Labor needs to back causes that the middle class and the Have Nots’ need to better their lives, like minimum wage of $15 an hour, free healthcare and college, right to form a union and a healthy world to live in. Unions also need to stand up with the students who want safe schools to go to.
Let’s not make the same mistake labor made during the Vietnam war. Labor sided with the war and against the protesters, who were also mostly young people, and some unions members even participated in beating these protestors. This was a shameful day for labor. This time we need to get it right.
These young people are our new leaders and will soon be able to vote. So far, these young people look like fighters, which is what unions need—voters and new blood, who know how to fight for their rights and what is fair.
Labor missed its chance when Occupy Wall Street was protesting. Now we have March for Our Lives. Let’s not let this chance slip by. This is ready made for labor’s support. Unions are about people and their lives. These protestors want to make everyone’s lives better, beginning with gun regulations, especially for military grade assault weapons.
As our government is pushing us toward more wars, dragging on the wars we are already involved in. The people need to just say, “enough with the wars” and start voting with their feet and the voting booth.
Again, we can start with new voters, who can get us a higher living wage, establishing a universal basic income, a free education and healthcare and make climate change a priority. This would also be a good time to end the war on drugs and use that money to treat addiction like the health problems that it is and takes the profit out illicit drugs. Then addiction would be like a tree with no water, it will just die.
At this time our young are facing poverty, inequality, inequity, poor healthcare, more unending wars and a failing higher educational system, if the students aren’t killed while obtaining their lower education.
It is up to the children because we sure as hell haven’t done anything to bring about change. This is a tipping point, and labor can take its place in support the children, helping to expedite the change this country needs to see, while bringing back the middle class.
There are three phases of a general strike and unions must plan for one. Those three phases are: 1. general strike in an industry 2. general strike in a community 3. general national strike We need to move away from being on the defensive and move toward a good offensive. The American Federal of Labor (AFL) could not have held a general strike if it wanted to because they had thousands of different contracts that expired at different times of the year. This was done deliberately so that there is no consolidation of power for a general strike. Also, nowadays, there is no law agency that will support labor, except the National Labor Relations Board (NLBR), which has been under attack and in decline for years. This leaves the burden of change up to unions, and unless unions work together, little will change. We essentially have a combination of job trusts, which are not as strong as contracts, and the courts can break easily because the NLBR will be further weakened and essentially elim...
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