Union Perspectives

The United Auto Workers union is kicking serious ass. All unions should look at what is working for them and what has not. If they are winning for their people, labor needs to do big things that will change the lives of their members for the long term, such as child care and a labor school, where members and families can learn how to make their lives better, and how to run strikes, work stoppages, electing labor people to local, state and federal government offices. We are in a fight for our existence and all union members must embrace Sun Tzu's, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." We need a trained Army. This way we can get the court system back to where they support the laws fairly when lawsuits involve labor and our families instead of the ...

We have to know where we have been in order to know where we want to go, and how to get there. So, why do we still have to explain to our union members who they should support in elections? I think we need to adhere to what an old union leader once said: “We now have them organized so now we need to unionize them.” This is where we union leaders have failed our wage slaves and I think it should start from the top and the bottom in order to do it fast and then hopefully we’ll meet in the middle with knowledgeable union people. We should all be studying the Art of War by Sun Tzu and the Prince by Machiavelli. These books will get you solitary confinement in some prisons; but they are required reading in large corporations and all military schools. There must be a benefit in learning strategy of war and business. This is exactly what we wage slaves are involved in. In fact, it will be do or die in the next few years. We must organize and rebuild our labor influence and power. Our labor fo...

It is time for the labor councils to join the 99ers who are the Wall Street protesters. For we all have the same concerns: shelter, food, health care, pensions and jobs. The 1 ‘percenters’ have crossed the line and not just in the USA. This is now a worldwide movement. It is reminiscent of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). We the working people have had opportunities before and did not take advantage of them. This time we, the 99ers, and unions now have no choice but to keep going for the 99ers are at the bottom of the financial ladder. If you are not in the top 1 percent on the economic scale, you’re a 99er. This is not the first time we've had to deal with corporate greed. Ralph Chaplin captured the 1 percenters' greed at the turn of the 20th century. “It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade Dug the mines and built the workshops endless miles of railroad laid Now we stand outcast and starving Midst the wonders we made, but ...

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is a must read for all war colleges and large corporation executives, and there is no doubt that it would also be found in the GOP’s playbook; but it can also be in our playbook. For it states, if we know yourself (our labor history) we can win half of our battles, but if we know ourselves and our enemy (the GOP) we have a better chance to win all our battles. Just look at what the GOP union busting did recently. It went to Wisconsin and drove a knife into the very heart of the birthplace of the government employee unions. Now we have to counter. What we should do is pass card check in every state and then organize all the retail box stores, which buys most of their products from overseas. Corporations can move their factories overseas, but the corporations have to bring the products back to the U.S. to sell. Here is where we the workers can even it up. We must organize those corporations. We do have retail, department stores, restaurants, and grocery sto...