The Republicans never stop attacking the wage slaves. They now have a bill HR 1406, called The Working Families Flexibility Act. If the bill passes, it would eliminate the 40-hour work week. What a bunch of crap. The 40-hour work week has been the standard practice since 1938, and is a component of the Federal Labor Standards Act. The GOP and oligarchies are relentless in their fight with our unions and nonunion wage slaves. If it isn’t the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) laws, then it is the voting rights or minimum wage. They will not rest until we have lost all worker rights, healthcare, pensions and the right to have union representation and negotiations for a good working agreement with employers, private or government.
To counter these attacks we must flex what power we have left, such as a threatened general strike and let the money people know we still have the power to shut down the country and regain our respect and keep what rights we have left. Our foes will just keep chipping away at what we have and soon we will be standing naked with nothing left to fight with. Each time they do such an egregious thing like voter suppression or breaking unions, we think they’re done, but they are running a scorched-general earth type of war. They are not going to leave us anything and it is happening very fast.
If we don’t counter attack soon, it will be too late. Think “Labor Cities,” “Labor Councils,” raising the minimum wage to $15 to $16 an hour, general strike, stop donating money to the Democratic Parties, state and national, because of their support of blue-dog Democrats, use union money for organizing and educating our union and nonunion workers on labor history.
Think about no more overtime, no 40-hour work week, hell, they are taking the workers back to the 1800s when workers worked from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week. Are we just turning into lap dogs lying on our backs with our feet sticking in the air with our tails between our legs?
An old Industrial Workers of the World worker once said we started losing the battle when we stopped protesting and allowed attorneys to make our decisions. We got lazy. It has been downhill ever since. There is no one going to help us except us, the workers. We got it that way and it is the only way we can keep it and win back what we have lost.
Another thing to consider is that we pay them, both Republicans and Democrats, and they not only earn a good salary, but have healthcare, pensions, and take more vacation days than any other employee I know of. But, they also are being paid by the oligarchies to work against us. So the attempt to eliminate the 40-hour work week should be of no surprise to anyone who is awake.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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