Union Perspectives

One key factor in a labor resurgence could well be the fight for $15 if there is good movement on this. It could excite the wage slaves and restore faith in the power of the masses, which has always been there, but just repressed by anti-labor GOP people of the 1 percent who have vilified the wage slaves and makes the unions look like losers. We need a win for $15 in ’15 and the April 15 Fight for $15 rally and unions and labor councils should be helping with this fight. And I, a retired sheet metal organizer, have not heard one word from the sheet metal union and at my last labor council meeting (AFL/CIO) not one word. So, is there a reason workers won’t unite? Labor is now at a 6.6 percent in the private sector. This is about the same level as when the Ludlow Massacre occurred in 1914 in which several miners and a 12-year-old were shot to death by the National Guardsmen. Then when the canvas tents that they were living in caught fire and 11 children and two women were killed. This i...

One way union leaders are failing their members is that the leaders don’t know who their members are. To stop union busters, one must first understand union workers or even non-union workers’ view of unions. It is imperative that union leaders first understand the factors that influence a worker’s view regarding unions, which include the worker’s family background, including their parents’ occupation and any experience that their parents or other close relatives have had with unions, which may affect the attitude of a young or frustrated worker. How do you know what the worker is thinking if you don’t know who the members are and you speak with them? As a union rep, you should know the workers’ employment experiences, their pay and working conditions, their treatment by supervisors, the degree of security they feel, their advancement opportunities or failures for advancement because these can all profoundly influence how a worker perceives their employer and their reaction to unions....

On April 15, there will be the largest protest for the Fight for $15. The protest by fast food and retail workers will stage what organizers say will be the largest low-wage worker protest in modern history. The planned rallies, to be held nationwide (and should be worldwide) will be part of the ongoing movement of wage slaves demanding $15 a hour living wage, which should be $18 to $24 had it kept up with inflation, and the right to form a union. At a time when corporate profits are higher than ever before and productivity is at an all-time high, wage slaves are asking why their wages are stagnate, especially in the fast food and retail industries. One reason is that they have no union, and second they have not asked or forced the corporations to pay more and the corporations never will raise wages or provide benefits unless forced to do so. The April 15 tax-day strike, the Fightfor$15, will be backed by the Service Employees International Union. The movement has already won victories...

Why can’t the Democrats have a Tea Party-like movement like the GOP—this movement would be the proletariats and wage slaves and normal, intelligent people who will fight for higher wages, fight against inequality of the lower 47 percent. Yes, it would be nice if there was a strong labor party and maybe there will or could be one day, but in the meantime why not use the tools that are there, which is the brand name Democrats/progressive and the brand name is about all you would get for you would not get much money from corporations or even the Democratic Party. So it would be funded by the wage slaves and some smart forward thinking unions or maybe even new unions. Yes, it would be much easier to just go with a socialist party, but to do that and win there would have to be a lot of education on what socialism actually is and what it isn’t—communism. At this time I think there could be a parallel program, which would support each other and benefit the Democratic Party and the 47 percent....

How the rent payment for the Commons could save the world and stop climate change is if everyone has a vested interest in our national resources, like clean air, clean water, all minerals, good healthy food, and our entire infrastructure, such as all public buildings, roads, bridges, courts, the system of laws, space travel, and many more things paid for by the wage slaves of the U.S. and the world over. Once people have a vested interest in their Commons, people will need and want to protect their investments for themselves and for generations to come. If the public does not take care and manage the Commons well the money for rent will dry up. If the toilers of the world understand this and that the corporations left unchecked will plunder our resources with no regret, as an example the former president of Nestles’ corporation said water is not a basic human right. Imagine the callousness of someone who would say such a thing. If we people have a monetary stake in the Commons, they wi...

The world’s toilers have the same problems with work safety, like the Ukraine mine workers, Turkey’s mines and West Virginia’s mines. Then there are the oil refinery workers and the train workers hauling Bakken shale oil from the Canadian tar sand, which are wrecking at an alarming rate in the North American. So far in 2015 there have been eight so far in 2015 train wrecks, four in Oregon Illinois, West Virginia and two in Ontario. All these wrecks at a time when owners want to cut staff to one on the trains. This is just a fight to stay safe and alive on the jobs. Then we get to wage inequality and a living wage along with toiler’s rights in the work place like the West Coast dockworkers all 20,000 of them. The airport workers, who are making $8 to $10 an hour, should be making $15 just to make it. Also, Israel’s chemical workers walked out to block layoffs of about 840 workers—and the fight goes on and on. A meeting about the future of railroads’ safety, workers, community and the en...

Extra money for low to moderate income families for use of our Commons was almost realty until the lobbyists swarmed Capitol Hill like locust on crops. This rent for our Commons was about to be voted upon as recently as 2009 with President Obama in the White House and Democrats controlling both the Senate and the House—and then the legislative process began …. California Congressman Henry Waxman joined with then Massachusetts’ Congressman Ed Markey, who is now a senator, to draft a climate bill and get it passed. Both congressmen are long-time environmentalists. In 2008, Markey introduced a carbon-capping bill that would have auctioned off 94 percent of the permits and the money made would be divided between low and moderate income families. Markey declared at the time the atmosphere—the air we breathe—is a sacred public trust that belongs to all of us. It is one of our Commons. Its use shouldn’t be used to enrich corporate polluters at citizens’ expense. One year later all that Markey...

The $15 to $18 an hour is in some places a reality, but in most it is being slow walked. Still a lot of work has to be done but the fight continues as politicians, like the Wisconsin governor, who are not giving up on the attack on unions. Right to Work is a perfect example of propaganda used by these politicians and the manipulation of the English language and has nothing to do with the right to work, but everything to do with the employer’s right to pay less for the work done. Wisconsin governor Walker just signed his state’s right to work joining the 24 other states with this anti-worker law. I wonder what the unions, who supported Walker, are thinking now. Did the union members in Wisconsin know that their leaders were donating to Walker’s campaign? The Operating Engineers Local 139 donated $43,128, Wisconsin Pipe Trades gave $19,000, Wisconsin State Council of Carpenters gave $12,500, Milwaukee Police Association gave $4,000, the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Local 215 gave ...

One of the best solutions to inequality here in the U.S. and the world would be for everyone to have one share of the Commons, the wealth made from using what belongs to all of us our natural resources: air, water, gas and oil, among others. This is not a new thought nor is it welfare. Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, wrote that every individual is born with legitimate claims on natural property or its equivalent. A modern day exchange between two very conservative GOP Fox news commentators, Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs, found that they agree with the concept of dividends for Commons. O’Reilly said, “It’s my contention that we, the people, own the gas and oil discovered in America. It’s our land and the government administers it in our name … land and water are the domain of we, the people.” Dobbs said, “The oil that we’re talking about belongs to us as you said … In Alaska, there is a perfect model for what we should do as a nation. We should have—let’s call it the American Trust. Have the oi...