Union Perspectives

There needs to be some very large changes in order to get our country back on track, and keep up with the changing types of jobs, climate change, healthcare, and the cost of living to include food, fuel and Social Security. One thing the current administration could do to help out the elderly is to undo Reagan’s taxing of Social Security followed by a cost of living increase. We need to start lowering the age eligibility for Medicare to at least to the age of 50 and eventually to Medicare for All. We need a universal basic income (UBI) in order to save our capitalist system. People have to have money to spend for without it the capitalist system withers on the vine and dies. Taxes paid on sales should stay within the city and county to fund fire departments, law enforcement, streets, parks, among others necessities. As usual, the republicans will scream, ‘how do we pay for treating our citizens with respect’ or ‘we can’t afford it.’ The same tired garbage they always trot out when the...

Unions have finally recognized that the only person who will work with unions and support new and better laws for workers is Bernie Sanders. He is probably our only chance for unions to grow and unions can reclaim their lost territory. We may even get a national card check in place where 51 percent of workers want a union the company or corporation must start negotiations with the workers. This keeps companies from dragging out the process and bringing in union busters. The unions now need to really get behind Sanders with their support, boots on the ground and ask union members to vote for him and consider donating $27 to Sander’s campaign. Healthcare for all or Medicare for all that covers dental, eyes, hearing and mental health with no out of pocket money will help union workers and owners. If healthcare was universal, unions can bid jobs better against nonunion shops. The unions need more union schools to send members to and union retreats for union families so all union members...

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 are some labor unions supporting Hillary Clinton when labor does not have a seat at the table at the Democratic Convention? Bernie Sanders chose RoseAnn DeMoro, head of National Nurses union, as one of his platform representatives on the platform drafting committee for the convention. She was to advocate for Medicare for All. The rationale for eliminating DeMoro is because unions are represented on the full-platform committee. However, labor has one seat out of the 15 people on this drafting committee. Labor built the Democratic party to represent the working people, and built this country’s infrastructure, and for that we get one person to represent us. As has been said by others, at the Democratic Convention, K Street is better represented than the labor movement. The Clintons’ antilabor legacy is partly responsible for the 2008-2016 world financial crisis. NAFTA went against all labor and sent jobs out of the U.S. and the threat of moving jobs broke the unions and drove wa...