Union Perspectives

Is Senator Bernie Sanders the person to lead labor in politics? What would happen if Senator Bernie Sanders and Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers, joined forces? Could Bernie, with labors help, get the working people a four-day work week with full pay, healthcare with no out of pocket costs, childcare and free education and a universal basic income for those who fall between the cracks? Before you say or think this is wishful thinking, go back and look at what we used to have before Republicans started chipping away at benefits so that corporations wouldn’t have to suffer a loss in profits. If that’s not enough look at other countries that take care of their people and corporations still make profits, just not obscene profits. Labor needs a person who can carry the torch in government for the union workers and in trade unions need to support the torch bearer, Bernie Sanders, and the people he supports to get the votes needed to get the laws that support the workin...

We elected a person four years ago that then pissed away four years of our lives, our treasury, our standing in the world, mishandling a pandemic costing almost 150,000 innocent lives and the soldiers who went to serve their country not realizing their commander-in-chief allowed a bounty to be placed upon their heads by Vladimir Putin. These set backs will take a decade or more to fix, the deficit probably longer. The damage done in the last four years has gained us nothing while it has made trump filthy rich by the myriad of ways he has overcharged the U.S. government through his hotels and golf courses. People are losing their homes for lack of rent or mortgage payments. Was it intentional to allow the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures a ruse by the republicans as a form of voter suppression? If you have no home address you can’t vote. Families are going hungry, food banks struggling to meet the need, and republicans are calling these people freeloaders who’d rather take free...

Unions have finally recognized that the only person who will work with unions and support new and better laws for workers is Bernie Sanders. He is probably our only chance for unions to grow and unions can reclaim their lost territory. We may even get a national card check in place where 51 percent of workers want a union the company or corporation must start negotiations with the workers. This keeps companies from dragging out the process and bringing in union busters. The unions now need to really get behind Sanders with their support, boots on the ground and ask union members to vote for him and consider donating $27 to Sander’s campaign. Healthcare for all or Medicare for all that covers dental, eyes, hearing and mental health with no out of pocket money will help union workers and owners. If healthcare was universal, unions can bid jobs better against nonunion shops. The unions need more union schools to send members to and union retreats for union families so all union members...

Reports are coming out of the government saying the economy is good, but tell that to the people who are working at Lowe’s, a retail giant company, which is scheduled to layoff thousands of workers from the assembly lines to janitors. Many of these employees have worked full time for the company for years putting together girls, wheelbarrows and other products. The company plans to outsource the assembly of products to the companies that pay lower wages and fewer if any benefits. Lowe’s is in competition with Home Depot to boost its profits off the backs of workers. The company has already closed 140 stores during the last year. The workers will not get severance pay instead they will get up to two weeks pay. The loss of jobs within the retail industry is just beginning. Some workers are being fired as 7,500 stores are closing this year. Many have depleted once thriving shopping malls. The rising dominance in retail sales of Amazon and Walmart turning to robotization instead of empl...

Good news, people, Fox “news” is reporting our country is so great you can work until you drop dead. Isn’t that wonderful? It didn’t report what kind of job you’ll be slaving away at, but you won’t be able to retire so don’t quit your job. Fox did not address stagnate wages, escalating housing and basic needs costs, full-time jobs being replaced by gig jobs and inequality created by the pay gap between CEOs and the workers. In the 1950s and until 1965, this gap was 20 to 1. In the 1970s through 2014, the gap began to widen and then in a steroid induced greed, CEO compensation increased 997 percent compared to the 10.9 percent growth in a typical worker’s compensation. Today, the disparity stands at 354 to 1. This doesn’t factor in the disparity between minimum and median wage workers, which is higher in the U.S. than any other industrialized country. On average, a typical median wage worker earns $905 a week versus a minimum wage worker earning $209. There are numerous posts on this ...

Where is the outrage? Why are the old Fox television viewers not outraged over the gas prices, which are now more than $3.99 and higher a gallon? Food is also escalating in prices, as are the cost of heating and cooling our homes and businesses. Most of the Fox watchers are Social Security pensioners with limited income, which, thanks to Ronald Reagan, is taxed—again. Even with Medicare, most have to drive to the doctor’s appointment and gas at $3.99 a gallon, leaves less in the food and housing budget. All you hear from these old people is crickets about why this is happening. Think back to when President Obama was in office and how loud they screamed about gas prices and how he wore a tan suit—all because they were spoon fed outrage from Fox entertainment news. How are these people paying the difference in these rate increases? Is it by credit cards, skimping on their medications, applying for other government assistance programs, like Meals on Wheels, relying on family members or ...

