Union Perspectives

Senator Bernie Sanders will be our next president and we need to start planning now for how we will get single-payer healthcare, $15 an hour minimum wage, free college, immigration reform and taking on the banks and Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, prison/justice reform, and reduce the military industrial complex by making the Middle East deal with their problems instead of relying completely on the U.S. These are just some of the things that need to be done. Also, we, union workers-retired or still working, must ensure that Sanders doesn’t forget us and will push for card check, which President Obama promised and then sold us out. In his campaign platform, Sanders also states, aside from the above items, but also passage of the Work Place Democracy Act to strengthen the role of unions, he leads the fight for $15 and a union for fast food workers and federal contract employees, and supports the Employee Free Choice Act or card check, and equal pay for women. With all of this to do,...

We, here in the U.S., have our very own Greece. There is the destruction of the city of Detroit, which has been raped and pillaged by hedge fund vultures who are major donors to both political parties, which means the politicians then pass laws to protect hedge funders’ money, that is usually invested in bonds. On a bigger scale there is Puerto Rico, which has labored under colonial rule since Christopher Columbus landed on its shores in 1493 and claimed it for Spain. After the Spanish American War in 1898 the U.S. acquired Puerto Rico in the treaty of Paris and ruled it as a territory since. Puerto Ricans are considered natural born citizens, but like all stepchildren they must abide by U.S. laws without a voting member in Congress. For decades the island was a jewel of the Caribbean with the highest per capita income in Latin America, but in 1996 when a Republican Congress and the Clinton administration agreed to a 10-year phase out of section 936, a tax exemption for U.S. manufa...

If the wage slaves and retirees lose this election these are some of the things that will happen: 1) we will lose Social Security and Medicare as we know it; 2) more people will lose their rights to vote and there will be restrictions on free speech; 3) there will be an unprecedented attack on labor unions, such as the right to form unions and the right to bargain for healthcare, pensions and wages. They will also try to finish off the rest of the states with ‘right to work’ legislation, which means that if there is a union the members do not have to pay dues, which makes the union worth nothing to its members; 4) they will take away the minimum wage, which means that the corporations could pay whatever they want and work you as long as they want without over time; 5) the oligarchies will get rid of all worker safety rules, which means that now your body is expendable to them, and if you get injured on the job they would not be liable for your injuries and there won’t be any Socia...

Wage slaves proletarian workers must have unbiased representation on the Supreme Court, if not everything worker related for the good of working families will be lost at the Supreme Court. The Court can even take away all the decisions, which favors the workers that are now in place, and even the rights, which favors the proletarians on social issues. So it is imperative that we re-elect Obama. He is our only hope and if he is not re-elected the working class wage slaves will be set back 80 to 90 years – all lost. We would have to start from scratch: no labor laws, no free speech, voters’ rights, no free assembly, and all our elected people bought by the Citizens United law. We must maintain the presidency in order to get a good U.S. Supreme Court. Now, the GOP has a very good game on two fronts, which splits our boots on the ground, and diminishes our money. They have a very well-funded attack on state-level governments, where it is easy to buy governors and state representatives, ...

While our service men and women were serving overseas for the past 10 years, some losing their lives, and some enduring terrible injuries with lots of emotional injuries, as well. There is no doubt that they have given all they had. While our service members were doing their best we at home let the oligarchies (form of government where a small group of rich people have all the power), big corporations and Wall Street have just about ruined our country. When our service people return home what will we have to offer them? There are no jobs, the economy is in ruins and the Republicans party has vowed to block President Obama on all his efforts to improve our situations in the hopes of making him a one-term president. Our veterans gave all and we, the citizens, went to sleep and let the GOP lobbyists and the oligarchies buy state governments, which promptly began taking away workers’ rights, voters’ rights and even women’s rights. I don’t think this is what our military personnel were ...

Wall Street protesters are now nationwide and worldwide. There is no doubt that the 99ers are at last starting to realize that there is no one person riding in to save them. It will take all of the 99ers working together and, yes, some will do much more and some will do little for now, but as history tells us, the longer they hold out the more support will come in - people, money and political help. The 99ers are now starting to get support and advice from the ‘60s’ protesters, which, if listened to, can be of great help. They have been there and their lessons learned can teach the younger protesters a thing or two about options and pitfalls that happened to them. Recently, Tom Hayden let slip in a recent interview that 10,000 to 20,000 people sitting down on Main Street of New York or L.A. will bring on arrests and then each person demand a jury trial, which would literally shut down the city and court system. Just a hint from the old pros, some do have many options and if the cor...

What the Hell Happened? We need the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and we were very close in 2009. President Obama and Vice President Biden co-authored the bill and it had passed the Congress. Organized labor invested $450 million in the Obama campaign, and the Democrats had or were very close to a 60 filibuster-proof vote in support of the Act. The AFL-CIO had a war chest of $14 million dedicated to the passage of the Act. What’s more, the Democrats and organized labor, and the media did an excellent job of keeping it very quiet, and most businesses were unaware of the campaign. This was to be passed in 2009 so what the hell happened? 
 We know that a union busting organization by the name of “People Works International” was on this like a dog on a bone. Check these people out: http://www.peopleworkslabor.com?EFCA.html They are a piece of work. We need to get to know them to know our enemy (Art of War). We have a chance to beat them. What did the AFL-CIO get for its money...