Union Perspectives

How labor could be a big moneymaker for Wall Street by pushing for higher wages, which will put more spendable income in the pockets of the little or have nots. These wage slaves could very well propel the economy to much higher levels by pushing companies to hire more workers to meet the demand of the new middle class, which is much smaller than the original middle class now. But, never the less, it would bring a very large group of wage slaves into a new class with a chance to buy vehicles. If a family has two wage earners at $15 to $16 an hour, it would be $30 to $32 an hour, this with Obamacare (Affordable Care Act), families can provide for their families, plus help the economy, which could be a large boost to Wall Street. This would then be a good opportunity for a new labor movement to add to labor ranks. If Wall Street is smart it should support higher wages or at least keep their hands off the anti-wage slave movement. If the Wall Street people would want to support it could...

What is the commonality between the old Nazi Brown Shirts of Germany, the Greek Golden Dawn Party and the USA Tea Party? One is they were funded by the oligarchies; two is they all started out as laughable, but soon became more powerful, more racist and more fascist than anyone thought possible. They are antiunion, against immigrants and will crucify anyone not willing to go along with their agenda. The Greek Golden Dawn traces their roots back to the Metaxas dictatorship in the late 1930s to the Nazi collaboration during the occupation in WWII. Now, it looks like the USA’s Tea Party is starting to use the Brown Shirts and Golden Dawn playbook and even the conservative party of England is getting on the bandwagon. It is the whole oligarchies against the proletarian class. It’s warfare: the money against the workers. The stupid people who think they belong with the rich are just bought and brainwashed. This is where the oligarchies find their troops. If these wannabe rich people woul...

The indifference to the plight of others and the cult of self-interest is what the corporate state seeks to instill in us. The state appeals to pleasure as well as fear to crush compassion. But as long as we wage slaves defy those forces we will remain alive to fight for our rights that belong to us. We must fight to retain what we have and what we deserve, and for now this is the only possible way to victory. Remember we must have compassion for all workers worldwide, but we here at home should be setting the standard for how we treat our fellow workers. Even if you have a good job or are retired, don’t think you are safe. Things change and we must be involved and looking into the future. Remember the best defense is a good offense, but empathy must be our primary attribute. If we don’t keep this in mind we could descend into tyranny, which, I think, some would like to see. Tyranny could lead to a revolution and the end to the capacity for human solidarity. What we want is just a reb...

For the capitalist, nonunion oligarchies the most feared word is “solidarity.” This is what wins for the wage slaves and it can be distorted when the nonunion capitalists win. Solidarity means when all wage slaves stick together. They have the power to win and when divided they lose, and labor is the biggest offender of solidarity by using the craft unions where they will in one company or plant divide the work into separate crafts and then sign contracts with their employers to not support the other crafts in their company when a different craft within the company has a dispute. Also, the employers manipulate the crafts to have their contracts expire at different times so the work continues on in the plant or company. This was started by some of our famous labor leaders, such as Gompers, Mitchell, Duncan and Tobin. They earned the title of “Labor Vultures,” among the International Workers of the World. These labor leaders existed only by dividing the workers. They inadvertently did t...

Why would a company that has work for 100 wage slaves at 40 hours a week hire 200 part-time workers at 20 hours a week? One is to stay away from them getting full-time status. Another reason is to have another trained work force in case half of their workers go on strike for higher wages and benefits. In the days of the 1920s and ‘30s there were companies which provided replacement or strike breaking workers at a price and some of these companies’ owners become very rich and famous, think Papa John’s Pizza. Today this is harder to do so the next best thing is for the Walmarts and low wage fast food companies to have another work force already in house either part time or temporary workers. Wage slaves must keep this in mind when there is the same amount of work and the companies are cutting your hours and if this happening then they are preparing for a strike. So when you see this happening workers should make their move before the replacement workers are trained, which the present wo...

In 1905, the International Workers of the World fought for fewer work hours in a week, better wages and safer working conditions. Is it time to lower the work week hours from 40 to, say, 32 hours whenever there are more workers than jobs because of faster tools, new technology or over population? We’ve had to make adjustments before in the labor force, for example child labor laws removed a large segment of the work force beginning the mid-1800s.This opened up jobs for older workers. Another example was the mandated retirement age, but the easiest way is to adjust the work week. This is different from what employers are doing to workers now. Employers are short changing workers with hours, healthcare and income. What I’m advocating is using the system that’s been used before that created jobs, not stifle them. When I worked during the ‘80s, we took four hours off every Friday, it made a huge difference and got a lot of people through the down turn in the economy. This would open up a ...