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 stores unions. These employees are represented by the Retail Wholesale ad Department Store Unions. There is also the United Food and Commercial Workers, now the Change to Win Federation. This division represents service workers, sales, maintenance workers as well as citrus, food processing, tobacco, jewelry, novelty, and toy industries.
Today the GOP is on the offensive in many states, which cost us a lot of money ( Art of War: “draining the treasury and wearing down our troops.”) An example of this is the $20 million the Ohio Democrats and unions will spend to get the necessary 231,000 signatures in 90 days (before June) to place a referendum on the ballot to counter the union-striping bill of the GOP and Ohio Governor George Voinovich.
To counter this we should go on the offensive, such as the recent farmer workers labor bill in California (the same as card check). It was a party-line vote 21-14. This would mark a victory for labor during a year of when we are taking a beating in state houses around the country. How did we get this passed? We had the votes.
Now the GOP will have to spend money and give its attention to stopping this bill and split its forces (Art of War). By the way, Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill four times. We need to keep an eye on Jerry Brown. Some times the best defense is a a good offense. We should push card check in every state.
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 stores unions. These employees are represented by the Retail Wholesale ad Department Store Unions. There is also the United Food and Commercial Workers, now the Change to Win Federation. This division represents service workers, sales, maintenance workers as well as citrus, food processing, tobacco, jewelry, novelty, and toy industries.
Today the GOP is on the offensive in many states, which cost us a lot of money ( Art of War: “draining the treasury and wearing down our troops.”) An example of this is the $20 million the Ohio Democrats and unions will spend to get the necessary 231,000 signatures in 90 days (before June) to place a referendum on the ballot to counter the union-striping bill of the GOP and Ohio Governor George Voinovich.
To counter this we should go on the offensive, such as the recent farmer workers labor bill in California (the same as card check). It was a party-line vote 21-14. This would mark a victory for labor during a year of when we are taking a beating in state houses around the country. How did we get this passed? We had the votes.
Now the GOP will have to spend money and give its attention to stopping this bill and split its forces (Art of War). By the way, Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill four times. We need to keep an eye on Jerry Brown. Some times the best defense is a a good offense. We should push card check in every state.
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ReplyDeleteRocky & Terri,
ReplyDeleteU.S. jobs did not go overseas because of unions. It was greed. Only 3 percent of union workers are privately employed, and 30 to 33 percent are public union employees. Private unions are found in the construction industries, which cannot be sent overseas, and the remaining private unions are found in such jobs as phone workers, electrical, and health care. So, Rocky, I find it hard to believe that these $90 an hour jobs overseas. The public unions are found in the federal, state, counties, and cities, in jobs such as firefighters or police, and these jobs probably won’t be sent overseas. Although the GOP would like to privatize these jobs/services so they can break the unions. I do understand how a worker earning low wages would be envious of a union worker. This is why the late Walter Reuther, UAW past president, always told his union members that we union members should always do our best to help raise the wages and working conditions of our brother and sister workers not covered by a union. All workers must support each other because all workers sell their working days while on this earth one day at a time. How much is a day in our lives worth? Remember we should think of our bodies as our most important asset and like a good GOP member we should get the best deal that we can. For a lot of us our job is a joint partnership between ourselves and our family members because they also have a stake in our worth. With all the responsibility we have we must get the best salaries and working conditions we can. To put this in perspective, would you sell your life one hour at a time for $7.50 an hour or $60 a day minus taxes. While having a beer with a Redding GOP friend of mine, who has a nonunion construction company, I told him his workers were worth more than he was paying them, he agreed with me, but said he would not pay them more until they made him. He explained that if a car was priced at $2,000 that he would not pay $2,100 for it if he could still get the car for $2,000, and this is the way most business people think. If I don’t have to pay more why should I? With this in mind, a worker can negotiate for themselves to get a decent wage or work with a union. Nonunion members, with little protection, are at the mercy of their employers.
With card check we can raise the standard of living for both union and nonunion workers, which unions have always tried to do. Maybe a better question, Terri, is why would you vote against your own best interest?
Larry
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ReplyDeleteRocky,
ReplyDeleteOne of the big reasons the jobs went overseas is the tax structure. It was the GOP when they were in charge of the federal government; they gave very big incentives to large and small corporations to move their businesses overseas. It was not the unions, and the public unions, city, county, state or federal, had nothing to do with jobs going overseas.
Where we as a city and county lose our money to keep our community running, such as our fire and law enforcement departments and streets and the rest that we need or expect. The taxes are lost when we bring in large out of state corporations and box stores who pay low wages, no health or pension. These corporations send their profits out of state. If this same kind of business was owned by local people the profits would stay in our community. The other drains on us by these low wage, no health or pension jobs are incurred when the employees have to supplement their income with food stamps and state health care.
Studies show that a stand alone family with a minimum wage job has to be one way or another be supplemented $10,000 a year. The same study shows that minimum wage has not kept up with inflation. If it had, it would now be around $14 to $15 an hour, which is just about a living wage for a worker standing alone and not having to be supplemented by any governmental agency.
So stop and think about what a large business really costs us. If a company comes in and has a 100 minimum-wage workers, this will costs us $10,000 X 100 = $100,000 a year. That what we supplement that corporation to do business in our community. We do this time-and-time again. This is what Einstein called the definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over-and-over again and expecting different results.
What we should tell potential corporations is that if they want to move here and have our business they must pay a living wage, and that we will not supplement them.
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ReplyDelete