Union Perspectives

S.A.G.-AFTRA is a strike that working people cannot afford to lose for many reasons. First, is that the S.A.G.-AFTRA members need and should have a fair share of the profits their work brings. It is not the CEOs who make the money, but the creativity of those they hire to write and act. We need this people and their union because if we lose them, the right wing followers will control most of all forms of communication and entertainment the public will see in movies, television shows and news. We, the 99 percent need these 160,000 people to keep things fair and we cannot afford to lose these talented and creative minds, which can and often do show all sides of the stories and history they write. It looks like some union contracts expire next year. Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA and this could help the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union that represents nearly all crew members. A win for these workers is a win for all unions. It will show just how str...

For unions to be strong, they must be prepared and protect the one power they have over the 1 percent anti-union oligarchies. That is the strike. In the past, strikes always ended with losses on the wage slaves’ side because the unions never have enough resources to keep their workers fed or housed and money enough to keep the workers’ bills paid. This is a ploy the money people have used against wage slaves. They make it easy for anyone to get credit and credit cards, which the oligarchies control all aspects of credit cards from the limits to the interest rates, and when the average person needs more money they are encouraged them to tap into the equity in their homes. With no savings, large debts, it does not take long to break a worker and the strike ends. The oligarchies literally starve workers back to work. The unions must make a concerted effort to educate their union members on money management and how to survive a strike long enough to prevail in the strike. One thing that...

The 99ers have mostly got it right. They stand for about everyone, the 99%, and put anonymity to good use. On the other hand, Labor Unions have fallen into the trap of dividing themselves against each other. There is a horrible example of an army divided against itself in 1904 at the Chicago Meat Packing houses and a perfect example of Art of War’s Divide and Conquer. They split into 56 different unions and still more in 14 different national trade unions of the American Federation of Labor. This is still going on today with state, county and city unions, instead of one union there are hundreds. This has got to change for the employer can and do pit the one little union against the other to the point if one union goes out on strike, the other union will keep working so no one but the employer wins. This is not the way the 99% envisions winning. A change in the wage disparity between corporate CEOs and the workers, the 99%. The wages of some of the CEOs are unprecedented and to chan...

Labor has few places where we can call attention to the needs of the workers. One of the places that unions do have control is the Longshoremen; they control the docks, the shipping out and the goods coming in from China or wherever. This is a very important high ground for labor for when being attacked, you want the high ground (Art of War). Is this why there is now dissension on the docks of Longview, WA. As I understand it, a new company took over the dock and brought in another so-called union to do the work. The Longshoremen’s union is fighting back very hard, in the tradition of the Wobblies, to keep their work. What and why did this happen? Is this a divide and conquer, antiunion, GOP-corporation-driven strategy? We do not need this at this time. If it is just union driven, our union leaders need to step in and resolve this conflict. If it is antiunion driven then labor needs to cut them off at their knees. The Wobblies would not have stood by and allowed this to happen. Do ...