All labor unions must support the members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Union (IBEU) fight against Verizon’s attack on its members. The union must win its strike for this fight is all about union busting. These measures by Verizon effects some 39,000 workers. Verizon had profits in the billions, but wants to outsource jobs and cut benefits to the U.S. workers. Verizon is not in financial trouble so the only reason it would be doing this to its workers is to bust the union.
Labor cannot let Verizon win this union busting fight as it would embolden other corporations to try to bust the unions representing their workers.
When President Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers, the other unions did not support the air traffic controllers. For many reasons, the lack of support opened the flood gates and most all corporations saw a chance to bust unions when the anti-union people saw an opportunity to say unions were not important anymore because they do not support each other.
Then, unions slowly started to realize what was happening to their ranks when workers themselves became anti-union and the Democratic Party began to see unions as irrelevant as a money source and, instead, turned to Wall Street, big banks, hedge funders and large corporations, like big pharma. At this time, unions are not even at the table on policies for the Democratic Party’s platform.
Two things needs to happen: 1) Verizon workers must not lose the strike, and 2) Bernie Sanders must win the presidential election or at least be at the table when the Democratic platform is put together. If not, this could be the last gasp for unions. Then the workers and their unions will be backed into a corner with no way to win and will have no choice but to go to the streets.
I wonder which union-busting corporation, like Blackwater, is supplying Verizon with scabs.
The unions that are supporting the IBEU at this time are the Hotel Trades Council, janitors and building workers of the SEIU, the New York State Nurses Association, the Transport Workers Union Local 100, postal workers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers. So why aren’t our unions like the sheet metal’s S.M.A.R.T. or the Teamsters?
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...
Comments
Post a Comment