Why and when did the GOP become so anti-worker? The Chamber of Commerce, which is GOP dominated and a few unknowing Democrats, has always been against workers having a living wage. At one time there were a few GOP elected presidents that were for wage slaves, healthcare, workers safety laws, environmental laws, and the right for workers to have unions.
This was when they, the corporate-run GOP, needed our workers and at that time they just wanted to keep unemployment at a 6 percent or higher unemployment. The reason for the 6 percent and higher was when unemployment reaches 5 percent or lower then the workers would be in a better position to fight for better working conditions, such as pay, pensions, healthcare, work place safety. But now with NAFTA, outsourcing jobs overseas, the corporations don’t care about the unemployment percentage.
The GOP politicians don’t care and have no intention to help working class people. Now the large U.S. corporations have traded away their loyalty from U.S. workers to overseas cheap wage slaves, and with this it also helps pollute the wage rates. Walmart sets the trend and is fanatically antiunion or a living wage, such as $15-$18 an hour.
I don’t think we will ever see again a GOP president elected who will ever support workers and their families. Hell, we’ll be lucky to get support for unions from Democrats elected president. I do think that President Obama, if he gets another four years, is our best hope to support unions by passing card check. We will have to hold his feet to the fire.
Let’s look at some of the GOP elected presidents who signed into law bills that helped the common worker:
President Grover Cleveland signed into Labor Day a national holiday – 09/01/1894
President Eisenhower signs legislation expanding Social Security by providing much wider coverage and including 10 million additional Americans, most of them self-employed farmers, with additional benefits -09/02/ 1954
President Nixon signed The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sets and enforces protective workplace safety and health standards in 1970
President Ford signed The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), regulating and insuring pensions and other benefits, and increasing protections for workers – 09/02/1974 revised in 2008 by Bush & again in 2009 under Obama
President George H. W. Bush signed The Americans with Disabilities Act (P.L. 101-336), enacted into law on July 26, 1990, prohibits private sector employers who employ 15 or more individuals and all State and local government employers from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in all aspects of employment.
There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...
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