Union Perspectives

Today, we are still fighting for a living wage at a minimum of $15 an hour, when, in fact, it should be $24 an hour had it kept up with inflation. This fight has been going on for a very long time, and nothing seems to change. In 1905—a 112 years ago—the International Workers of the World (IWW also known as the Wobblies) held a convention in Chicago to lay the groundwork for one big union. IWW members were the “shock troops” of labor. Their prime purpose was to make the first breaches in the entrenched industry. They fought and won the free speech fights so they could continue to educate the workers on what should be their right to a safe work place, fair pay and reasonable work hours. Some died exercising this right. These Wobblies traveled the country in search of work, as timber fallers or on farms (they were known as fruit tramps). Many worked to unionize the textile workers, long before the New York Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. Here in 2017, we are still fighting f...

The class war struggle of yesterday and of today are eerily similar. The International Workers of the Word (IWW or Wobblies) believed implicitly that the class struggle was inherent in the very nature of capitalist society. The economic laws of capitalism, the IWW pointed out operated the same in America as in the rest of the world, and American society like all societies was divided into two classes: the exploiters and the exploited. The capitalists and the workers. Every segment of life was viewed by the IWW as reflecting the conflict of the two classes. They ran ads in newspapers for big class picnics, obituaries of dead IWW members, Wobblies spoke of the deceased as indefatigable warriors in the class war, and usually closed their solemn ceremony by saying, “Our duty is not to mourn, but to go on where fellow workers left off, determined to show the ruling class that his work has not been in vain.” In the eyes of the IWW, the capitalism class was the ruling class and the governmen...

“We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers’ salaries and take away their rights to strike.” Adolph Hitler, May 2, 1933 This is happening today and gives proof that the antiunion corporations and oligarchies are using Hitler’s playbook of 1933 in 2013; and how did Hitler’s efforts against the workers work out for the German people of 1933? We know that the backbone of a capitalist consumers’ system is the wage slaves, but they must have good wages to support their families and healthcare to keep their human machines working and productive for a day of lost wages is also a day of lost production for the corporations. When they have lost the means to be productive, there must be a pension. Basically, what I’m politely saying is that the people screwing the workers are screwing themselves. If there are a lot of the old retired wage slaves around, they can still be productive in volunteer things, such as volunteer at a fire c...

Will the Patriot Act or parts of it be used against labor or most any worker movement, such as the quest for a minimum wage increase, Occupy or the women’s movement? The answer will probably be yes for if you look back at history you will see government used the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798, which jeopardized the freedom of speech, press and assembly, and was a long step toward Totalitarianism. And then there was U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, appointed by Woodrow Wilson, who recruited J. Edgar Hoover as his special assistant in 1917 to enforce the Espionage Act of 1917, especially the Sedition Act of 1918 engaged in the Palmer Raids. These Acts were used to launch a campaign against the so-called radicals, such as the IWW (Wobblies) labor movement, which was at the time the most feared labor group. The oligarchies wanted them destroyed and they were, to a point. The next Act the government used against its people went after labor, women’s rights and civil rights was ...

The oligarchies are on the run. We need to keep the pressure on all fronts and it looks like with the election win for the wage slaves that there is an awakening and some of the tactics are of the old revised IWW tactics, which is power of the people, such as the Black Friday Walmart wage slave walkout and a big surprise of the 50,000 fast food workers in New York City. This could not only be an awakening, but the tipping point for organizing wage slaves in all retail jobs for a worker should be able to buy what they sell or be able to buy food they sell to others. If you don’t make enough money then you must depend on food stamps. We worker wage slaves are subsidizing the money people we work for by the low wages that we accept for our labor. We sell our lives one hour at a time for not even substitute wages just to make the 1% richer and richer. I think the tide is about to change and we all 99% must put aside all native thinking and support each other for 99% will beat the 1%. Jus...

At this time some of labors best victories have occurred outside the protections of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Some labor organizations, like the National Domestic Workers Alliance or workers centers are achieving wins through activism without identifying as union at all. Farm workers have also had success by working, pressuring, and sometimes boycotting. This sounds a lot like the old IWW Wobblies, who would not engage in labor contracts, because like the Service Employees International Union’s contract which ties their hands and prevents them from doing a secondary boycotts. The NLRB, at this time, is a deterrent to labor rather than a help. If the employers have a way to quash an organizing campaign they do not care if they break the NLRB laws because the win versus the imposed fine is no deterrent to the corporations. The NLRB laws need to be rewritten or done away with. Major unions have abandoned government-run elections in favor of comprehensive attack that l...

Are the anti-union people like the Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturing Association and other like-mind organizations doing the right thing for themselves? The conflict between labor and the business owners or “capitals” (as the wealthy business owners were once called) is a natural one that goes back since the beginning of this country. The proletarian toilers or wage slaves (a term coined by Jack London) have nothing in common with the employing class. The IWW Wobblies understood this and this is the reason they did not want to enter into labor contracts, which, they believed, would take away labor’s best weapon—the strike. Also the IWW did not want to affiliate with any political party. Its party was the wage slaves’ workers. This is the reason the Wobblies were so feared. They were the first 99%. What would be the recourse of us wage slaves if we lose all unions and the right to form or belong to any organizations to lobby for our rights within law?  What will happen? Well, l...

The 99% think the 1% is in control or is about to control our country’s government and the work place. In reality the people who are in control are 1/10th of the 1%. The true oligarchies with their minions engaging in anti-union organizations, such as the Koch brothers’ Limbaugh, ALEC’s Club for Growth, and Dick Armory as puppet master of the Tea Party’s Americans for Prosperity. Labor has boxed themselves into a corner with labor agreements, which binds labor to no walking off the job site while there is an agreement in place. The strike was labor’s best weapon against the anti-union corporations. If labor could partner up with the 99% maybe we could help each other and labor would not be in breach of contract. The 99% could picket in front of businesses or job sites where labor has a no walk off stipulation in its contract. In the long run we all want the same things: healthcare, jobs, good pay, a home, good schools, pensions, end to the war, and rebuilding our infrastructure. We...