Union Perspectives

Had an enjoyable conservation not too long ago with a young stockbroker about solutions to income inequality and other ails afflicting our country. I advocate for universal basic income (UBI). A few years ago the call for a $15 minimum wage was called delusional, but now there are many places that are paying $15 an hour minimum wage or slow walking to the $15. Still, even if it was full-time work, it would only be an annual income of $31,000 a year. Just about enough to keep a person off the streets and get the basics, but, still, it is an incredible accomplishment by those who took to the streets to bring about this change. So, now it is time for another delusional fight to take place and that is for a UBI. Though there are a lot of areas to be worked out with the UBI, there are just as many good things to come from UBI. Some people say if people receive $1,500 to $2,000 a month, they would quit working, which has proven not to be the case within Alaska, the best example of UBI in a...

The world’s toilers have the same problems with work safety, like the Ukraine mine workers, Turkey’s mines and West Virginia’s mines. Then there are the oil refinery workers and the train workers hauling Bakken shale oil from the Canadian tar sand, which are wrecking at an alarming rate in the North American. So far in 2015 there have been eight so far in 2015 train wrecks, four in Oregon Illinois, West Virginia and two in Ontario. All these wrecks at a time when owners want to cut staff to one on the trains. This is just a fight to stay safe and alive on the jobs. Then we get to wage inequality and a living wage along with toiler’s rights in the work place like the West Coast dockworkers all 20,000 of them. The airport workers, who are making $8 to $10 an hour, should be making $15 just to make it. Also, Israel’s chemical workers walked out to block layoffs of about 840 workers—and the fight goes on and on. A meeting about the future of railroads’ safety, workers, community and the en...

Unions are the boots on the ground, fighting for their governments and jobs in Ukraine and are taking hits from Russian separatists. The separatists trapped 700 miners underground and fired upon hundreds of second-shift miners to keep them away; but more than 1,000 miners marched to show support for their country. Unions in Turkey are fighting for better wages and job safety. Again, it is the unions who are leading the fight for the working people. The Kurds are finally going to have a homeland again it is the proletarian workers who are leading the fight for their homeland. It looks like the time for Kurdistan’s independence is closer than any time before, Kurdish government employee Shorsh Khalid Ahmed told the Wall Street Journal. All of these things are happening in Ukraine, Turkey and Kurdistan are happening because of the masses. If these countries can put up this kind of fight, then we, in the USA, should be able to do the same. Where are our people to stop the attacks on votin...