Union Perspectives

The wage slaves who are fighting for unions to better their lives, such as ending inequality, new contracts, benefits, end of outsourcing, firing workers for striking, and being locked out of a work place, also fighting for safer working conditions. They now have a place to get their word out and a place to compare notes on strategy and tactics. This has been offered by Maggie Trowe, who writes a column for the Militant newspaper, which every working toiler should have access to. Trowe will help you with your struggles with bosses. Contact her at 306 W. 37th St. 13th Floor, New York, New York 10018 or 212-244-4899 or the Militant@mac.com. It would be very helpful if all union members and nonunion people would subscribe to the Militant. This week the newspaper is talking about the Los Angeles, California, area grocery workers; farm workers fighting union busting in the U.S.; garment workers in Bangladesh; movers in Illinois in the U.S. strike for first contract; phone workers in New En...

Why it is so hard for the toilers to understand that capitalist system and that it is rigged against them? The system is rigged in favor of the 1 percent. Even small business owners don’t understand this. This is not to say that the toilers cannot win the war of wage and living standards inequality. In order to do this, the toilers must understand the basic rules of the capitalist system. The governor of California, Jerry Brown, explained this is a speech the other day to some labor groups. He said if the consumers are up to their eyeballs in debt, aren’t making a decent wage, how the heck are they going to buy anything? If they don’t buy anything, the economy doesn’t go forward and doesn’t work. This was well said, but he could have also said that the capitalist system is driven 67.5 percent by spending, which proves that when insufficient wages are not high enough for the toilers to have enough money left over after paying for their basic needs (rent, food, debts) to purchase some d...

The California Assembly approved a bill, SB 126, that would punish farmers if they are found to have interfered with union elections. SB126 by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Democrat from Sacramento, would automatically certify a farm workers’ union. This bill is a remedy for election misconduct by growers. Lets all union members get behind SB 126 and let Governor Jerry Brown know we support it. The predecessor to SB 126 was vetoed by Governor Brown. He has another chance to redeem himself. Let’s put pressure for we need some new tools in our tool bag to organize. SB 126 falls under the Agricultural Labor Relations and amends sections 1156.3, 1158, 1160.4, and 1164 of the Labor Code relating to employment.

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is a must read for all war colleges and large corporation executives, and there is no doubt that it would also be found in the GOP’s playbook; but it can also be in our playbook. For it states, if we know yourself (our labor history) we can win half of our battles, but if we know ourselves and our enemy (the GOP) we have a better chance to win all our battles. Just look at what the GOP union busting did recently. It went to Wisconsin and drove a knife into the very heart of the birthplace of the government employee unions. Now we have to counter. What we should do is pass card check in every state and then organize all the retail box stores, which buys most of their products from overseas. Corporations can move their factories overseas, but the corporations have to bring the products back to the U.S. to sell. Here is where we the workers can even it up. We must organize those corporations. We do have retail, department stores, restaurants, and grocery sto...