Union Perspectives

The U.S. Supreme Court has given to labor and it has taken from labor. In Feb.26, 2018, they will be taking from labor and their decisions will destroy labor’s membership and bankrupt unions financially. The Court could then allow workers who have paid union dues to seek refunds from union dues already paid, which would drive a stake into the heart of labor unions. After three tries, in 2012, 2014 and 2016, the high court is poised to reverse its own 40 year precedent and strike down the Fair Share Fees as unconstitutional. The 1977 ruling said workers did not have to pay for unions’ political activity. The verdict expected in June of this year would allow workers to pay nothing toward union dues, but still receive the union protections. This could force unions to have to raise union dues on those who remain or lose clout in states, such as California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, in the public workers, such as law enforcement, firefighters, teachers, government ...

Well, the robber barons are back in charge and the unions are at their lowest numbers since the last time the robber barons were in charge. The last time they had control the workers rose up and organized even though their ranks were split. There were the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the American Federation of Labor (AFL), some were the coal miners, some were the Teamsters, they all seemed at times to be fighting each other, but in today’s fight there is no room for that type of bickering. We need to have a little of all types of organizations, even the ideology of the International Workers of the World (IWW) also called the Wobblies. We, at this time, just cannot afford to be split for the new government, which is antiunion will throw everything at us. They will have the attorney general, the U.S. Supreme Court, law enforcement, the National Guard and new laws that will be signed into effect to control protests and strikes, which can result in huge fines or jai...

How the nonunion, Rand Paul supportering groups and the American Legislative Exchange Council, the Heritage Foundation and a newly former nonprofit, Protect My PayCheck, are working together to influence local governments at the city and county levels the same way it was done by state legislatures with Right to Work. Today in Kentucky, Fulton, Simpson and Warren counties, have voted to implement the Right to Work laws. This could be the way California workers could be beaten and see our unions destroyed. Supporters of the these worker-harmful laws say, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, are next and that Protect My PayCheck is promising to pay for the legal battles of any local government that tries to implement this legislation. There are numerous counties in California that have bought into the "State of Jefferson" mentality thinking they could control their own local governments, but this short-sighted vision doesn't take into account how to fund their independence an...

The Great Strike of 1877 … People power is at its best when it is spontaneous and unorganized. This is when new ideas and new leaders are born and this is how the biggest strike started in the railroads and railroad yards of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which involved the Pennsylvania National Guard, federal troops, with a Gatling gun, who were trapped in a wooden railroad round house (the round house is used to turn train engines around). Strikers set the round house, box cars on fire, and then pushed these box cars into the round house, which forced the troops to flee to a U.S. arsenal. The damage was more than 100 locomotives, two-thousand freight cars, a grain elevator and the city’s main passenger depot—two square miles of America’s greatest industrial city lay in total ruin all because of the owners’ greed and underestimating the power of the people. This is why the anti-worker GOP and the 1 percent should look at the history of what happened when workers are pushed into a corner w...

Could the oligarchies buy a state as large as a country? California is the next battle ground between the corporate oligarchies and the wage slave proletariat. The 1% oligarchies went into the heart of where the government unions started: Wisconsin and won. So what would be the 1% GOP’s Holy Grail now? I think it is California If they can take out California and break the unions and the Democratic Party; they will pretty much have control of all the wage slaves. They will start breaking down our society and our social infrastructure, such as our schools in which only the top 1% or 3% will be able to afford to educate their family members. Then the gap will widen to include healthcare, pensions and of course wages where the only jobs will be like in the old days. The armed forces (oh wait, it is there already) the old days and the sad thing is most of California workers and retired people have not thought of this or do not think it could happen here. It has already been tried with the ...