Skip to main content

Will This be Another Missed Opportunity?

Missed Opportunity

Labor has missed many chances to enhance the labor movement over the last 66 years. One was when the AFL and the CIO merged - this was a great opportunity to start a nationwide organization drive. Our membership was high and labor had money to do the work but the AFL-CIO President George Meany, instead, chose to sit on his hands. This was a lost opportunity to educate and welcome the young diversified work force.

Another missed opportunity was the Vietnam antiwar protesters. Half of the labor organization was against the war and half supported it. We fought against each other and labor should have supported our youth and the student movement. Remember Kent State, Jackson State and Chicago? Once again, we lost a chance to support our then 99%ers.

Now we have another chance to support our young and our military personnel returning home from the wars: Iraq and Afghanistan. Our present 99%ers are protesting for what labor has been advocating forever: a better life for our families.

We have an opportunity here to do probably one o the best things for labor since the ‘30s. All we have to do is step up and support the 99%ers with people power. Just with time, which is more powerful than the money of the 1%ers.

This might be labor’s last chance.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Union or Project 2025

We have an election in two months, where the hell are the building Trade Unions? Members and organizers should be touting their wages, benefits and seeking out new members and union shops. So far, I’m only hearing crickets. While the Trade Unions sit back, the UAW have been striking and winning big benefits for their members. Then there is the Teamsters, who have taken on the Holy Grail—Amazon, the corporation. Again, just crickets from the Trade Unions. Then there is the Minnesota State model—-we can win more together than we can on our own. So why are all unions not working together? Why are all unions not talking with each other? There are two months left until the election—an election that could conceivably be the death null of unions. If we lose this election to the GOP, Trump and Project 2025, our unions will be destroyed and we’ll be back to the days of trying to make ends meet as the GOP will cut our wages, benefits will be eliminated and there will be nothing we can do abou...

David vs Goliath

Labor’s war is a David vs Goliath fight, but sometimes Goliath wins the battle but ultimately David will win the war, and here is one way it can be done in rural areas. Small towns that sit 40 to 50 miles away from larger cities have power for the low-wage workers have power for the low wage workers have nothing to lose for they have nothing, so they can and should use that nothing, which is a power, for better working conditions, such as good wages, regular working hours, healthcare—maybe even childcare. Employees can withhold their labor or just move. Businesses don’t have that option. So, labor in small towns should stand together for a good minimum wage and benefits. Wages should be $26 per hour. Given the income corporations are raking in today, they can well afford to pay their employees better. Healthcare workers, food workers, house keeping and any worker in town can join the town union (as the UAW has shown) and the unions could be the ones to join: fire, police and country ...

Set Aside Grievances and Vote Blue

International Brotherhood of Teamsters are following the United Auto Workers in making history with the groundbreaking joint employer decision against Amazon. Now, the Longshoremen have gotten a groundbreaking contract, as well. This is very telling on what labor can do if they all pull together. These are some of the best deals in the last 30 years. However, all can be lost in the next election if our members vote for the wrong candidate. It is not hyperbole, but history, to say Republicans hate unions. This election, all must set aside some of the “piss me off” things and vote for the people who will stand up for unions and the working people, union or nonunion. The richest 1 percent have half of the worlds wealth while the rest of us only have 0.75 percent. Since 2020, this 1 percent have taken 63 percent of all the wealth. In the U.S., 800 billionaires have more than half of the nation’s wealth while the bottom half of our families have 2.5 percent. Do you think these rich peop...