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...

Bank of America is rooting for there to be less jobs so the employers will be back in control. Joblessness could help companies bring people back in the office where they want them, despite evidence that shows employees are more productive when they work from home. These titans of wealth would like to see a recession just to put the little people back in their place so they can regain the control they had over the working class who feared losing their jobs or having their hours cut. Some employers enjoy watching their workers grovel for their jobs that pay low wages where missing a day’s work could mean not being able to pay the rent or make a car payment or pay the utilities. Good timing and planning are the ways to win strikes with as much support from all unions that can get involved. The young workers are getting smarter even though they don’t teach about labor and the capitalist system in high school. The young workers can now just look up labor laws and history and how the ca...

The working people’s army are marching together for a better life for all working people. Unions on strike or getting ready to strike should follow the example of the Writers Guild of America, this union’s members have been on strike for four months and counting. WGA’s negotiating committee met today with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. No agreement has been met as yet. People thirty and younger are for unions by 88 percent and 90 percent support strikes. Why are thousands of workers across America on strike right now? asks Robert Reich, professor, lawyer, author, artist, and presidents Ford and Carter’s labor secretary. CEO pay has increased 1,460 percent since 1978 while typical workers’ pay increased by 18 percent. When auto CEOs say they can’t afford to pay their workers more, remember that the Big Three have made $250 billion in profits the past decade. Reich points out that stock buybacks became legal in 1982, this is a form of market manipulation. By...

Now is the time for all families and union members to learn the best way to take care of each other in all events, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, traffic wrecks, shooting and just everyday incidents. All people with children should know basic first aid and CPR. As a first responder with a volunteer fire department, I once went on a medical call where an infant fell into a hot tub and lost his life because the six people at the scene did not know CPR. This should not have happened. We are our "brothers keeper", to use a biblical phrase, and we have a certain responsibility to our fellow workers and our country, we move away from "otherness," "us vs them," "hostility toward those who don't believe as you" and run toward seeing the good in others, showing compassion for others, being responsive toward others--it's imperative that we find a way. If these last six or seven years haven't taught us anything it is that we get ahead in l...

Trump will manage to get out of legal trouble by the help of the most third powerful person on earth: Leonard Leo, who is the co-chair of the Federalist Society, who picks most all of the trial judges and most of the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court justices. Leo and his billionaire friends own the Supreme Court, and they are opposed to voter rights, unions, LGBTQ rights, abortion and contraception. They have spent $43 million for Leo’s nonprofit, which serves conservative political figures and groups, and it has made Leo a very rich person. So, if Trump would ever get his case to the Supreme Court, there is no doubt that he would win. Our country is at a tipping point, will we be a country of laws that is not bought by the billionaires, or will we be a theocracy ruled by guns. If we want a land of laws for the people, how do we get it back, and hold onto it if we don’t have voting rights? This 2024 election might just be the most important election in our lifetime. So all working people ...

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...

“Why are thousands of workers across multiple industries currently striking or planning to strike?” asks Robert Reich. “I guess it’s a mystery.” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay has skyrocketed 1,460 percent since 1978, while workers’ pay grew by 18 percent, Reich said. Amazon’s CEO was paid 6,474 times the company’s worker in 2021. This is a perfect example of a rigged system against the workers. The union representing the 3,300 UPS pilots say they will not cross the picket lines if the Teamster drivers and package sorters go on strike August 1, which would essentially shutdown the express logistics company’s global operations. The pilots are represented by the Independent Pilots Association, separate from the Teamsters, but in solidarity with them. The writers and actors of your favorite shows or movies are on strike and it may have to do with the fact CEOs do little of the work, but are paid way more than those who do. The CEOs currently are making at: Fox Corporation $22 million; ...