Union Perspectives

Why do corporations fear a class warfare? Is it because there are more of us than there are of them? Is it because if we put our hands in our pockets all work stops? I think the greedy anti-union people have awaken a sleeping giant and the unions are responding by organizing strikes for better contracts for union like the United Auto Workers (UAW), UPS, Association of Flight Attendants, Teamsters. The working class people have focused on the power that we have when we stand together, and the power that we have when we withhold our labor, nothing is going to move. UAW union labor leader Shawn Fain has restored the unions’ fighting force and called out corporations power in unapologetic terms. Fain wore an “Eat the Rich” T-shirt and announced that “billionaires, in my opinion, don’t have a right to exist.” Yes, it is war and the unions are going to align union contracts across the industries to make way for bigger, bolder strikes. Now is our time when we have the support of our U.S. p...

A Universal Basic Income (UBI) and rent for our Commons are ways to provide for the working class, who are losing their jobs to automation. With robots and wage inequality, this will be a disaster for the capitalist system as we know it. There will be no cash for the spenders who support the capitalist system by around 77 percent in spending. This can be overcome by non-labor income just like the 1 percent gets their income from dividends and property. Non-labor income in the form of UBI could be paid for by charging rent for our Commons, such as air, water, wind, sun, ecosystem, and minerals. Then there are the human-made technology, legal, roads, dams and bridges. All things our taxes pay for, which makes money for corporations. Some of these are artificial or acquired property and the invention of people. Education will not cure inequality or create more jobs, in fact, it will invent things which will end jobs. Income fell 30 percent since 1970. That was the time when one person c...

Why have wages remained flat or even gone down in the last 30 years? There are lots of reasons and plenty of blame to go around from the workers to the corporations to the politicians and even to the courts. To start to understand, the workers should look at themselves. Like why we negotiate our wages down to get a job or why we work for a nonunion, low wage corporation, or why we don’t fight to have a union or basic working rights. Workers stop valuing their skills and, out of fear, gave into the corporate disrespect for workers. Then there are the huge corporations who pollute the wages by setting or using the minimum wage set by our government, who the workers voted into office to look out for our interests. Look how that has turned out for us. Remember, minimum wage is just that. It is the lowest wage you can receive unless you work as a restaurant food server, and then you can receive much less. Of course, you could be an unpaid intern, who’s most likely taking the job of a paid w...