Things are starting to look up for wage slaves. The economy is slowly recovering. Manufacturing is starting to return to the USA. Construction is starting to build again and most of all the workers are starting to understand how to organize themselves for workers’ rights and not just here, but all over the world. Soon there will not be a country where the anti-union companies can threaten workers with moving their factories to and this is evidenced by the companies that are returning to the USA.
So 2013 could be the tipping point for the workers. Hell, we have already won the people’s election of our president, which showed the power of people over moneyed people so what’s to stop us from getting good wages and benefits from the Walmarts of this world.
The fact is there is nothing to stop us except fear, apathy, and ignorance of how it was done before, and what worked and what did not and for this knowledge we can use the secret weapon, which are our labor histories. Everything we need is all written down: the strategies, tactics, wins, and losses. We can look into one of the greatest playbooks of human labor history, and it seems that this is what our wage slaves are doing.
They are using the old IWW playbook where they did not sign contracts, had a loose leadership and the power was in the workers, using the IWW tactics: walk outs, information pickets, over issue, such as safety working conditions, and a living wage. When Walmart goes, all the other low-wage-no-benefit corporations will follow suit, which will mean that wage slaves will have more to spend, which will mean that someone will have to make more products. This will mean the upward cycle begins: more money made, more money spent, more jobs needed to meet the demand. It’s not rocket science, its simple supply and demand. If we can put more disposable income in the hands of our workers, it won’t take long for a new Middle Class to form.
Yes, 2013 is going to be a very good year for our service men and women will also be coming home, and with that we will need more jobs. But what we do need to do is to find strong, new leaders to replace our fallen labor heroes, such as Rose Pesotta, the Reuther brothers, John L. Lewis, Eugene Debs, and all the old IWW leaders and, I think, we will see some soon out of the Walmart and fast food labor fights – we can hope.
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...
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