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 this to happen it will take all of labor’s unions and nonunion wage slaves, which will bring together all proletarians.
Then we will need to vote people like Bernie Sanders for president, and supporters like Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Keith Ellison, Al Franken, and Kshama Sawant, who will stand up to Wall Street and the Big Banks. Our political clout should flow from our wage slaves rather than from the billionaires down. Trickle down doesn’t work with economics and it doesn’t work with fairness in politics.
This could be the unions’ last chance to make their clout felt. If unions don’t win the Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which could eliminate the public sector unions’ ability to fund themselves through fair-share fees paid by those who benefit from unions’ protection.
Labor has more at risk than ever so this election could be the proletarians’ last chance. Get educated and vote smart on what is good for you and your family. Again, our last chance is right around the corner in 2016.
Unions’ long game is to get all union contracts to expire on the same day nationwide. The United Auto Workers combines contracts ends on April 28, 2028. This could then result in a mass national strike starting on May Day beeginning that year. This could then put enormous pressure on employers, but also on lawmakers. It’s the muscle and sweat of the workers that keeps this country great, not the individual company or corporations. This May Day strike would be the time to change the workers’ world for the better by negotiating for a 32-hour week with the same pay, and the U.S. adopts a healthcare for all with no out of pocket costs. This would also help the employers as they would no longer have to provide healthcare. By striking, the UAW won same pay for new workers, all UAW contracts will end on the same date, a 25-percent pay increase, a cost of living adjustments, a guaranteed right to strike over potential plant closures, and also the right to vote to unionize through the card che
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