We need today a Congress like the one we had in 1935, which was a worker-type of Congress that guaranteed the rights of workers to form unions. Their rational for setting forth the National Labor Relations Board Act was that inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association … and employers.
The money people who are organized in corporate or other forms of ownership association tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and this is the same today. The workers have shown productivity gains for the last 30-40 years and yet the wages have dropped and the money gains have gone to the 1%.
Today what workers’ rights we still have are now in extreme jeopardy by restricting most of what the 1935 Congress set forth: (1) by restricting the rights of workers to learn about unions; (2) the right of workers to organize and choose union representation; (3) the right of workers to enter into collective bargaining about all matters regarding their employment.
Now the U.S. Supreme Court is going full circle back to pre-1930s and ruling that corporations can bar union organizers from company property. Justice Clarence Thomas’ 1992 decision also ruled and cast doubt on the legitimacy of class action suits for individual workers joining with other wage slaves. Also the Rehnquist court ruled that companies could require workers, as a condition of employment, to sign away their rights to sue them in court. This is one step away from the old 1930 yellow dog contracts that workers once were required to sign saying they would not join a union.
This was outlawed by Congress in 1932. How do you think Congress would vote today? Most of all assaults on union and worker rights are championed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Walmart and American Legislative Exchange Council also known as ALEC.
It’s time to pick a side. You want to have and keep unions with good wages and pensions, then it’s time to pick a side. You want to keep Social Security for yourself and family, it is time to pick a side. You want to get or keep Medicare and Obama’s Affordable Care Act, then it’s time to pick a side. It is us against the billionaires. The very rich got that way off the backs of workers, and now want to strip everything away from those workers. It’s time to pick a side. The very rich can buy countries, then make the people get on their hands and knees and grovel and beg for scrapes that usually go into the dumpster. It’s time to pick a side. Is this what we want for our family and our future? It’s time to pick a side. Get ready to fight for you and your families’ lives. There is no middle ground with these greedy people for they want it all—all the money—all the power—all the land so where does this leave us when they have all the commons, like water, land and airways? It’s time to pick...
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