign cities where this is being used is Basel, Switzerland, Nantes, France, and Bristol and Brixton, England. The Banque WIR, an alternative to the Swiss franc, has been using its own currency, the WIR, since 1934. Nantes created its own currency based on the WIR. Also, there are the Bristol pound and the Brixton pound used as alternative versions of the British pound. Here in the U.S., there is Ithaca, New York, called the Ithaca Convertible, one Ithaca dollar equals one U.S. 1 dollar. Then there is the Deli Dollars that arrived in 1989, started by Frank Tortoriello, a deli owner sold $10 for $8 to be used in his refurbished deli; followed by Massachusetts’ Berkshire Farm preserve notes or BerkShares in the early 1990s. Sa...

There are unintended consequences of the 1 percent’s greed in offshoring corporations to save on taxes and labor costs. This greed has awakened the Have Littles to the fact that there is and has been a war waged against them by the 1 percent. This has been going on for about 40 years and most of this scheming has gone unnoticed because the corporate media has blocked coverage of it. Now the greed has gone too far and will bite the anti-worker 1 percent in the ass and the governments that support them. The people have had all they can take and are demanding their rights. Rights that include good wages, healthcare, pensions, unions, free education, and protection of our environment and climate. The sad thing is that most of these rights are provided to citizens in other countries, some countries are trying to take them away from their citizens and those countries where the citizens are fighting for these right—the sad fact is that other countries got the ideas to give or take these righ...

The fight for unions worldwide is being fought in France. French workers are like the little boy with his finger in the hole on the dike of anti-unionism worldwide. If the French government wins, so will the fight to make it easier to fire workers and to end the 35-hour workweek. The corporations of the world and governments who cater to them will all be trying the same thing in their countries. It is hard enough for unions to fight corporations and their own governments, but to do it at the same time is overwhelming. Although the Brits just voted for to leave the EU, for better or worse, but the people took their futures into their own hands and won the election over the money people. There is still hope for people power. The workers of the world need to support the French workers on opposing the French government’s planned labor reforms, which the conservatives-led senate is to vote on the bill Tuesday, June 28, 2016. If the workers lose this fight, the loss could reverberate around...

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 ...

Labor the world over at this time has no friends in this corporate world, and there is no political part that will support labor because unions don’t have the kind of money politicians are looking for. The political parties now side with Wall Street, corporations, big banks and lobbyists for this is where the money and political power is and where laws can be written—laws that will make them more money. One only has to look at the U.K., France, Ukraine, Spain, Greece, Turkey, South America, and, of course, here in the U.S. where labor laws have been shot full of holes and probably do more harm than good. Now is the time for a revolution of minimum wage workers, students burdened by student loans, all labor unions, people on Social Security, veterans, minorities and all the rest of us to band together to bring voter pressure on the Democrats, if not them, then a new people’s party because what we have now is not working for either party, Democratic or GOP. Are we in the U.S. reverting b...

The Bernie Sanders supporters must be ready for the long-haul fight. Just electing Bernie is just the start, the beginning of the revolution. A true revolution carries the mission until complete change is carried out and taken hold, which means we will have to elect a true Democratic Congress and Senate. Not only do we need to rid the Congress and the Senate of Republican politicians, but also Blue Dog, centrist, and corporate-beholden Democrats, if we want to see the change needed. When we clean house, then we can see real change with free education. Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Slovenia, Chile and Brazil all have free college education and the main reason is that their governments aren’t controlled by corporations and the stock market. When your politicians aren’t beholden to corporations, it’s amazing what can be accomplished. Those who say increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would cost jobs; you have to ask why would these people say such a thing. When you pull...

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...

Working people should look very long and hard when there is talk of splitting a state or country or when they are thinking of a coup or changing a country’s leaders. First, follow the money to find why and who is it—a corporation behind it. Is another country behind it? Is it an old or new political party behind it? Then what are the benefits to the wage slave? Will it be a better life, more food, better healthcare, job safety, voting rights, better education, more job selections, and if none or all of these are not on the plus side then we might start asking questions before supporting a candidate, political party or ballot measures. The workers might end up in a religious controlled country or state with an unbearable life or in a civil war like Syria or Iraq or Libya or some other country like Somalia. Even here in the U.S. there is a faction that wants to split California into two states, one of which would be called the State of Jefferson. There is a symbol they use, XX, which a...

In the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty are we seeing the handprint of the U.S. oligarchies? Are the U.S. oligarchies pushing the Ukraine government to slash mining jobs by selling off or shutting down state owned mines, cutting social benefits and carrying out other austerity measures to shore up profits for the capitalists and meet loan conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund? Despite the fact that austerity has been proven time and again that it does not work. Once again, the toilers at the bottom are the ones to take the hit and the fight even carries over to the wage slaves in Russia where U.S. sanctions are squeezing food prices; meat and poultry prices have skyrocketed by 17 percent. It is just like all wars where the wage slaves are the ones who give their lives for the oligarchies of the world. This is where unions must be strong. It is the only hope for the families of the Ukrainian and Russian poor. These fights are worldwide, such as with the Kurds, Turkey, Gr...