Our new leaders have finally come to continue the fight started by Eugene V. Debs and Franklin D. Roosevelt on behalf of the 99 percent. Joining Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in this fight are congresswomen New York’s Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), Minnesota’s Ilhan Abdullahi Omar, Michigan’s Rashida Harbi Tlaib, Massachusetts’ Ayanna Soyini Pressley, California’s Katie Moore Porter, and Washington state’s Pramila Jayapal. It looks like Massachusetts’ Senator Elizabeth Warren may be returning to her progressive roots, as well. These people are thinking of big and bold ideas to combat the deterioration that the 1 percent has caused to our economy and planet. They are sick and tired of the slow walking, do-nothing Congress and Senate that is supposed to represent all Americans, but cater to and follow the direction of the 1 percent. The pressure from these progressives is why the Democrats introduced the Green New Deal last week, championed by AOC and veteran Massachusetts’ Ed Marke...

Now is time for all unions, AFL-CIO, to step up and put their differences aside just like former president of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) Walter Reuther dreamed of. It’s time for unions to do something bold, like Medicare for all and free education. Unions were the leaders in all these areas, consider child labor laws, free speech laws, pensions, and unemployment benefits when people were out of work; and the Social Security we have today. All of these things will go away if we do not come together and fight. At this time, it is workers’ unions against the corporations and the very, very rich, who would like to break our unions and even take away the minimum wage. We even know what their play book is on how the GOP is going to do this. The tax breaks Trump gave the rich has put us into debt is step one, step two is Trump and the GOP spends as much money as they can on the military complex, making many of the rich even richer...

The biggest fear the GOP and Trump have are Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, financial and climate regulations, and social changes opening the door to people of color. Sanders and Warren will push an anti-corruption and anti-inequality programs and Medicare for All with a $15 an hour minimum wage. They should also be looking at a UBI (universal basic income). Rising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will not stop the inequality, but I UBI would help. The GOP will counter by accusing Sanders and Warren of being scary Democratic Socialists, which Sanders and Warren should wear the title as a badge of honor and point out the obvious—all the socialist-type programs the U.S, already has in place, such as Social Security (which we pay into), Medicare, Medicaid/MediCal, law enforcement, fire and rescue services, and schools. The GOP and its followers will deliberately conflate socialism with communism, which is a misnomer. Communism and socialism may have some similarities, sharing of the cou...

What do the jobs look like today compared to the past? One is very few jobs today will last until retirement. Another is jobs today will probably be lost to automation of some type. All workers should have skills in a profession and a trade of some sort. Most jobs today do not pay enough for one person to support a family, which was not true in 1950s—1980s. It was in the 1980s—the Nixon and Reagan years when unions came under attacked by the anti-union GOP and amped up in the 1990s when the corporate Democrats helped the GOP—in the Clinton years. The work available today is becoming more gig jobs or part-time jobs than full-time work. It’s only part-time jobs coming out of labor centers like the temp agencies, Labor Ready, Adecco or Professional Staffing Solutions. The temp agencies convince company owners that they will save money them by doing all the paperwork connected to employees, and, in return, the company pays the hired workers and the temp agency. If a hired workers gets $1...

Most of us know what we don’t like or see as wrong, but what we lack is leaders with a vision on how to fix or support new policies. So far, only the Bern man has the whole platform consisting of climate change, wage inequity, universal  healthcare, fair pensions, Social Security, union support, free education, fixing inequality, housing for all, fixing the damage caused by the Trump administration and many concerns. Adding to this list should be a universal basic income for all; state banks in the states that want them; legalization of drugs with addiction treatment instead of prisons; end the private prison industry; fix the immigration mess; implement a legislation mandating corporations pay for the use of our Commons; reform and reinvest in our public education and allow parents to pay for private or charter schools if they want their children to attend such schools; cut defense spending and use that money toward infrastructure improvement to create employment opportunities for ou...

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 ...

The race for single-payer healthcare or Medicare For All it will be between the Bernie Sanders people, The GOP and the corporate Democratic Party. If the GOP wants to keep their seats in the Senate and Congress, they need something big, like healthcare that the people will be pleased with. The GOP is desperate, they have a loser of a president and they have failed to achieve any meaningful legislation. The GOP has said they want to replace the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare since it was passed with something better, but their definition of better so far was deadly for many. They just need to make healthcare for all ages and if they do this they will keep power for a long time. The U.S. pays more in healthcare than Italy, Britain, Japan, Australia, France, Canada, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, and many others. Our politicians have sold us out to the highest bidder, the insurance companies, and we need to make them pay for putting their pockets before our health. It is imperativ...

