Union Perspectives

Clashes between capitalists and labor here in the U.S. and worldwide and intensification of the class struggle will cause the ruling class to parliamentary start turning away from democracy and go to fascism to hold onto power to protect the very rich. Then there is the fight for leadership of the movement needed for the final assault on the working class. Just look at the anti-labor people who are wanting to be the president of the United States in 2016. They are bought and paid for and the money people who are backing them are the leaders of a terrorist movement to destroy union and labor here and worldwide. There are the Koch brothers, the National Chamber of Commerce, and the local chambers and the Manufacturers Association, and as the wage slaves gain ground in their fight for $15 and the right to join a union. The capitalist fascists will stop at nothing to break the movement of the workers and our future workers. In fact, during 1937-1938, they used vigilantes, Jersey City use...

Will the framed Quebec, Canadian rail workers be Canada’s Haymarket Martyrs? At this time the Canadians government rail bosses are responsible for the 2013 derailment that killed 47 people, but the rail bosses are tying to throw the workers under the train. The workers are controller Richard Labrie, company manager Jean DeMeitre, and train engineer Thomas Harding, who all face charges as the bosses try to shift blame unto the these workers. Harding and Labrie are both Local 1976 Unite Steelworkers union members. They each face 47 counts of criminal negligence causing the 47 deaths. Conviction could result in life imprisonment. Minor former company official DeMaitre faces the same charges. This is to divert attention from the federal court in Quebec, they have approved the rail company to run trains with a crew of one. For safety reasons, there should be a four-person crew. Also, the rail companies have refused to replaced rusted out culverts under the tracks--as a cost saving measu...

In this election, labor needs to get it right on whom to support. Labor supported Bill Clinton, whose chief of staff was Rahm Emanuel. Clinton opened the flood gates for union jobs to be shipped out of the country with the passage of North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, and Emanuel, who is mayor of Chicago, is still union bashing. He would be back if Hillary Clinton is elected. Look at what labor spent on President Obama’s election in hopes of getting the Employee Free Choice Act, which went nowhere. It was shoved aside for healthcare. Clinton’s NAFTA is now about to get Obama’s version in the form of Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP, which is NAFTA on steroids, labor says. Labor needs people elected who will support labor’s fight for $15, free education, sick leave, family leave, single payer healthcare, the right to form a union, climate change, Black Lives Matter, immigration reform, lifestyle and income inequality and payment for Corporate use of our Commons. In order for ...

The GOP anti-union and anti-worker agenda is going to destroy their party, and if it keeps up it will destroy the capitalist system, which may not be so bad. If so, all will not be good for the way the money people are attacking us like a nice dog is in a pen, and people keep poking sticks through the pen at the dog. Eventually, the dog will become very mean and if given a chance, the dog will try to exact revenge. So, let’s us look at what the stick poking has been lately attacking unions, attacks on minimum wage; the jailing of people in prisons for profit; debtors prisons of low-wage people not being able to pay fines or post bond; plea bargaining away poor people’s rights to a good defense; and traffic fines and the loss of driver’s licenses, which the toilers cannot get to their low-wage jobs and be able to earn enough money to pay off their fines. Then there is the Black Lives Matter born out of the treatment by law enforcement, some of these officers are very bad and are gettin...

A teachable moment occurred for a future young toiler by her grandmother as they were leaving a unionized grocery recently. A man was collecting signatures for an initiative to be placed on the upcoming ballot. He confronted the grandmother, asking her if she was registered to vote and if she would sign his petition. It was a perfect example of cognitive dissonance as the grandmother, a strong Democrat and pro-union advocate, stared at the petition before her and asked the man three times what he was collecting signatures for despite having it spelled out before her. Cognitive dissonance is when we’re confronted with conflicting information, attitudes or beliefs and the brain rebels at the new data. The man was collecting signatures to “decrease” the minimum wage. Her first response, forgetting her 8-year-old granddaughter was by her side was, “What the f*#k? Hell no, I won’t sign your petition, you ignorant a$$hole,” before grabbing the young girl’s hand to walk away. The granddaught...

Labor is winning in Silicon Valley. It is a California uprising of low wage workers in the midst of some of the highest paid workers who make $112,610 annually. In contrast, the support workers were making minimum wage to the highest of $13 to $14 an hour. When these workers asked for a union to better their lives, companies like Apple, with a worth of $1 trillion, Google, valued at $383 billion, Facebook, valued at $250 billion, brought in anti-union law firm Jackson Lewis, a notorious union busting firm that uses every trick in the anti-union playbook to scare and intimidate the wage slaves. They pull workers aside and hold long captive meetings preaching the pitfalls of unions. These companies use the Walmart playbook by calling the wage slaves “associates” and tell the workers they are better off directly talking with Walmart management than using a union. Of course, they don’t tell the worker that is the company disagrees that the company fire them on the spot. The first stirring ...

All wage slaves should check out the prediction made by John Maynard Keynes in 1928. He predicted that by the year 2028 technology would replace all work and no one would need to worry about making money. We still are not there, but there is only 13 years to go and technology at this time is proving Keynes right about technology replacing workers of all medial and even higher knowledge workers, which is why college degrees no longer demand higher wages. Their wages have remained flat during the last years. At this time most new jobs are low paying. We are now in a model of mass production by many for mass consumption by many. But this model of unlimited production by a handful for consumption by the few able to afford it will kill the capitalist system and is the reason that the ratio of employees to customers is already dropping to mind-boggling lows. Low paying personal service sector of the economy will just not support the system we are used to. There has to be an infusion of cash ...