Unions have begun organizing Walmart and this is a fight worth fighting, and if it is won all others will fall like dominos. It looks like the Walmart organizing effort was well planned. The Art of War says the Army who attacks can pick their time, in this case right before the holidays and the presidential election, and the places, stores, where workers are needed for the holiday hours. Other companies will not help, but will be happy to take Walmart’s customers and business. Knowing this, Walmart corporate leaders, threatened with a strike on Black Friday, are talking to themselves about whether to raise wages or bring in more part-time workers.
The workers have nothing to lose. They are already at the bottom of the economic ladder: no healthcare, no pension, no job security and the only power they have are their feet, and the solidarity of other wage slaves and unions. Now is the time for a full court press from all wage slaves to support the Walmart workers in the streets and with money, food, signs or whatever is needed for if Walmart falls there will be plenty of union work to go around for the economy will pick up and the need for unemployment will drop to 5-4 percent enough jobs for everyone and more money spent equals more things to be made, which equals more jobs and the cycle continues.
This will be a hard fought war of the wage slaves against the well-funded corporatists who have everything in their corner, such as laws, union busters, and money for replacement workers. People will go to jail, people will be beaten, and lives may even be lost. It will not be pretty, but all things of value are not free or easy. If they were they would already be done.
The organizing of our retail is on the scale of when the auto industry was unionized, which created the first middle class of working families in the U.S. Now we have a chance to do this again, rebuild the middle class, with the retail workers. Retail used to be union jobs with a living wage. The retail unions were killed by apathy, sleeping unions, weakened labor laws and right-wing court decisions.
We just forgot what the word “solidarity” means. It is the most important word in the language of the wage slaves.
I hope that I am wrong, but what I see at this time is our unions are going to be in the fight of their existence. This is the most perilous time of our life. The life we had is threatened like never before. Unions are the largest organized group of people who can save our country if things keep going the way they are heading at this time. We need to all stand together for power, but we each must prepare and plan to take care of ourselves and our families. We can fight the big fight and not be distracted by worry about things that can and should already be taken care of. For instance, stashing at least one month’s pay and at least a month or even a year’s worth of food, whether the food is staples (pasta, rice, canned goods) and meat or chicken in the freezer. Keep your vehicles' tanks full and if possible a gas can full. It’s in your best interest to also save money for house or rent payments plus extra. This is not new thinking for us old trade workers who had to prepare when...
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