Can workers today make more than their parents? At this time it is 50/50, but people born in 1940, the chance of children making more than their parents was at 92 percent—why? One reason for this is economic growth has slowed from 4 to 5 percent in the past decades to just 2 to 3 percent today; and almost all of the benefits of the 2 to 3 percent growth goes to the top with people in the lower income bracket are stuck with stagnant wages. The Americans at the bottom 50 percent are making an average of just $16,000 a year while the top 1 percent makes $1.3 million, and send their children to elite schools so the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Part of the attack on the 1.7 million poor workers are employed by temporary agencies. Of these 1.7 million workers, 900,000 are on zero hour contracts. This problem is worldwide. Workers in the UK are facing the same problem, some 20 percent of the workers do not know if they will get a full week’s work. The people who are and have be...

The Democratic Party lost from the top down. The Party is decimated and everyone who was a part of the Party’s demise should be fired or replaced. Labor should now understand that no one person or party is going to ride in on a white horse and make them whole again. Labor will have to do it themselves with good, strong leadership that comes from the ranks and is supported by the workers not just because it is their turn to get the job. Labor must now start to educate the workers on the good of unions. They must organize, organize, organize, and rebuild their membership, but in order to have jobs for the workers. Unions must work to get Project Labor Agreement on school boards, city and all prevailing wage jobs for any work with government money, which falls under the Davis-Bacon Act. This means that there must be union advocates at the meetings when jobs are put out to bid. If the rules are followed, there is no reason that union shops should not get the work. It just takes work fro...

The boiling pot of discontent, fear and confusion is slashing over the lid fueled by the election, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock protests, wage inequality, and a lot of these things are the residue of Occupy Wall Street, which did not solve much, but did start the pot boiling. Most of these concerns are not just felt here in the U.S., but are concerns for the world over. Then there is the wars, which are never ending and propagate the immigrant and refugee onslaught of the world causing more discontent wherever they go. Most of this is the result of greed by the world’s 1 percent, also known as the 1/10th percent, which is destroying the democracies of the world. So, what happens when the pot boils over? Does it extinguish the fire? Or will the world’s oligarchies try to slam a lid on the pot, and if they try the pot will blow up. We already are seeing terrorists’ activities the world over. Just how long will it be until terrorism is here in the U.S. as an everyday event? The s...

Worried about your future and that of your children? Get involved. The future is for the young and if the young don’t step up and take control, the future won’t be worth living. Young people in their 20s and 30s should be the people running for office in local boards, such as water, fire, utilities, school and city and county office. If they were elected to county board of supervisors or city councils, they appoint planning commissioners, which regulates economic, infrastructure and construction development within the limits of the county or city jurisdiction.  Young people who are in junior college should run for elementary through high school boards. I think they could bring a lot to the table on what is needed in education today. Even if they are not elected, they could attend the school board meetings and speak up, especially during election forums with their fresh ideas and experience. If they decide to run for office, they could ask for money on social media to fund their run fo...

Elections come and go, but nothing changes, and the masses continue to take it in the shorts. Our Democratic president just negotiated a deal with Israel to give that country $38 billion in military aid to “protect” themselves from the carnage they stir up against the Palestinians, stealing the Palestinians land and killing them, and then acting outraged when they fight back. Those billions could help our students with their educational debts, or pay for single-payer healthcare, or rebuild our infrastructure. Then consider these endless wars, which will not end. Why? Because it’s big money to be made in killing people. The costs in lives seems to be ignored by our government, both parties benefit from payoffs and have done nothing to resolve or end the wars. Both parties are at fault so nothing will change with the 2016 election. We are being forced to choose between two lousy candidates. The corporate media pays its part in not reporting on this or any other relevant topic. In the 2...

Laborers of the world over must stop depending on governments to look out for their interests. At this time no political party is working for or defending workers. Government policies now are pitting people against each other by promoting and establishing wars resulting in millions of refugees. The refugees flood host countries for safety, but end up being used as cheap labor by those benefitting from the wars the refugees are fleeing. This cheap labor is used to break the unions and labor laws and drives wages and benefits down. Nothing can stop this but the people. The governments and the oligarchies make their profits off the misery of others. Labor has always won when they were in charge. Labor laws were not put into place to help the workers, they were established by President Franklin Roosevelt to stop strikes, which were beating back the nonunion workers. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rules were to replace the decisions that were being made from fighting for rights...

Could Trump, if elected, be like President Woodrow Wilson? During his administration, President Wilson unleashed a reign of terror on the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Socialist Party of America. He imposed martial law on the mining towns of Montana and Arizona, suppressed the press, sent federal troops to enforce corporate rule in logging camps. He encouraged the American Protective League vigilantes to hunt down draft dodgers, burn down what they considered radical bookstores and even lynching radical immigrants. Think Brown Shirts or our own Silver Shirts. President Wilson also invaded Mexico, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Also, a little known fact, he sent two large expeditionary forces to aid the White movement and its military arm the White Army (also known as the White Guard or the Whites were a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces) who fought the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War. While doing all of this, Wilson refused to lift ...