Work councils negotiate wages, pensions and healthcare, but labor unions negotiate wages, pensions, healthcare, worker safety, worker rights, layoffs or anything else that relates to a worker’s job. So labor does give up a lot when it goes to a work council, which does work for large corporations, such as care workers. But they give up the right to strike, so maybe the best thing for labor would be a labor civil rights act, which would boost membership.
The other law needed would be card check. Labor must have new laws to counter the GOP’s attack on unions and workers by use of the Koch brothers’ money and right-to-work laws. The Kochs are funding the right to work which eliminates the union dues and thereby bankrupts unions.
At this time 24 states have right-to-work laws, which means all dues are volunteer, but labor under Section 9(a) has a legal duty to represent every single union member or employee equally, fairly whether they pay union dues or not. This is a labor law that works against unions and needs to be changed by Democrats who labor has historically been supported by unions by contributions and boot on the ground. As union money diminishes more Democrats are turning to big money for funding, which means we are heading for a one party political system.
Unions are not just what is good for workers, they are good and needed to get pay checks big enough to sustain the kind of aggregate demand that will keep us near full employment. We also need a labor movement to help recycle the cash horded by companies that are just sitting on the cash or loaning it at a price instead of investing in their companies to make products that will provide work.
James Madison argued that the design of the U.S. Constitution is to achieve a balance between the majority Have Not faction and that of the Haves. If this fails, then how long before our democracy fails? Remember our wage fight for $15 to $18 an hour minimum wage, free education and the rent for out Commons—all of these things will not happen without the world’s proletarians. It is up to us to win or lose. And your vote and that of your family members do count.
It’s time to pick a side. You want to have and keep unions with good wages and pensions, then it’s time to pick a side. You want to keep Social Security for yourself and family, it is time to pick a side. You want to get or keep Medicare and Obama’s Affordable Care Act, then it’s time to pick a side. It is us against the billionaires. The very rich got that way off the backs of workers, and now want to strip everything away from those workers. It’s time to pick a side. The very rich can buy countries, then make the people get on their hands and knees and grovel and beg for scrapes that usually go into the dumpster. It’s time to pick a side. Is this what we want for our family and our future? It’s time to pick a side. Get ready to fight for you and your families’ lives. There is no middle ground with these greedy people for they want it all—all the money—all the power—all the land so where does this leave us when they have all the commons, like water, land and airways? It’s time to pick...
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