Union Perspectives

We are seeing the highest labor unionization since 1965. Business owners and workers have nothing in common. Owners want profits and political clout and workers want respect for their work and proper compensation for that work that makes the owner rich. The rich, like the Charles Koch Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, the Freedom Foundation, the Heritage Foundation and the State Policy Network are antiunion organizations that fund GOP conservative think tanks. The people behind these foundations are motivated by one thing and that is to destroy unions and weaken workers’ rights. Every time Republicans get into office, they have the same strategy to cut safety nets for the rest of the population while giving tax breaks to the wealthy and then threaten to shut down the government in a tantrum like a three-year-old child. It is estimated that the wealthy American evaded almost $66 billion in federal taxes. The top 2,000 highest earning tax dodgers owe $923 million in taxes so that expla...

Labor councils, which is already well established, can be used to counter the GOP and anti-union corporations think tanks and other anti-worker organizations, such American Legislative Exchange Council, State Policy Network (SPN), Americans for Prosperity (their prosperity, not yours, and funded by the Koch brothers), MacIver Institutes and many others. They all are well-funded, but labor has its councils, which are well established, but we just need to expand and update our effort to counter our enemies. One thing that the GOP think tanks are doing is hiring media reporters and setting up a syndication service providing right-leaning wire service, which tends to sway public opinion. We, the labor councils, could very easily do this with very little expense. Every labor council should have their own think tank. In these think tanks there should be politicians, labor, business, academia and work on the messages for the media. It is the only way to tell our story and get support. I have ...