Union Perspectives

While our service men and women were serving overseas for the past 10 years, some losing their lives, and some enduring terrible injuries with lots of emotional injuries, as well. There is no doubt that they have given all they had. While our service members were doing their best we at home let the oligarchies (form of government where a small group of rich people have all the power), big corporations and Wall Street have just about ruined our country. When our service people return home what will we have to offer them? There are no jobs, the economy is in ruins and the Republicans party has vowed to block President Obama on all his efforts to improve our situations in the hopes of making him a one-term president. Our veterans gave all and we, the citizens, went to sleep and let the GOP lobbyists and the oligarchies buy state governments, which promptly began taking away workers’ rights, voters’ rights and even women’s rights. I don’t think this is what our military personnel were ...

In 1911 Soapbox Militants, the “Wobblies,” engaged in free speech campaigning against corruption. In 2011 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and by extension Occupy Redding engages in free speech campaigning against corruption. Both were nonhierarchical, egalitarian, consensus-driven process. The purest kind of democracy exercised in free speech. Both organizations envisioned a better world for all, not just a few. They are one hundred years apart, but here is how close they are in their thinking and planning. On their freedom march 112 men, called Wobblies of the International Workers of the World, started in Seattle, WA., were determined to participate in the Fresno Free Speech Campaign on Feb. 13, 1911. Towns could prevent free speech and the right to peaceably asemble during this time. The Wobblies were standing together to claim these basic human rights. They organized themselves, had a secretary of treasure, a committee to find out the times they could hop trains, a cook with assis...

With our labor force mostly out of work in the construction industry, we should not let our members unity just melt away for if we stay together we are still a force to be reckoned with. Construction will eventually rebound so we must be trained and educated when the times come. The things we can do to with our out-of-work members is to have them help out Wall Street protesters. If nothing else they can just stay stand with them for we must stay in touch with what is going on in the world of workers as we all are 99%ers. We should also be planning our strategy, such as organizing new members, because one new large group is going to be our returning veterans, who are coming home with no prospects of employment. We, the unions, should be the people who will meet and support them. Our veterans are going to need us, as a whole, to be there for them for the sacrifices they have made and endured. The least we can do is give them genuine support and not a magnet yellow ribbon. We, the uni...

One thing that might help the 99ers and our countries workers get back to work is to not cut wages to keep work here. The corporations and the right say cutting wages stimulates job creation. This is a lie. Soon the 99ers will have no money to buy anything. What we can do to make our corporations more competitive in the world is have single payer-national healthcare or at least right now expand Medicare coverage (lower the eligibility age). This would take the burden off the corporations that provide healthcare which would drop the employee cost. Germany has high labor costs, but it is doing very well in the global economy. It is the most successful social democracy in the world right now. It has a large trade surplus and one reason for this is it has a whole different type of corporations with workers making up one half of the board of directions, and the workers have privileged positions in the company and real power and responsibilities. The Germans also have government sponsor...

Wall Street protesters are now nationwide and worldwide. There is no doubt that the 99ers are at last starting to realize that there is no one person riding in to save them. It will take all of the 99ers working together and, yes, some will do much more and some will do little for now, but as history tells us, the longer they hold out the more support will come in - people, money and political help. The 99ers are now starting to get support and advice from the ‘60s’ protesters, which, if listened to, can be of great help. They have been there and their lessons learned can teach the younger protesters a thing or two about options and pitfalls that happened to them. Recently, Tom Hayden let slip in a recent interview that 10,000 to 20,000 people sitting down on Main Street of New York or L.A. will bring on arrests and then each person demand a jury trial, which would literally shut down the city and court system. Just a hint from the old pros, some do have many options and if the cor...

It is time for the labor councils to join the 99ers who are the Wall Street protesters. For we all have the same concerns: shelter, food, health care, pensions and jobs. The 1 ‘percenters’ have crossed the line and not just in the USA. This is now a worldwide movement. It is reminiscent of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). We the working people have had opportunities before and did not take advantage of them. This time we, the 99ers, and unions now have no choice but to keep going for the 99ers are at the bottom of the financial ladder. If you are not in the top 1 percent on the economic scale, you’re a 99er. This is not the first time we've had to deal with corporate greed. Ralph Chaplin captured the 1 percenters' greed at the turn of the 20th century. “It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade Dug the mines and built the workshops endless miles of railroad laid Now we stand outcast and starving Midst the wonders we made, but ...

How will and how will the corporate GOP start demonizing our name 99ers? The 99ers are the people in the streets of New York and seventy plus cities across this nation. We are in a class war with the top 1 percent of the nation who owns 40 percent nation’s wealth, and the top 1 percent of Americans take home 24 percent of the nation’s income. They, the top 1 percent of Americans, owns half of the country’s stocks, bonds and mutual funds. They also have, with all that wealth, only 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt, and the top 1 percent is taking in more of the nation’s income since the 1920s. If this is not enough to infuriate us, the 99ers, then we only have to look at what the 1 percent, such as the Koch brothers and other billionaires are doing to us, such as buying entire states from governors to all elected politicians, attorney generals and judges. They then use these positions to break unions and deprive 99ers of their voting rights. They would like to get rid of child l...

We can create new jobs and new manufacturing right here in the USA. We could create jobs just like China did and I mean lots of jobs, and at the same time help enlarge and support the businesses that are still here. Remember when Wal*Mart went from all American made to telling their vendors that if they wanted to continue to do business with them the companies would have to send their manufacturing businesses or shops overseas - mostly to China and other countries U.S. corporations take advantage of. The Chinese government, among other countries, has a buy China products only policy; but we don’t and we continue to be subjugated -- at the mercy of others. So why can we not encourage these businesses into bringing these shops back to the USA. All Wal*Mart would have to say is if you want to sell to us your product in their stores the manufacturer’s product would need to be made or - at least for the time being - assembled in the USA. If we could persuade Wal*Mart, Home Depot, Target o...